What would have been gained by throwing the deliberations of the 'Banking Committee open to the public yesterday it is difficult to conceive. One can understand the evidence' being published, and one can appreciate the sword-play from day to day. But there is nothing to bo gained, that we can sec, in the prosy deliberations over a draft report on a scries of facts which have been many weeks before the public. Mr George Hutchison, who wanted a public discussion, is like most of those who oppose the Govern ment ; he wants to have all the argu ments against them repeated many times. They make Up by reiteration for weak ness of argument* The Banking Committee very wisely kept the first clatter from getting to the public oar. There will presently be plenty of clatter in the House, so the Opposi tion, though losing the reiteration to which they have no right, will get all the justice to which they are entitled. Lord Charles Boresford has, wo observe, encountered an opponent in his crusade against the Admiralty system of recruiting. According to him, wc can never get mon enough to man the ships Wo are building. Admiral Colomb replies that there is the Naval Reserve to begin with, and that after the first gun fired in war every sailing ship will bo laid up, and a vast number of seamen set free to servo the Queen. Unfortunately, the sailors are getting fewer from year to year, and the navy wants trained men. Lord Charles appears to be not far wrong after all. It is always pleasant to see ourselves as others see us, For example, nothing is more certain .than that the tone of public feeling in this Colony about the Land for Settlement Act has completely changed. The friends of the Act are alive to ihe fact, and they are thankful, evon jubilant, accordingly. But they do not forget the criticisms of the past. (They only ; remember them, however, to wonder whether-they have had any effect elsewhere. We notice that they have been noticed elsewhere. A writer in the Sydney Daily Telegraphy after noting the changed feeling, reviews the old criticism, ridicules it, and dismisses it as a thing given Up. Nobody, ho remarks, wants to repeal the Act. He thinks that three years is too short a time for a conclusive opinion to be formed. 