NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 80, 5 April 1927, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

An Emphatic Disclaimer.

Canon Pereival James, of St. Mary's Cathedral, has issued a public statement in which he says that he has only now learned that a paragraph appeared in some New Zealand newspapers in which he is reported to have impugned the honesty of Now Zealand children. He emphatically disowns both the language and the opinions in the paragraph, which he characterises as a curiously inaccurate and grotesque distortion of what he said. He denies that ho said or quoted the words that "lying among children is one of the curses of New Zealand to-day," and that "some people go so far as to say that wo are rearing a nation of liars." A Question of Value. _ It was necessary to keep down the city's rates as low as possible, said Mr. G. Mitchell, candidate' for tho City Council and tho Harbour Board, speaking at Brooklyn last evening, but whether rates should be kept at their present level was another matter altogether. If certain works were really necessary, were really desired and would really jdve benefit to the people then surely the people would be willinoto. pay a little more to have those works carried out. A man had to pay a little more to have an addition made to his home, but it was worth it, and he paid because he thought so. It was essential, however, that the city's work should be carried out without waste. As an ex-eouneillor he knew that there had been great waste in the past," but he believed that the new city officers were capable of handling well the task of organising for really economical working Mr. Mitchell referred briefly to the forthcoming poll upon the question of the system of rating. He believed that the present system was sound, and he had yet to be convinced that a change to rating upon annual value would be in tho best interests of Wellington. A Rare Moth. Now in the Canterbury Museum is a rare species of caterpillar known as the Orophora unicolour. Orophora is tho Greek for thatch borer, and unicolour refers to the uniform groy of the adult moth. The Orophora unicolour was first discovered in 1577 by Butler but there is no record of tho placo in ", Canterbury. A year later Mr. R W Fereday found it in tho Rakaia ' and \Vaimakariri River beds, and since then there has been no further example, until Mr. H. Grant forwarded the present j specimen at the instance of Dr. J. Guthrio to the museum. He discovered it on tussocks at Burkes Pass. Presumably the adult moth, which has a spread of 5-inch, fiies about, but none has ever been captured to prove this. The only known ones have been hatched in captivity. The female has neither legs nor wings, and apparently stays in the casing all her life. To Go to Genova. Sir Georgo Elliot and Dr. Hight have been appointed representatives of New Zcalaud at tho International Economic Conference, to be held at Geneva on ,4th May. Tho conference, I which has been convened by the League j of Nations, is to bo held for tho purI pose of investigating tho economic difficulties which stand in the way of the rovival of general prosperity, and as- j certaining the best means of overcoming ihese difficulties and of preventing disputes.. The agenda of tho conference is a most comprehensive one, including tho world economic position, commerce, industry, and agriculture. Sins of Omission. "The City Council is not doing tho work one would expect from tho kind of men comprising it," said Mr. Dohcrty, a Civic League, candidate for City Council honour, at Kelburn last night. He attributed this to the fact that the majority of councillors had not tho time to givo to investigation, and wero prepared to accept the views of two or threo men, who practically dictated the work of that body. Much had not boon done. He recalled previous election "slogans" unfulfilled. A new town plan had been promised. (Councillor W. H. Bennett: "We were waiting for the Town-planning Act") What had they in place of that plan? Alterations and pullings down before the plan came out. Nothing further had been heard of tho Hataitai tunnel. Access to Northland? What had- they got? An expensive tunnel they could not use. There was to have been a lift to The Terrace, but in "S place they had "Jacob's. Ladder" at Church street, which, although it had taken six months to build, consisted of such abominably narrow steps that people ■preferred to go down Terrace Gardens. Then rates were not to be raised, but they were. Glasgow street had been expensively conditioned to receive the bitumen, and then abandoned to motorcars and weather, until much of the metal had been swept into the gutters loaded into rubbish carts, and taken to the tip, while the bitumen was spread on an unimportant adjacent street leading to the Kiosk. All that work and money had been, wasted, and there wero other places. (A lady: "Yes, at Thoi-ndou.'») City Councillors,, concludMr. Doherty, should have leisure to devote to city affairs. He had. Colonial Conference. Mr. Amery (Secretary for the Colonies) gave some particulars in a Parliamentary reply to Mr. J. T. Thomas (Derby) in the House of Commons recently regarding the Colonial Office Conference which will be held in.London in May. "Most of the non-self-gov-erning Colonies, Protectorates, and Mandated Territories," Mr. Amery states," ''will be represented either by the Governor or by a senior official. This conference will be of an experimental nature, and its primary object will be to explore the desirability of holding colonial conferences of a more, comprehensive nature at fixed intervals and to consider the possibility of setting up any other machinery to secure more effective co-operation between Colonial Governments in matters of general administration, economic development, and scicntifiic and technical research! The conference will open on 10th May, and I anticipate tha£ jfc grig. lash. f ojr

