NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 296, 13 September 1927, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

In view of the alleged unpopularity of the Government it is rather strange that there should be such a rush of candidates to carry the banner of Reform in the coming Raglan contest. Was it six or seven that came forward? It is also a tribute to the loyalty of the candidates in question that they should so readily have submitted to the ballot of elimination in order to minimise the danger of vote-splitting. The choice of Mr. Waring as the party nominee seems a popular one, and is likely to meet .with general approval throughout the electorate.

Though generally we approve the road improvement and permanent paving policy of the City Council, we find it a little difficult to swallow some of the claims made for it. The other day, for instance, one city councillor, contrasting the old with the new, claimed that whereas Thorndon Quay, under the old conditions used to cost something like £BOO a year for upkeep, now the upkeep was nil. So far as our recollection goes this particular piece of pavement cost quite a lot of money in repairs and replacement in the first few months after it was' laid, but perhaps this is not regarded as upkeep. However, the point we wish to make is that the annual interest charge on the cost of the so-called permanent pavement is part of the annual cost of upkeep, and should be set against the maintenance charge of the old macadam roads. With the costly class of permanent paving the city has indulged in, in some cases the annual interest charge on the capital expended is not likely to be less than the old road maintenance charge. What the city can justifiably claim is that we have greatly improved roads. The cost is another matter.

Nothing could be better than the Commission for the settlement of the Samoan problem. Nothing could be worse than the ignominious reception of the Commission by the chief exponent of the alleged Samoan grievances. Mr. Nelson’s attitude suggests an inclination to run away. He has a camouflage, of course. It is .a cloak of conditions, some absurd on the face of them, and some deliberate affronts to the Government. Why were these suggested except as insults designed deliberately to obtain decisive and prompt refusal? These people want time for preparing their case, collecting evidence, and so forth. Have they been agitating all these months without a case and without evidence to support the same?

M.. Voronoff is qualifying as the world’s greatest optimist. He is also in danger of proving one of its greatest dreamers. He seems to see so little in the way of the complete success of the monkeygland theory that it is hard to see where his presents to an expectant world will stop. Incidentally, he has mentioned that’ he can give us sheep as large as oxen, in which case the percentage of wool increase from his treatment, which he now guarantees, will sink into insignificance compared with the enormous fleeces of the enlarged jumbuks he promises. But he has considerably kept off this dazzling line of advancement. Turning from the large increases he sees within the grasp of the sheep-breeders whom he leaves to carry on the good work, he concentrates on the rejuvenation of man. Of the success reached in this line he offers some remarkable instances, numbering (he tells) some 1000 persons. He warns us, however—considerate man—that all these rejuvenated people are apt to die suddenly. This appears to mean that the monkey gland merely accelerates the running down of mortal energy without adding to its volume. If so, the glitter of the gold he offers is fictitious. Under the guise of. lengthening our days he actually effects the shortening of life, making the last years a little merrier in compensation.