NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 176, 22 April 1929, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

Largely due to the efforts and propaganda of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society, there is being created a new public attitude towards our feathered friends. Indiscriminate destruction and the upsetting of the balance of Nature has wrought serious havoc amongst the birds, and especially amongst tire native species. ' The Minister of Internal Affairs informed the Auckland Acclimatisation Society the other day that he was not prepared to declare an open season for pukeko until the results of a scientific investigation as to their habits were known. From this point of view a similar investigation of the habits and reputed vices of the kea parrot, still a matter of dispute, would also be useful. In the latest bulletin of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society, there is a letter from Mr. .David Smith, of Masterton, who acknowledges his debt to the pukeko in helping to keep down insect pests. '!T have never had grain stack? touched by them,” he says, “and .they are strutting round the stacks every day. If they did take a little I would not mind, but would merely look upon it as well-earned wages.”

Apart ''from the political res.ults of the forthcoming British General Election, are two interesting departures .from custom which will invest the campaign with unique features. ..The first is the ' broadcasting of speeches, and the second is the recording for the gramophone of speeches and opinions, by rival leaders. One of the definite advantages of the gramophone over the radio is that as many repetitions as one likes may be obtained without calling on the original speech-maker. A speech, recorded by Mr. Baldwin, for instance, or Mr. Ramsay MacDonald cojild.be turned on as a part of the programme at candidates’ meetings all over Britain. Moreover, the speakers could not complain of being misreported, as they do with the newspapers, or that their utterances were confused by “statics” ( on the radio. One is inclined to think, however, that except in the case of very prominent statesmen, speaking on topics of much more than parochial interest, the demand for political records would not be very large. ■ ' . . . -V

Various and interesting • are the ways in which perplexed municipalities are endeavouring to elucidate the transport problems created by the development of the public tramway-private motor omnibus ■ competition. That adopted by the Brighton Corporation is rather unique. Instead of buying out the rival bus, company, it arranged a merger with the Corporation under which a new company . was to be formed to take over the whole'of the transport undertakings, subject td the following condition: “One of the objects of the new company shall be the gradual replacement of tramways by motor omnibuses, whereby further routes for motor omnibuses, through .running, and a general improvenient of the public transport of Brighton, Hove, and adjoining district may be made possible.” The Merger Company is to pay £lO,OOO annually ini. perpetuity to' the Corporation, and profits above 10 per cent, are to be devoted to the reduction of fares. The point to be noted is the decision of the Brighton Corporation to face and admit the fact that the modern motor omnibus as time goes on may possibly revolutionise transport, and send tramway rails and cars to the scrap-heap. The example of Wolverhampton was quoted the other day. As the evidence accumulates one is being led to the conviction that tramway extensions may not be in the best interests of the community; that at less expense the motor omnibus could serve the same purpose. At this stage one wonders whether the costly Sydney Street tramway extension scheme should not be reviewed; whether, before buying up private property, disturbing the old cemetery, and laying down tramway rails and overhead equipment, tire Council ought not to look further into the mattec.