TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 14, 18 January 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

"There will be no lack of pressing and important questions to The Wet-Dry occupy the attention of Dock. the board during the coming year," states the Harbour Board's secretary (Mr. If. E. Nicholls) in his annual report, and in recent weeks The Post has plainly indicated that tho" "important questions" will not be lacking. Mr. Nicholls anticipates that the revival of trade this year will enable the board's revenue to "regain its buoyancy," and he frankly submits that more income is required. "The inevitable growth of the standing charges for interest, pinking fund, and depreciation, consequent upon the very large capital expenditure to which the board is committed for graving dock, Evans Bay reclamation works, Waterloo-quay reclamation, etc., which works cannot be interest-producing for some years to come," says the secretary, "make it evident that the time has arrived when the board's revenue must be largely increased. How this can best be done without unduly taxing the various interests affected is the most immediate question for the boar.d." Expenditure on commitments has to go on — and the board has to. look about for the most congenial means of putting the "loading" on the community. It is a nice task, demanding much ingenuity and subtlety, for the new board to undertake. Another of the "important questions" is the dock, where the main operations hays been suspended for some "weeks pending the testing of cement. The lay reader cannot glean much enlightenment about the dock problem from the annual report, except that "laitance" has caused a hitch, and "the date_ of completion must be considerably over the contract time" (31st December, 1910). The peculiar behaviour of the cement in the deeper portion of the basin has given the board more concern than it cares to admit in public for the present. Some expert opinion may assure the board that a special concrete, ' made with an extra proportion of special cement, may enable the work to be continued "in the wet," but other opinion declares that it may be advisable to put down the concrete "m the dry." This procedure would require the 'installation of a coffer dam at a cost estimated at anything between £50,000 and £100,000. It is «a question that can He decided on only expert evidence and the experience of builders of other docks, and it is the board's task t o get as much of this evidence as possible. Another Saturday-Monday holiday farce, similar to others of the More Holiday past, is to be staged in Muddlement. Wellington on 22nd24th January. The anniversary holiday promises to be more a nuisance than a benefit, more an irritation than a recreation. The debate about whether the provincial birthday rejoicings should be on the due date, Saturday, or on Monday began before Christmas, and the result is a complete muddlement. Smaller shopkeepers have voted for Monday, but the larger firms prefer Saturday. The contest has developed into a "go-as-you-please." ' It seems that Saturday is to bo the more or less official holiday, but the smaller shopkeepers will keep open onUhat day, and will put up the shutters or- Monday. Poor Picton, which is to have a regatta on "Anniversary Day," was led to believe thai the celebration would be on Monday, and, when all arrangements had been made for the 24th, ■the promoters sadly ' learned that the principal cessation of work was to be on Saturday. What is to be the remedy for such distressing confusion? A muchsupported solution is the "Mondayising" of public holidays, except such ones as Christmas Day, Good Friday, and New "Pear'h Day, and the suggestion has received some support in Parliament, but the Government has not yet found it convenient to definitely support the proposal. The Monday scheme is favoured by the Wrge body of minor shop-* keepers, and is said to have a large measure of labour sympathy, but representatives of large business firms have expressed hostility to the recommendation. The dispute should he brought to an issue. The present disconcerting disorder should not tf>e allowed to continue. In its wisdom, the Government of this country has made it An Ugly Turl an offence and «i Excrescence, breach of tho Gaming Act for" a bookmaker to bet with infants, and yesterday the fact was brought home with some emphasis to au alleged odds-layer, whose dividend as the result of .a small wager with a. small . boy a.mounted to one month's imprisonment in a place where the betting notices and starting prices will not trouble him. The delinquent will find his present occupation one wnich, if more arduous than he cares about, is at least something more physically benefiting than laying the odds to boys and foolish' women anxious 1.0 turn their shillings and half-crowns into gold. The average bookmaker, legalised and of certain financial stability and standing, possesses a recognition which these parasites, who have crept through loopholes in "the Act, most . assuredly lack.. These hangers-on to the fringe of the betting ring have naught whatsoever to commend them to intelligent people. They are on a par with the individual of the small bag and the largv assurance who posts himself in the avenues to tho great race tracks and lays prices, of his own in threepenny pieces. If an outsider romps home, well and good ; if the favourite, sell and bad. Financialb?-

thes» people are not trustworthy, and morally they are looked upon as undesirables — a class to whom honest work is of no consequence whatsoever. They are the, "sick" people of the community, who would best serve their country and themselves on a Government penal farm, where the ground was hard, the spade heavy, and the hours long. And for the more recalcitrant might be added the simple fare of bread and water in sufficient proportions. "It must be borne in mind that all such, competiti on s Swimming {life-saving events) and Life-saving, in Wellington are farcical," writes the secretary of the V.M.C.A. Swimming Club. A contest, which obviously has a serious object, and is meant tlo be seriously regarded, may be only a merry interlude in the programme of a swimming carnival. It is pleasing, therefore, to have an assurance that the V.M.C.A. Club is contemplating the establishment of a class .for the teaching of the landdrill of life-saving and the restoring of the apparently drowned. Boys and their elders may be taught to gracefully swim ashore, neatly towing a "dummy" or live subject, and this training can be very serviceable, but it is, only half of the course. There may be several people able to bring ashore a threequarters drowned person, but nobody handy with a knowledge of the science and art of resuscitation. The only difference to the rescued one may be that he dies on land, after much flurry, instead of in the water, with no flurry. It is well-known that various' societies interest themselves in propagating this necessary knowledge. Descriptions of the methods to be employed appear in many publications, and are posted up at various places, and efforts are made to encourage practical training, but it seems that nmch remains to be done. It is hoped that the V.M.C.A. Club will be soon setting an admirable example to its contemporaries.