TOPICS QF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 25, 30 January 1908, Page 6

TOPICS QF THE DAY.

o This afternoon Mr. R. Fletcher will m, ™ , e " deavour to persuade the The Battle Harbour Board that the of the necessities of tho timv Dock. demand a change in the dock site, even though some thousands have gone into tho basin selected at Clyde-quay. The proposal is one that should be very seriously debated by the members, and should not be put aside without conclusive evidence as to its impracticability, if it is impracticable, which we very much doubt. The reclamation scheme has been abandoned temporarily, pushed out of court, it is said, by the exorbitant demands of landholders, but that does not eliminate Evans Bay as th& best place |or a graving dock. It is stated that a rocky bottom would make the excavation difficult, but this disadvantage should not be given more importance than it is worth. In Wellington the leading citizens have not the habit of looking ahead for many years When tho city was first established it, was severely handicapped by the founders' lack of foresight, and tho same sad trait has been observable in succeeding generations, culminating iv the loss ot the Miramar Peninsula to the municipality. The retention of Clydequay as a place for the dock may bo another instance of this policy of "sufficient for the day is tho good and evil thereof." WhaD kind of a place will Clyde-quay be in twenty years' time? Forty? Fifty? Has anybody thought about it? Tho citizen* desire their public men to be a little more public. Again the Mediterranean Truit fly is giving cause for anxiety A Very )n New Zealand. It is Undesirable reported that this pest, Immigrant, which rightly inspires a terror out of all proportion to its size, has appeared m a garden near Auckland. The matter has been reported to Mr. Kirk, Government Biologist, and he has issued instructions for "drastic action." The authorities should certainly err rather on the side of severity than laxity in ¦ fighting against a scourge that spares nothing. Men who stand to lose a little by departmental rigour; sometimes care nothing about the general good of tho country, and make a clamour against the crusaders. Last year, when the outbreak of the pest near Napier and Blenheim induced the Agricultural Department to destroy quantities of fruit, some of the owners made a great uproar, but luckily the Government lent no ear to the persons of little 'patriotism. It does not pay to treat the fly gently. It is a hardy destroyer, which is abt grateful for favours. -The havoc which it works when once it is . established, and its defiance of all known methods of extermination, suggest that the Government .shquld not hesitate, even at prohibitirg importations Of fruit from all infected countries. New' Zealand cannot afford to take the slightest risk of giving- a plague a chance to ruin the ! orchards here. _____ Steadily the Pisiko swamp is being drained, and rich land Increment for is ' being gained for the State. prospective settlers. Probably the middleman is already figuring out profits to b-8 won by buying the land eariy and selling it later on when its value has leaped up, but he has to leckon with a shrewd) Minister, the Hon. R. M'Nab. At present tho operations promise to bring 75,000 to 80,000 acres into cultivation, and work so far has been confined to only one side of the river. By the tmie that the draining is completed there will be an extensive area of valuable territory, and Mr. M'Nab intends to take care that the increment will go to tne- State, which is working for it. Therefore, he s"ays, the authorities will not make the mistake of placing it upon the market before the public has realised the value of it. The land will be kept in reserve till the Government can get reasonable terms for its occupation. The State has been exploited enough already — which means that the people at large have been unconsciously very generous to a few cool, calculating individuals of the community. The masses, who are for ever on the block for the benefit of the shrewd, may hope that the attitude over Piako will be only the beginning of a scheme for securing more of the unearned increment for the makers of it — the general public. On the high levels, and ever on the lowlands, there is reThe Hosers. joicing over the penalties imposed upon the hosers by a stipendiary magistrate yesterday. Each of the persons who squandered the rity water in a time of need, and wasted it, of course, without a meter to check their extravagance, yielded 40s to the consolidated fund and gave a good 40s worth of pleasure to their superiors in citizenship. Yet the jubilation, like all visitations of great joy, had its tinge of sadness; the decent people knew that not all the hosers were summoned yesterday to court. Many have hosed, but few paid the penalty. Still yesterday's batch did not exhaust the list in Mr. Doyle's hands. Some of the offenders may have been prematurely rejoicing about escaping punishment for their gross selfishness, but they are 'advised to reiserve tho paroxysms of delight. It is understood that the City Inspector has a few more names to proclaim and that the cases will be heard soon. It is rather a pity that an elementary notion of citizenship has to be taught by fine, but it is pleasing to fiiid that v * these lessons are necessary tha r trate is proving a good teacher. "1l shillings and costs ' is a fair penal. _ for a beginning. So far as it goes, the cable message regarding the new regulaThe New tions dealing with the Hebrides, spirit trade in the New Hebrides is satisfactory, as indicating that, whatever disadvantages may be found to attend diial control, it is immeasurably better than the condition of chaos formerly existing. Rival interests and opposing commercial regulations, insecurity of tenure, demoralisation of the natives by liquor, and race jealousies with crimes of violence, were threatening tho ruin of the group. One of the greatest grievances, both of missionary and trader, wao the practically unchecked

traffic in spirits in the French sphere. The restrictions under which British traders were placed, prdper as they were, placed them at a disadvantage as regarded their Frendi rivals, and the civilising work of tha missions was being neutralised by the influence of liquor upon the natives. It will be seen that a code of regulations has been agreed on by tho two High Commissioners, and gazetted. Distillation, importation, or salo of spirits is prohibited except by consent of the commissioners, and Vila is made the sole port of entry. We may assume that the requisito permission will not be given to all and sundry, nor without all reasonable safeguards, in which case the chief concern of the administrators will ba sternly to suppress smuggling and all illegal traffic. So long as common seneu ffnd good feeling prevail, thero need be littlo friction in- connection with tho dual control; and thero may even bo some advantage in tho check, only'halfconscious though it may be, the High Commissioners impose o"n each other, — — •' ¦ -4, Age has fallen out with Youth. Probably Age in this case is a father Age —maybe of a grown-up fam- ,.. v - . ity— but his amour propro Youth, has been offended, and he ro- . Bents it. Briefly, Ago objects to Youth playing Bowls— in this case with a capital B. For this reason : that Youth plays Bowls so much better; he stands the racket of a tournament better, does not get tired so soon, and— wins the prizes. Every bowler who reads the wail of Age telegraphed from Auckland recently will •sympathise. All of us will be old some day, and when our youngsters forsake tlie cricket and tennis grounds and the boatsned, and invade the sacred precincts of the bowling green, we shall remember what Age wrote in 1808. Prov^' i a ino' V 6V 6 shall for g et » as Age did m 1903, that we learned our Bowls in our earlier days, and that the first exponents of the game in New Zealand (and they wero mostly from Scotland) > wero brought up to tho science of the green from their earlier days, to say the least. Naturally, when the gam© was transplanted to New Zealand, its pioneers here were "easily first," and not unnaturally, they are inclined to rosent tho intrusion of a younger generation. However, Age has to give way in this casa. Years and "waistcoat" are no longer regarded as necessary attributes of a bowler. The game, demands qualities which beJdng more to the htev young than to the old, and unless thu waistcoat ' has learned the game when young, he will have to leave the green and sit on tho bank. Meanwhile many a well-preserved oldster can hold his own against tho younger followers of th« game. But greens cost money, and (Without the younger players tho clubs would go into liquidation. Age (over, age) must take a back seat.