Delivery of Pood. If elected to the City Council, said Mr. J. >;. Wallace, a Civic League candidate, speaking at Brooklyn last evening, he would direct his particular attention to endeavouring to have present methods of food delivery improved, j Bread delivery, he remarked, was especi- 1 ally faulty, and the method of handling was nothing 6hort of disgraceful, and the delivery of meat and fish was not much better. Meat and fish were cooked before being eaten, and so the dangers consequent upon their careless handling were reduced, but that did not hold good with bread, which should be wrapped in proper containers before it left the bakehouse. Northland Tunnel's Fate. "What is the Northland tunnel costing the city a day"" was a question asked Civic League candidates for the City Council at Kelburn last night. "I cannot say exactly what sum it is costing the city at the present time," answered Councillor Luckie. "It was originally intended to provide access to Northland, but owing to a difficulty in construction for which councillors cannot be expected to take the responsibility, because it was an engineering matter, it became impossible to use it as a tramway tunnel. Estimates are now well advanced as to how much is required to strengthen the tunnel for its original purpose. As I was on neither committee concerned with it, I cannot say much about it. It may be costing £1200 in the matter of interest. It will be made use of when the repairs arc concluded." To an interjector: "No, no, it has not cost £50,000 so far.'' Old Lyall Bay. An old wooden signboard with the original bolts, rusted and worn, and t 1 c inscription, "Lyall Bay" in faded white letters is an interesting exhibit in the room at the Lyall Bay School in which the Lyall Bay Progressive Association meets. A printed notice below tells the reader that the board was presented to the association by the City Council in November, 1925. About fifteen years previously, it had be'en erected on a telegraph pole at the seaward end of Onepu road to indicate to passengers at the then terminus of the new tram line that they had arrived at Lyall Bay. There was, in those days, little to indicate a suburb, as Onepu (Sand) road was literally a sand road, with only two houses in its whole length. To-day, Lyall Bay is a thickly populated suburb with a population of 2500. "Big Business." '■'A man who has a £20,000 business has a very fair business to look after; if he has a £50,000 business, then he has something to be proud about," said Councillor G. A. Troup, candidate for the Mayoralty, last evening at Brooklyn. '''But the business of the Wellington City Council is equal to one hundred and twenty £50,000 businesses, one of a capital of £6,000,----000. You are asked to appoint fifteen councillors as the direc >rs of this business, and a managing director, whom I hope to be myself." (Applause.) The trading departments of the Corporation, continued Councillor Troup, were all in a very sound position, each paying its wa-, :id giving over and above that a little profit. He had been questioned as to whether it was right that those profits should be chiefly utilised each year in building up substantial reserves. To that question there was only one sound answer: reserves were essential to_ provide against the bad years that might come along, and to guard against financial burdens that, might be imposed by one or other of several possible causes. Keason for the Big Loan. \ Reference was made by Councillor J. Burns, a candidate for re-election to the City Council, speaking at Brooklyn last evening, to the proposed city loan, which, it was suggested some littlo time ago, would bo referred to electors conjointly with the municipal elections, j The position, said Councillor Burns, was that the city had grown rapidly in area, i | by the amalgamation of nearby boroughs, to an area of 16,000 acres, and from every suburb came demand upon demand for extensive and expensive works. The general fund, derived from the collection of rates, was inadequate I to meet the demands, and so it was proposed to place before electors a series of loan proposals aggregating three-quartera of a million pounds. Three general needs wero common to all outlying districts, better roads and footpaths, better transport, and better lighting. Brooklyn, he concluded, was fairly well catered for in transport, but roads, footpaths, and street lighting required attention. Those matters would bo referred to in the loan schedule, which would be placed before electors in the near future, though not on the day of the elections. Policy and Detail. The City Council should direct matters of policy,, and all matters of detail should be in the hands of responsible officers, said Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, one of the Civic League candidates for the pity Council, speakingnt Brooklyn last evening. While Wellington was a small town it was probably -veil enough that the council should concern itself with matters of detail, but Wellington had grown.beyond that stage, and its business was now so wide that the council could not deal with details and at the same time give proper consideration to policy matters. It was necessary, moreover, from tho officers' point of view, that they should be free to do their work untrammelled by the opinions of those who considered themselves experts in all things. He understood that the new city officers were at present drawing up proposals by which the city's business could