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Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14275, 10 February 1912, Page 8

Wo are not acquainted with the Houston (Texas) " Post" but judging from one extract from its columns which has come under our notice it appears to be a paper with a Mission, that mission being to " boost" the town of Houston. " It would bo , cruel," it says, "to stagger humanity by revealing now just how 'great a town Houston will be 25 years .hence. The fact is, Houston's present progress has tho world groggy and palpably going." Christchurch is often urged to be more patriotic and to think, and say, more of itself. We entirely agree with the advice, but wo trust that local " boosters " will not expect from us quite such full brass-band efforte as the one we have quoted. There is but one city in the Dominion to which that, sort of thing seems to come naturally.

"We trust the Minister in charge of Tourist Resorts, Trill not overlook the possibilities of a bold advertisement for New Zealand that arc contained in the exploits of his colleague, the Minister for Railways, among the trout of Lake Taupo. Mr, Millar spoilt some three weeks in that pleasant locality, and devoted altogether seven or eight days to fishing. Accounts vary as to the total weight of his catch, one stating it to bo eight hundredweight and another half a ton.. But really after one has accounted for a quarter of a ton of trout, a few hundredweight -more or less is a matter of no, consequence. The details of various days' sport are enough to make an English angler, proud of the capture c-f an occasional two or three pound trout, faint with envy. fish weighing 2601b, thirty-one weighing 2481b—such "baskets" sound even more like fairy tales than -fish stories. We have not the slightest doubt that they are correct, to an ounce. After the success of an English officer in catching two and a-quarter tons of trout at Taupo a year or two ago, one is prepared to believe anything. Taupo may or may not provide the best trout-fishing in the world, but it is good enough to warrant the Tounst Department saying something about it in large print in the English papers.

Tho residents of St. Albans and Linwood who wish those wards to have increased representation on the City, Council, axo showing laudable activity in advocatiug their claim, and tho next meeting of the Council will witness a joint deputation on the subject from tho two wards, concerned. We have previously expressed our opinion that if tho ward system is to be maintained, these particular wards are entitled to what they ask, three instead of two members each. But wo aro glad to see that the Mayor, among others, is in favour of tne abolition of the ward system, on the same grounds as have been urged eeveral times in these columns. There is not the slightest reason to fear, as one epeaker at last night's meeting in Limvood said, that if separate wards were done away with, the Central Ward would " rule the roost," or that all the councillors would be elected from one ward. As for the people in one ward not knowing tho requirements of other wards, we take it that it is one of the duties of a member of the City Council to acquaint himself with the needs of overy part of the city, and if that is not done now, it is a tolerably strong condemnation of tho separate ward system.

'•Not a day without a line," and hardly a day without a strike. Yesterday saw the beginning of trouble in the Wellington freezing works which may bring us again to the verge, or beyond it, of an industrial crisis. The unskilled workers in the two works cannot agree with their employers as to the time at which their eight-hours day shall start and, consequently, tho hour at which the overtime rate must be paid. Four hundred men, therefore, after starting tho day's work, tools" and walked out, leaving anybody who cared to do it to save some hundreds of pounds' worth of perishable- goods from destruction. Their refusal to work means that several hundreds of others will be out of their jobs, and in all probability that the works will have to close down in the height of the busy season. The farmers will, of course, be put to great inconvenience, and possibly to soniG loss, but in their present temper the malcontent workers care as littlo for the welfare of others as for their own. ■ . ■