NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 290, 7 September 1928, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

Planting of the Town. Belt with trees will transform the barren hills into a very pleasing prospect. The slopes of Mount Victoria will eventually \e a very fine sight indeed when th s now being planted have reached maturity, and other slopes whicr are now being covered with pine trees will add a beauty and asoftness to the landscape. Further, being so near the city the P antatio s can be thinned out and the small growth sold as ijrewood. This should be a fair source of revenue to the city and offset the cost of superintending the plantations. Eventually, of course, the plantations should yield considerable timber. » * * * The sentence passed on Mrs. Florence Knapp, ex-Secretary of the State of New York, found guilty of having misappropriated funds supplied to her for the purpose of conducting a census was a light one, even though the exposure of her wrong-doing would in itself be a severe punishment. Mrs. Knapps method of appropriating public money to her own use was by placing fictitious n atnes upon the pay-roll and collecting the pay hersel . The same method was applied by the grafters in the street-cleaning department of Brooklyn. There is another scandal under investigation in the Queen’s District in New York, in which men on the pay-rolls employed as crossing sweepers were doing work as clerks and otnci occupations very different from that for which they were employed. Chauffeurs explained their duties as “driving people about Undoubtedly these civic scandals are fostered by the policy of spoils to the victors, which is the vogue in America. Crime statistics of a country, considered from certain points of view may be taken as a reflex of the condition of the community. According to the annual report of the Police Commissioner, an increase in the incidence of serious crime is revealed in the comparative figures for 1926 and 1927. lhe increase is not very a aiming, though it is quite definite —1224 as against 15-0. Account must be taken of the growth of population and of the economic condition of the country. Certain classes of offence tend to increase in periods of adversity and unemployment. In 1 9-7 the pi mcipal increases related to false pretences, burglary, arson, vagrancy, gaming offences, and failure to maintain wives. These offences have a psychological relationship to adversity. .There is a certain class of weak individual who may be said to be on the boi der-line between the desire to work and the inclination to loaf about. Ilaid times and the shortening of hands usually finds such individuals out of jobs in which they have never been satisfactory propositions. They then succumb to the inclination to shirk, and sponge oi prey on other people. Men who take to crime through sheer want are very few. It is the waster who swells the total. It is interesting to note that the statistics of convictions for drunkenness, in New Zealand show a decrease in spite of the growth of population. » * * * The question of hospital finance continues to cause, conti ibuting bodies a great deal of concern. the steadily increasing demands of our hospitals on various local bodies throughout the Dominion are rapidly reaching a stage where, it is stated, it will be impossible to meet them without placing an unduly heavy burden on the i alepayers. Many public men subscribe to the belief that the system of allocating the cost of hospital expenditure needs revision. The Palmerston North Borough Council recently took a definite step in the matter, when it circularised contributing bodies for expressions of opinion on the policy at present governing the administration of hospitals in New Zealand. It is stated that, the replies show an almost unanimous desire for a change in the policy. A representative deputation will submit its views on the subject to the Prune Minister and the Minister of Public Health in a. few days’ tune. The deputation is assured of a sympathetic hearing, but to find a satisfactory means of allocating hospital costs is quite another matter.