be more economically carried on, leaving tho councillors more time in which to discuss real policy questions. Mr. Hislop deprecated the attempt to introduce party politics I into municipal government, which was in nowise a matter for politics, but was one of business. The city's affairs should bo conducted at the least expense and to the best advantage of the citizens; to attain those ends the business head, not the political head, was required. Sunday Trains. "If the railwayman of New Zealand aro not careful,' the Minister of Railways will soon have filched from them all their Sabbath rest," declared the Rev, G. W. Lochore (of Whangarei) at the Edendale Presbyterian Church on Sunday, when referring to the Sunday railway excursions thafwere run by the Department. "And all this has been going on and the Press of the Dominion has_ kept silent," said the preacher. "If this is what, tho Reform Government stands for, then the sooner it is swept into oblivion the better." Sunday trains to Rotorua were now frequent, and at Whangarei, where he was stationed, the Department had organised cheap trips on the Sundays to the Bay of Islands. The Sunday, instead of being, a day of quiet Sabbath calm, was now given over to pleasures and outings of all sorts. A Carelessly-Thrown Match. ' - The heat from an electrical heater outside the door of a firm dealing in 3uch things lured a lady into a sense of false security in Christehurch the other day. She had a buttonhole of artificial flowers in a paper bag, and felt her hand warm as she passed the heater. The heat became greater, however, as she went further along the street, and, glancing down, she was alarmed.to see the bag in flames. There was a burnt wax match among the fragments left, some careless person evidently having thrown it aimlessly away after lighting his pipe or cigarette. The lady's gloves ;w*r^uine4.as..^elLas

Fit For Light Work Only. In commenting upon the unemployment position, the Mayor has remarked that there appeared to be a considerable influx of men from outside districts in search of employment in Wellington, and he expressed the opinion that bona fide residents of the city who were out of employment must be given preference where there was work to be done. He had noticed also that among those who had applied to him for assistance were men who were suffering from the effects of war service. These men were not able to undertake heavy irork, but were qualified to give satisfaction in lighter work; he asked, therefore, that any citizens who had such employment to offer should communicate with him. i Tipper Air Currents. During the past month aeroplanes have flown from the aerodrome in Canterbury across the Southern Alps, and as far as Greymouth and Hokitika, passing directly over those towns at heights of from 10,000 to 15,000 feet, apparently without the townspeople being aware of the fact. During the flight, pilot b 'lloons were released with the view of securing data as to the direction and force of air currents. This information is being obtained for meteorological purposes for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Eeseareh. ' I Last Wooden Shop. The last old wooden shop in Queen street, Auckland's main business thoroughfare, is shortly to disappear. It is situated next to Tonson, Gariick, and Co.'s premises, which are soon to give place to the St. James Theatre, Pullers' new house of entertainment. The shop is said to be eighty years old, and in its time it has played varied parts as a tearoom, butcher's shop, and latterly as a bootmaker's shop. Out-! side the shop is a post to which is attached a hitching-ring for tethering horses. That, in itself, is a symbol of days that have passed. This post and the old iron hitching-ring just outside the Metropolitan Hotel in Queen street are the last souvenirs of the days before the motor came into use. Mahomet's Birthday. The unusual spectacle yesterday of a Turkish flag flying on a British ship I induced a reporter to go on board the steamer Argyllshire at Port Chalmers and inquire about its significance, telegraphs "The Post's" Dunedin correspondent. "This is the Mohammedans' Christmas Day," replied an officer who | was consulted. The steamer is manned by Lascar deck hands, firemen, and stewards, who were shipped in Calcutta. They are devout Mohammedans, and they were celebrating Mahomet's birthday, a holiday being granted for its due observance. The ceremonies included a procession to salute the sun as the source of light, warmth, and other factors of physical well-being. Every coolie bowed reverently reciting a formula of gratitude and supplication. Municipal Socialism. While most Labour candidates for the City Council would probably deny it, said Councillor Luckie at Kelburn last night, it must be borne in mind that Socialism was one of the political planks of the. party which support a majority control at the council table. In all the big centres in England where the Socialist party had succeeded in getting control of municipalities, a heavy increase of rates without compensating returns had followed. The Labour Party was bound by inflexible rules, was in fact operated from outside the council table, and while such a system might work well in Parliament, it left no openings for freedom of action at the council meetings. They might know what to expect here from what had happened in England. Taking Poplar, under Socialist control, and Fulham, under municipal reform, both working-class municipalities of almost equal population, the rates were respectively £3 13s 6d and 2s 4d, poor relief £597,507 and £18,433, number of persons receiving relief 27,414 and 2361, number of persons per 1000 receiving relief 186 and 16.3.