CHRISTCHURCH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14338, 25 April 1912, Page 6

CHRISTCHURCH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Owing no doubt in a large measure to the inclement weather, there was not a very large poll for the Mayoral election yesterday. Mr Holland, however, is to be congratulated on the handsome manner in which his friends rallied to his .support. He was, no doubt, helped by the vote-splitting on the other side, but it is useless to speculate on what would have happened had there been a straight-out 'fight between either Mr Holland and Mr Dougall or Mr Holland and Dr. Thacker. He has been elected by a substantial majority, and we confidently look forward to his repaying the trust shown in him by doing his best for thc city as a whole during his

term of office

In reference to the election of a Councillor for the Central Ward we are naturally pleased to see that Mr Otley has been returned. We believe

in tho Labour Party being fairly iteprescnted on the Council, but the election of 31 r Honpy would have given them the balance of power, and wo do not think that is desirable in the interests of the city. Apart from this aspect of the case we believe Mr Otley's business knowledge and experience, and his :.hi-ev.-(l common sense make him a very valuable member of the Council, and we are glad the public aro once moro to have the benefit of his services.

The Prime Minister told a Hamilton interviewer yesterday that he "'could not- see that the people were looking to Mr Massey at all." He would have been more accurate if be had substituted ••would not" for "could not —

the blindness of those who won't see is proverbial. Surely he is not trying to make us believe that the people are looking to him r*

Despite the drawbacks of the Consumption .Sanatorium, good work is being done at tho institution. Dr. Blackmore'.'-, annual report to tho Hospital and Charitable Aid Board shows that of the forty-four tuberculous patients who left the sanatorium during the year, twenty-nine did so with the disease arrested, while nine others left in improved health. Tho six who bad not improved were all advanced cases when admitted, and four others of this class died while still undergoing treatment. Dr. Blaekmorc emphasises the lesson of theso figures—that early treatment is absolutely necessary it the best- results aro to be achieved. Ho does not profess that all the cases in which tho diseaso has been arrested are cured— that is a word which ho regards as applicable only to patients who have passed, without relapse, two years of ordinary lifo after leaving tho sanatorium, but, os-iecinHy in tho case of young people, the arrest of tho diseaso offers good hope of a permanent cure.

Tho allegation that has been made that tho sanatorium can put up a good record because it- only takes curable cases is disproved by tho doctor's assertion that the admissions are not limited to such cases. The only patients to whom admission is refused are those for -whom there is little bopo of being cured or even benefited, and fortunately for these before long they will bo accommodated at tho Coronation Home for chronic and incurable patients. Tho sanatorium, despite its defects, is justifying its existence and the cost of its maintenance, and in years to como it may prove to havo exercised a very beneficial influence upon tho health of tho community.

The amendments in the South African Defence Bill arc of a character which indicates a determination on tho part- of tho Government to mako tho system as effcctivo as possible. Tho first lino of defence—tho Active Citizen Force—is primarily a volunteer organisation, but if the mini her of volunteers docs not reach tho total fixed upon sis tho strength of tho force, tho deficiency is to be made up by means of a ballot among those who have not volunteered. Tho ages within which white residents wero to be liable to this ballot was in tho original Bill 17 to 2-5, but this has now apparently been, altered to 21 to 25. Thoso selected have to servo four years with tho volunteer force. Tho vicious principle of payment to avoid service disappears. Originally it was provided that any one who on attaining his 61st year had not entered for or" completed his period of training in tho active force, would have to pay £1 a year until ho was 45. This provision has been knocked out. Presumably somo means of making use of those exempted by the'ballot will bo devised, t,o 'thrl (they sh4U not bo ablo to avoid! their responsibilities. The decision to establish an aviation school, as a preliminary to a corps of aviators shows a spirit of enterprise greater than is possessed by Australia, or, until quite lately, tho Old Country.

There seems to bo a difference of opinion between the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society and tho Hon. G. W. Russell on a somewhat interesting point. It was mentioned last night at the annual meeting of the Society that the coming season is a close ono for paradise ducks. Mr Russell, however, told a Wellington reporter the other day that the paradise duck season will begin on May Ist, and will last for fourteen clays only. He had decided that the number of paradiso ducks that may be shot by one license-holder in any one day shall not exceed 12, and instructions havo been given by the Department of Internal Affairs to see that the maximum number that may be shot is not exceeded. How the Department is going to do this, we are at a loss to imagine. We quite agree that paradise ducks should bo protected from the pot-hunter, but how the Department is going to sco that no shooter transgresses the now.edict is a puzzle. Tho task would require the appointment of an army of rangers. But the first thing to settlo is whether this ia or is not a close season for paradiso ducks.

One gathers from tho I<ondon papers that- tho pinch of tho English coal •strike was felt earliest in the Potteries, .though Cardiff suffered severely, and distress was common in many of the large towns before the strike had lasted threo weeks. Tho Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, in a circular letter to the Press, estimated that in the county and borough there were at least 80,000 children under fourteen years of age, and that something !•'-•• £ 400 a day was required to feed them. It was hopeu tnat J..vresponse to thc appeal for funds would be such as would enable him to givo all hungry children three meals a day. The Chief Constable of Cardiff reported to the City Council that 700 families were in immediate danger of starvation. At Sheffield it was reported that it was not unusual to ifind. several families cooking in a single pot over* one fire, to economise their pitifully scanty stocks of coal, and from Leicestershire word came that the villagers were digging roots and stumps out of the hedge-rows for fuel. Pawnbrokers reported that the usual weekly pledges were not being redeemed and that the poor were pawning thenblankets and saucepans, thc very last things, it appears, that are ever pawned. All over the country hunger and cold were invading the houses cf tho poor, and the strike was to last another three weeks I