TOPICS OF THE DAY,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 66, 14 September 1907, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY,

Sir Joseph Ward was in good temper at tho letter - carriers'" The Inadequate dinner last night. G.P.O. Rightly, he told his hosts that they were really good' fellows, and assured them ■that better times wero in store for them. ! Then the Premier inevitably quoted, the expansion of postal and telegraphic business during recent years, and ploasantly showed that where once only one telegram grew sis now blossom. Sir Joseph \ is entitled to feel some just pride ."for! the development of his departments, and ] yet Wellington still has a grievance — the General Post Office—which, is altogether inadequate for the city's growing needs. It is ''Wellington's, palatial Post Office," according to an Auckland view, and it ldoked> a lovely place} nicely served up on paper as it was to tho Auckland people in one of the illustrated weeklies. Auckland, too, has been clamouring for a new Post Office, and after much agitation .a gas explosion came to hasten the advent of a successor. Wellington citizens, however, cannot hope for any such interposition of fate. The Government ha» promised relief, and it is earnestly prayed that the comforting words will soon bo backed up by deeds. At present Wellington has one of the slowest post offices in Australasia for the delivery of a colonial or English mail. It is not the fault of the men. They work hard enough, but they are cramped and' cannot develop a speed in accordance with their indicated horse-power. In normal times the General Post Office here can get through its business fairly well, but once, an extra item — a frequent occurrence — corn-as on to the prbgramme there is confusion and irritating delays. The peoplo havo suffered long enough, a»d their agony should not be unduly protracted. Tho Pure' Food Bill, which passed through its committee Pure Food, stage in the Legislative Council yesterday, has been amended in some important directions since it left the Lower House. The chief addition to the Bill is a clause providing for the sale of bread by weight. For a long time tho consumer of the 41b loaf has complained 'that he does not always receive what ho pays for. The Council encountered some difficulty in dealing with this question — difficulties which were .recognised from the outset, inasmuch as the Select Committee which dealt with the Bill had added a proviso to the clause giving the Governor power to make regulations permitting the sale of particular classes of ' [ bread other than by weight. It was the fancy bread question agaii). However, after a protracted discussion, all obstacles were Burmountsd by limiting the Governor's powers in the proviso to "bread under 21b in weight." The bakers will do well to study the new clause which will be recommitted for final approval on Wednesday next, prior to the Bill being sent back to the House for its acquiesenco in the amendments embodied in tho measure. It is also noteworthy that the general provisions of the Bill relating to tho purity of articles for human consumption have beon extended to tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes. Rightly the Hon. T. K. Macdonald has spoken vigorously in tho Beauty Legislative Council against and tho the proposal that portion of Belt. the- original Town Belt, now " held by the Government in "trust" as a mental hospital reserve, should furnish sites for workmen's homes when tho inmates of the institution are removed further afield. It is very desirable to have homes for the workers, but lhe beauty — rather the prospective beauty — of the Town Belt should not be destroyed for a huddle of houses, with ne\er a treo or a blade of green to refresh a tired eye. The "day is coming when the patients at Mount View must migrate up-country, and then the Government will be anxious to mako tho city reserve help to maintain the new institution. If tho authorities decido_ to cut up the j land into residential sites, tho sections should not be smaller than an acre, and tho leases should bo framed on such terms as would oblige occupiers to mako their property worthy of tho lo« cahty. This policy would bo tho most profitable ono that tho Government could pursue, and would 6nsnro that tho rejprvg should bo something fair' to lookj

