Tne Review of Reviews, 



July 1, 190S. 



sons for confidence being demanded, but Premiers 

 and Prime Ministers are not autocrats who can fall 

 in with even a Colonial Secretarj-'s wishes without 

 consulting Parliament. Moreover, it is sometimes 

 desirable that the people should know what is going 

 on. Under confidential dispatches much corruption 

 might take place and irremediable harm be done. 

 Besides, the rather comical situation was lately 

 brought about of the British Government for^vardLng 

 the proposals of the Xew Hebrides joint Conference 

 to the Federal Prime Minister marked " Confiden- 

 tial," thus making it impossible for the Government 

 to communicate their contents to the press, and the 

 press publishing the proposals, having received the 

 news by cable from French newspapers. The more 

 open the dealings of the Colonial Office with the 

 colonies generally are, the more satisfactory will 

 they be. 



Tasmania has had quite a political 



Tasmanian sensation. Her Parliament had 



Politics. scarcely met when a No-confidence 



motion was proposed against the 

 Government on account of their reconstruction 

 scheme, but the Ministry won with a majoritv of 

 six. An excellent description of the present political 

 situation, with photos, of the members of the Minis- 

 try, was given in the last number of " The Re\-iew 

 of Reviews.'' Mr. Xicholls is the leader of the Op- 

 position. 



New 



During the month a notable date 

 South Wales's P^^^*^*^ '" connection with New 

 Jubilee. South Wales, when she celebrated 



her jubilee of responsible govern- 

 ment. How well the experiment of granting re- 

 .sponsible government to the Colonies has succeeded 

 is patent to everybody. No more prosperous and 

 contented people are to be found anywhere than 

 Australasians. Difficulties in settlement they have 

 had, but only to be overcome, strengthening them- 

 selves in the struggle. In looking at what New South 

 Wales has achieved in the last 50 vears one be- 

 comes lost in a maze of figures. To say that she 

 has won minerals to the value of ^165,000.000 and 

 produced wool to the value of _;^300,oco,ooo, 

 that last year her population of a million and a 

 half exported and imported goods to the value of 

 ;£66, 000,000, that her 3371 miles of railway cost 

 ^44,000,000 to construct, is to confuse one in a 

 maze of incomprehensible figures. But New South 

 Wales has other things than that to be proud of. 

 Her State school system is a splendid one, her laws 

 relating to provision for the aged and needv are 

 well abreast of other peoples', while her prison sys- 

 tem is one that might be copied w!th advantage by 

 even,- other State. No one could blame New South 

 Welshmen if they felt proud of their State when 

 they indulged in a little retrospection on their 

 Tubilee dav. 



Like New Zealand, New South 

 Another Wales looks with thankfulness at a 



Orink'sm decreasing drink bill. Canon Boyce, 

 who is always to the fore m tem- 

 perance matters, has in his exhaustive annua! state- 

 ment shown that the drink bill for 1905 was 

 ^4,530,012, or £z IS. 3d. for every man, woman 

 and child in the State. This is far too high. _>ar- 

 reaching reform is necessary, and New South W ales 

 will probablv gain it under her new Local Option 

 law. But vet reformers may be thankful for a slight 

 advance. Th's amount represents a decrease of sd. 

 per head on the expenditure of 1904. Srill this is 

 behind some other countries. New Zealand's de- 

 crease last year was 2s. 8d. per head, and the 

 United Kingdom's 3s. Canon Boyce's remark that 

 '■ if the total spent (in alcoholic liquors) since the 

 advent of responsible government were shown it 

 would easilv distance the public debt of the State ; 

 more than the value of all the gold obtained here 

 since its discovery in 185 1 has been expended in 

 drink," is very pertinent just at this stage, the cele- 

 bration of the jubilee of responsible government. It 

 is subduing and thought-inspiring. 



Last month I mentioned with much 



Homes gratification the fact that Mr. Bent 



for Workers, stated his intention of helping the 



poor to create homes. Rents are so 

 high. The worker and the poor are handicapped 

 bv rent-paying. Knowing that New Zealand is try- 

 ing to grapple with that problem, I asked Mr. Sed- 

 don about it. He says that his Government intends 

 erecting- good homes on decently-sized sections and 

 letting them to working men at ten shillings per 

 week, thus saving them ten shillings, for in Wel- 

 lington, where the trouble is most acute, the rent 

 of a comfortable cottage is about jQ\ per week. 

 Even Goveriiment ought to take up this question. 

 It is one of the hardest things for a man intending 

 to marr\- to find a comfortable home at a low rent. 

 It ought to be the easiest thing for him to make a 

 home. Some of us have a shrewd idea that the 

 root of the problem of the colonies relating to the 

 non-marrying propensities of young men, and the 

 crowding, of women (necessarily so, as they must 

 work to live) into business life lies in this difficulty 

 to secure homes. There are thousands of girls in 

 shops and offices earning their bread who ought to 

 be enjoying the duties and delights of wifehood and 

 motherhood. It isn't their fault that they are not. 

 We make it such a hard thing under our present 

 system for men with small salaries to make homes. 



The intensest interest has been 



and""'" "''''^'"^ '" *'^^ Colonies by Mr. 

 Mr. Churchill. ChurchilTs speech at the West .Aus- 

 tralian dinner. Colonials were in- 

 clined to refrain from forming a judgment upon 

 him too hastily, but he has swept away the barriers. 



