PUBLIC OPINION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2511, 26 May 1909, Page 2

PUBLIC OPINION.

THE FOUL' BROOD OF JOURNAL-

ISM

The bookseller who carries on a trade in demoralising literature for the pur])ose of gain may make immediate prolit, but lie cannot be charged with any considerable business acumen. He may be indemnified by the proprietors of these ghoulish productions against immediate loss, but in the long run he will have to i>art company with Ins best customers. It cannot be expected that respectable people will patronise bookshops where disreputable literature is sold. It is reasonable to booksellers who gam a I ohee Lourt reputation for purveying matter winch is injurious to the welfare of the community can retain the confidence of clients who look upon such a traffic with abhorrence ? It is a .stigma to place on any .man that lie is so hard pressed for trade that lie must. traffic in indecencies to make ends meet. o doubt it was a consideration of the probable effect of the. recent prosecutions upon the reputation of booksellers concerned which miade Mr.* Riddell, S.M. let the offenders down lightly m the matter of fines, but such leniency can only be well-placed if the object lesson is effectual. This is d- matter m which the book trade throughout tlie country would do well to protect 'itself by a unanimous decision to cease trafficking with a publication which in the name ot liberty indulges in the flagrant and unrestrained license.—" New Zealand Times.” THE HOME AND THE STATE. There is to bo deplored a growing distaste for home life as a vocation ; a lowering of the family ideal, a disposition even in married' life to shirk its higher duties and obligations, a disregard of filial duty which sometimes disTcounts Dr. Batchelor’s criticism of parents who ‘‘allow” their daughters to marry black sheep. The State cannot touch this problem, and though it may mate domestic economy .a compulsory subject and issue diplomas, it cannot. by taking thought, make the home life of” tlie land stronger or purer. The home is after all both the basis and the bulwark of society .—“Evening Post.” DOMINION FINANCE. Shorn of all the glamoV of an oratorical effort from the public platform and of his personal magnetism the Treasurer’s statement does not oariy a very convincing assurance that all is well with the Dominion’s finances, it is all very well to denounce as traitors -those who raise .a warning voice, but the fact remains that in every one of tlie departments' of tlie State enormous increases took place last year. And this on top of similar excessive increases in previous rears. No wonder tlie Government has” set. about retrenchment. We ] la vo a splendid country, with great resources, but it carry much more similar loading. Not only retrenchment to the extent of a quarter of a million which has been promised should be made but we will not be surprised if another quartei of a million on top of that has to be cut out before a sound financial basis.is reached. With a falling revenue, this curtailment ot expenditure is all the more imperative. Monev is wanted for the legitimate development of the Dominion, but not for the upkeep of an unlimited number of Civil servants. —“Mataura Ensign. A PEOPLE AT PLAY. England attained national supremacy largely by the exercise of those qualities’ that are fostered by wholesale sport , but times have changed, and are still changing, and supremacy can only be maintained if those qualities are supplemented by the skill and knowledge that come of hard work and application. There must be a less folding of the hands, a little less closing of the eyes in calm self-satisfaction at the place our fathers won for us in the world, or that place we shall , know no more. AVe shall be passed m the race bv nations with whom sport is subsidiary to work, unless we devote more attention to cultivating the faculties and powers upon which in these days and the days to come, national greatness depend.—“ Christchurch Press.” _ ETHICS OF FOOTBALL. The New Zealand Rugby Union’s chief concern in football is to study tlie needs of this country rather than the possibilities' of difficulties m the arrangement of matches with 'other countries. Periodical contests between, representatives of sister countries in the Imperial family can do much good, but far more is done by the cultivation of a rational game for the benefit of this country. Football, after all, is a pas time for the benefit of the health and physique of the rising generation rather than a scheme for the provision ot spectacular displays by grown men with work .enough m the workaday world to keep their limbs in good order, therefore the New Zealand Union must rather look to itself than to the distant International Board for keeping amateur Rugby here- iu £ ,, T v + ’ flourishing condition. •AVellington Post.” ' DRUNKENNESS AND VIOLENCE.

It is unfortunate that the offence ol_ drunkenness is itself commonly condoned bv the public. It is regarded as evidence of excess of amiability rather than as a grave lapse of self-control and ricdit conduct. The law encourages tins weakness too, by treating a first oftence as trivial, and until the drunkard is ostracised socially wo need expect to sec no amendment of the legal position. Familiarity inspires indifference —it it .invariably' bred" contempt there would lie less reason to complain—and drunkenness as an offence against society is regarded as trivial because it is common. But it is just because drunken violence is so common that we should be dad to see the Courts treating it with the severity it merits 'Lyttelton Times.”