NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1063, 28 February 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The' decision of the City Council to disfiguro tho city tram-cars withbusiness advertisements has, as wo expected, provoked very proper protests from various quarters. It is surprising that councillors should have so narrow a conception of their obligations to the municipality; and still more surprising that they should think the public can be eo easily .fooled. To pretend'that business notices of the class likely to bo forthcoming would 'prove an adornment to the cara is really too absurd to convinco anyone, h'owovor conveniont it may be for councillors to shelter themselves behind. Tho deplorable feature of the business, however, is the absence- of civic pride; the disregard for the. city's interest evidenced by the bad examplo the Council is setting citizens by 'disfiguring' the city's property with' advertisements. It is difficult to believo that councillors havo given the' question any real consideration at all. The Hon. T. W.'Hislop, ex-Mayor of Wellington, wo arc pleased to sea, is amongst those who have entered a strong protest against tho proposal. In tho courso of an interview ■Mβ. Hislop said: '•. . : , , . • • •• '■

"I think that it is a distinct retrogression. In Wellington in tho past there scams to havo been n very healthy feeling with regard to advertisements which disfigure public places nnd do injury to sontiiiiCiit nfeoiji.-i advertising in tramcars and otltfT public property. Advqr-. tising along tho roadsides has been discouraged," and a mnrkod improvement in that respect' has tnken place. It is extremely disappointing, that fot the sake of a few pounds tho council should prevent tho cars from beinj: what they mi«lit bo—a placo of rest from business cares and conflict." ■ . ,• > '..•-■■■' ■. ■

Mr. Hislop added a very excellent suggestion. If, ho pointed out, the Council desiro to fill up any blank, spaces in the cars, thoy could very well do so with photographs of the beauty spots anct. public resorts in and around the city. Counoillou Fletcher, wo beliove, has given-no-tice to move to rescind the decision arrived at by tho Council last week, and it is to bo hoped that councillors will recognise that they can best servo the city's interests by refusing to permit public property: to be disfigured with business notices. :

Horowhenua is fortunate . enough to possess a Development Association. This association some time ago approached tho Government with trie object of pushing ahead tho interests of tho district in. various ways,, and as the result of tho promises made it expected various things to happen. But nothing happened and the outcomo was an indignation meeting held at Levin last week at . which some; very strong'remarks were passed regarding tho promises of Ministers. Hero is an extract from the speech of the Mayor, Mn. Gahdener :

When Sir Joseph Ward opened tho Post Office nt Wereroa they made it very plain-to him that closer settlement would bo of great advantage to tho district. Sir Joseph then promised that <u> would send on officer.to.innko'.an inspection of tho different properties.which-they placed before him. Sir Josonh had never given effect to tho proniifo in any'shano or form, nnd ho did not think the Government had treated.them nt all fairly. They <|:cmsclvcs wcre.tryiifg to do their best tor tho district generally, and when promises wero mado by,tho Government and were not carried out it camo as a very creat .disappointment to them. (Hear, hear.) But-the Prime Minister was not the only person at fault.. Tho Minister for Mines also failed.to como up to expectations. Certain! prospecting proposals had been mado to tho Hon. R...M'Kenzie, tho story boing told by Me. Gardener'as fol- . ■'■•■'■' • . ■_•.' . : ;■• ,■•„-. ■ i '- .

There was', no gainsaying tho fact that Jtr. R. M'Konzic promised the deputation that waited on him that as soon as tho society was placed on n sound footing he would givo it a subsidy. Tho association was formed and..WOO was raised at once. A deputation waited on tho Minister and said to him, "Now,wo have carried out your whites, what aro you going to dof" He .promised six weeks ngo that he would givo an indication of what was his intention. Ho had done nothing, and they had lost the summer.. Considering tho work they, had tried to do,; and their communications with Ministers, ho did not think thoy wero being treated fairly, and what they bad to consider was whether' somo stron.? resolution should not bo forwarded to tfco Prime Minister in connection with His hud his colleague's promises. They were not asking anything unreasonable. Thoy were only asking for things which they knew could be carried out successfully.

Tho indignation meeting waxed eloquent concerning the slight put upon it and tho district generally and passed a. resolution of protest, Our Horowhehua friends will, we have no doubt, receive a very prompt reply to their protests.. Were the election a little further off they .might be left in suspense for a much longer period; bur, as it is, with the election dnnying near they can look for every civility. Wo would suggest to them, as , wise, far-seeing settlers, that they should bear in"mind that promises mado before an election if unfulfilled arc apt to bo forgotten after polling day. .'• ' .

The Government announces to-day the chief appointments in connection with its BCncme to spond a couple of million pounds on hydro-electric development. It will bo remembered that .the only'real criticism' of .the scheme in tho: press br" Parliament of this country was hostile criticism. It .was shown , by'dursdlves arid' 'by somo of our correspondents that nearly all the muddled figures and alleged facts-advanced'by the Government and its apologists were worthless and misleading. We find these criticisms endorsed by tho Electrical Review, tho forcmost j ßritish authority on the subject, in its issue of January 13. The Review points out that "there appears to. be a widespread and _ unfounded belief that hydro-electric power costs practically nothing to produce and very little to transmit, whereas experience conclusively shows that this is far from being so—that, in fact, a modern steam-generating plant practically on tho spot, and operating with fuel of moderate cost, can sell cheaper than a hydro-electric plant situated at a dißtonco, mainly, by reason of the proportionately, heavier, and

often unforeseen, capital charges entailed in the latter class of work." The Pimic Minister referred in the House, ns proof of the practicability of long-distance transmission, to "a proposal to transmit power 300 miles between .the Victoria Falls and Johannesburg," and the Review, not knowing Sir Joseph Wakd, is astonished, for it points out that "it is well known" that the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Co. has adopted "the much safer expedient" of steamturbine stations. Our contemporary adds, confirming the argument of one of our correspondents, that "almost all the important hydro-clcctric developments in Europe and America have come into existence cither on account of the dearness of fuel in the localities served or because there was established, or to bo established, an industry near by." It is also < noted that there is "absolutely nothing in tho published debates to indicate the probable cost of energy delivered on the market, and not even an estimate of tho possible extent of the latter." In short, it is evident from the criticism of this authority, which is as unbiased as it is important, that Parliament allowed tho Government to rush it with a wild and preposterous scheme that has no sort, of justification whatever—a scheme that we. can only hope will be knocked on the head before it loses the country;many hundreds of thousands of pounds.