PRESS OPINIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 7 June 1913, Page 4

PRESS OPINIONS.

The present Government has not yet had time to consider its policy, or at all events it U<* not yet brought down its main hr-d Bill. But when it does we hop? tint the question of the reform of tl; > ballot will receive its serious consideration.—Hawke's Bay Herald. .

The «ini;iiig-:fund has in the mind | of the hive-tor become an essential part of sound rational finaie . and no loan . will b-' r,t!l received Uy v'h e who Ir.vc savings 'unless thev have this a ;r< i.anca of automatic liquidation. \;vv Z-aland ha s made a good start wich ths sinking fund scheme originated by Sir Joseph Ward, and this will probably have to be supplemented and improved .—Poverty Bay Herald.

No portion of the community has a monopoly of. brains, and if the brains in the poorer classes are not made the best use of, the State suffers.. But at the same time, if progress to the higher stages of education i s made too easy, it means that many who will not profit by the 'training will go through the course, and not only be an unnecessary expense to the people as a whole, but will in all probability be of less service to the community in after life than if they had chosen an avocation they were better fitted by Nature to Mail.

One of the dangers to be guarded against in connection.-'.with the compulsory training syste-n is creation of a military "bureaucracy, seeking to dominate the'civil authority, and we venture to say that nothing will set public opinion and the press against compulsory training sooner than the growth of a powerful and arbitrary military authority. If the Army Regulations are to he used to shield «©w*rdjj offenders from the.

consequences of their'acts, then the sooner the law.is wipeH off the Btertmte Book the better,—Manawatu Standard.

It is regrettable that our politicians do not see the desirability—or absolute need—of abolishing our restrictive policy, instead of poltering with reciprocity farces and tinkering with tariff. —Rangitikei Advocate.