upon. However, all this is only a patch o! the belt, which is a sorry girdle at this moment. It is true that there is a sweep of green for the city t-oiler, but the belt as a. whole is a poor thing to hold up the city's pride. While the belt remains in Its present forlorn state, Wellington's building activity will have a poor background. The city will be like 9 lady in silk, with a tiara in her hah - , and a .sash of sackcloth aroun,d her waist. It is time tnat the Town Belt was furbished up and studded with a few native emeralds and other greenery. Temperance reformers jn New South Wales will find encourA "Reduction" ageinent in the voting Vote. on the local" option polls. Mr. Wade, responsible for the new local option and anti-gambling laws, was returned with the fine majority of 3300, and there can be little doubt that the ppljtica.l exigencies which have recently associated th-3 Labour party with the opponents of reform in the gaming and liquor laws had an appreciable effect in the returns at the polls. The suocess so far nchiev«d by the anti-liquor party is not the result of any sudden wave of feeling, and* is therefore the more significant ; jt will be noted that though no-license has been carried in only one instance, nearly half the electorates voted for reduction — 25 against 39. The Act has a provision, copied from a former New Zealand statute, that wher.2 no-license is not carried, the no-license votes are not lost, but count for reduction, which accounts in soyas degree Tot the large proportion of the reduction vote. When popular control is conceded the vote in nearly all cases conveys the same warnjpg note to "the Trade.'' TJra licensed traffic is a privileged monopoly, limited as to time, with no inherent right of renewal. If the privilege is abused, it is in danger of withdrawal ; and tho greater the abuse, the shorter will be the shrift. The future is really largely in the hands of tho license-holders, who, if they obssrvo tho law, have little to dread. "Reduction" usually means the elimination of the' most notorious offenders, and we may look for 0. cleansing process in New South Wales, and better observance of the licensing laws in tho interval before tho next general election. The eyes of the world have been fixed upon the mojsters — the Leviathan turbine Lu&itania and Races. the reciprocating Lucania — which have been plunging, almost nose_ by nose, across the Atlantic. There is something exhilarating, for people safe ashore, in the races of such leviathans, but the riders of the huge steeds may have had a little alarm mingled with their delight in the- competition. On a day when the Lugitftnia was "delayed by a. fog" sho covered 556 miles, barely 20 fewer than on a day when all was clear. Apparently the rule for deep-sea racing of thirty thousand tonn«rs is — Go full speed ahead at ordinary times, and a knot an hour legs in a fog, just to allay the anxiety of passengers. The records made by Germany hav^ been broken, but it ia nob likely that Kaiser Wilhehn, will allow his country to be long eclipsed.' The White Star Line, looking ahead, has already placed an order for a 40,000-ton steamer, 280 yards in length ; and that will not be the end of man's attempts- at building floating cities. It is said that" the only check to j the size of ships is tho. capacity of harbours, and a little thing like this will be scouted by the companies bent on lowering one another's pride at all costs. -With motor cars roaring over the land and gigantic steamers swishing oyei'- tlie"saaj' the"\v'brld will presently ba a very lively little place. Provi*dence was wise in giving tho globe more liquid than solid surface for the Gargantuan marine racers do need sojUe room for their gambols. Usually the benches reserved for the I ' public in City CouiiThe Auckland cil Chambers are " Straphangers." emphatically empty when the civic fathers are wrangling about drains and wandering cows. On Thursday night, however, a couple #of hundred persons attended a meeting of the Auckland City Council, which was to occupy itself with the confirmation of a bylaw permitting a certain number of passengers in an electric car to support themselves on the straps. According to a Press Association telegram, it seems that the broken bottle and 'the half -brick were expected to hurtle through the sulphurous air. It is chronicled that "Police-Inspector Cullen was handy to catch tho Mayor's oye," not in case it was knocked out by one of the anti-strappers, but as a signal to invoke the protection of "a dozen or more policemen within coo-ec ab 1 the time." The council eventually confirmed tho law, and the two hundred "passive objectors," who had been active enough to subject the municipal elders to many interjections and much ironical laughtei, adopted a resolution disapproving tho council's procedure. Organised labour has been bitterly and ceaselessly opposed to strap-hanging, and a great proportion of tho population of all classes has demanded a lessening of the overcrowding nuisance. A "limited number of straphangers" sounds reasonable enough, especially tp Wellington folk, who are accustomed to seeing the cars packed 'with masses of seething, squirming, suffering humanity. Wellington holds the record for car-stuffing, and the police and the corporation authorities aro taking care to see that tho city will have at least one proud boasi- for a long time to come.