PRESS OPINIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 18 September 1913, Page 4

PRESS OPINIONS.

The public servants gradually are being classified, their positions are being better defined, their services better paid for, their retiring allowj ances well assured. These are great advantages, and if in the process of reform and amalgamation there shall be grievances disclosed, let these be duly inquired' into and fairly settled; but do not let them be unduly magnified, to the wakening of the efforts at reform'and improvement in the Bublic Service.—Hawera Star. It. is a mere accident that Mr \Massey and his friends, hungering 'and thirsting for land, never turn their eyes toward the man|i. hundreds of thousands of acres in large blocks, 'often/-"wholly unimproved, by the big landlords? Is it sheer and short-sighted ■ and muddle-headed stupidity that induces the. "Reformers" to clamour constantly about unlocking Crown lands and Maori lands, and to propose increases in the income Tax, while holding their peace about + he white owners of great estates, and carefully refraining from raising revenue or "bursting up" the large Holdings by* a heavy graduated tax? Is the country, in short, to be sa> rificed to the landholders, small and great, to keep the ' in power H—Auckland Star. wpP*We understand that the policy of the Opposition will be to replace' the present system by the single transferable vote, which gives practically the same result as the Second Ballot at on© operation. Should the Government really desire to improve the electoral conditions some such means as this, they may confidently expect undivided support from the Opposition party; but if their purpoee is to paralyse the majority vote it is manifestly the duty of the real Democrats in Parliament to resort to obstruction.—Southland News;-