PRESS OPINIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 19 April 1913, Page 4

PRESS OPINIONS.

The present Postmaster-General is a careful, conscientious administrator, who will make the best of the qualities of heart and manner that hav.e been' given him, but he never will achieve the world-wide fame that ha;/ been won by Sir Joseph Ward. He is cast in a different mould from his brilliant predecessor. Lyttelton Times.

—» < . I Perhaps when the Minister has some time to spare from his highly laudable preoccupation of giving good advice to the Natives at the various "huis" and tangis at which he is so frequent an attendant nowadays, lie might look into this question of the "disturbingly" large increase in the railway expenditure in the North Iyalnd, to which, by the way, M' Herries seiriis, curiously enough, to confine his Ministerial attentions. — Marlborough Express.

'The Trades and Labour Councils do not look beyond themselves. The development of a country, which it surely cannot be contended has yet been developed to the full, and which cam. only be developed by work; the prosperity of the people as a whole; the advancement of a nation—all these must be made subsidiary to one thing. And that thing is making a close corporation of labour. —Dunedin Star-

When time has permitted the Governor to see more of the back country he wil notic? that senseless, indiscriminate slaughter of trees has involved irreparable injury to agricultural land on lower levels by the scouring of the ground and by flooding. Forest is Nature's regulator of the water from rains. In certain areas, when the trees are wiped out, the rain has free play. Nature' e revenge is pitiless. Soil, which was to be the friend of man, is turned into an enemy. Tt i& carried from the place where it could have been useful into waterways where it gorges the rivers and forces them into riotous devastating behavious over their bairuks.—Wellington' tost.

Mr Russell is still sore that he was not allowed to remain in office, and he showed his feelings rather plainly when lie referred to Mr Massey as "an honest, well-meaning, but incapable man, whose ideas were limited to road board matter?." Whether Mr Massey has the qualities of a leader, time alone can prove.—Napier Herald.

It is the leasehold that emables the poor man to get oil the land, and it is the poor man who requires help; the wealthy settbr can buy for himself without the assistance of the State. The Reform policy so far seemis to have been directed towards putting on the land men of substantial means. We would welcome an asssuramee from the Prime Minister that lie intends to concern himself with the needs of the "Small man.—Ashburton Guardian.