NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 270, 10 August 1922, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Wellington was thoroughly • well beaten in yesterday s Rugby contest for the Ranfurly Shield. It is particularly, pleasing to see this coveted trophy go to a country district team, more especially as the winners on this occasion represent a district which has been rather out of the Rugby limelight in recent years. The Hawke’s Bay representatives yesterday showed that they can play both hard find fast, and at their best are likely to extend any of the provincial teams they may meet. ' ’

That every on marrying should be obliged , to produce a -health certificate was a suggestion made by Dr. Collins before the Board of Health inquiry yesterday. The suggestion is one that has been put forward from time to time, and has much to commend it. Dn. Collins explained, in answer to questions, that he would not debar any person from marrying because of an unfavourable health certificate’. At present it is left to the conscience of the individual whether the other narty to the marriage is made aware of the existence of disease. The result of Dn. Collins’s -.proposal would be that all who married persons suffering from deadly infectious disease would at least do so with their eyes ooen. Th? desire to bo able to produce a -clean bill of health on marriage should in itself be a most potent inducement to all persons with venereal disease to secure treatment and to continue it until cured. . .

All of the members of the House of Representatives who enlarged "yestcrclay dn the attractions this country offers to the tourist agreed that these attractions ought to be better advertised abroad than they are. Not many of them, however, offered practical suggestions. Even Mr. Ngata’s spirited advocacy of the adoption of a national costume which must be “picturesque and bizarre” hardly falls within that category. The debate, in fact, was parochial, ragged, and only at intervals humorous, but in its way it servcdHo emphasise tjje fact that the commercial possibilitics' of tourist traffic to this country are as yet verv far from being fully exploited. The Hon. G. J. Anderson, who controls publicity operations, was able to claim thf|t the Dominion is now being better advertised abroad than at any past stage in its history. This is true enough. There is not much doubt, however, that a far bolder scheme of publicity and advertising than has yet been attempted would attract a greatly increased stream of tourists. Not is it in doubt that the outlay tjius made would be much more than recouped in increased railway returns and the expenditure in various ways of a great deal of money brought into the country by visitors from overseas.

The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Downie Stewart) gave a somewhat cryptic reply yesterday to a question asked by Ma. J. IL Hamilton, M.P., in regard to motor-lorry competition with the railways. Mr. Hamilton asked for the early introduction of legislation authorising county councils to impose an increased if not prohibitive tax on motor-lorries carrying goods parallel to the lailways. In an attached note the member for Awarua suggested that motor-lorries must be compelled to run only as feeders to the railways if the earning capacity of the latter was to be preserved, and county councils spared an enormous expense in repairing damage done to the roads. The Minister’s reply was that the law at present does not fix a limit to the fee which may be charged by county councils in respect of motorvehicles engaged in heavy traffic or in the carriage of passengers or goods. Possibly this means tjiat it is intended to impose some limit.. In any case, it is to be hoped that county councils will not accept the Minister’s statement as an invitation to impose penal taxation on motor transport. It is, of course, right that motor-vehicles of all kinds should be fairly taxed for the upkeep of roads, but an attempt to drive heavy motors off the roads by means of pen rl taxation would be a policy only worthy of’the Dark Ages.