NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

The Swing Back of the Pendulum?

A tour of ten South Auckland electorates was completed at Thames on Thursday by a party of Reform members of Parliament, headed by tho Leader of tho Opposition (the Right Hon. J. G. Coatos). Tho Thames, correspondent of the "Auckland Herald" states that at all points the attendances greatly exceeded tho expectations of local committees, and in at least ono case a larger hall was hurriedly engaged to accommodate an interested audience. This enthusiasm led visiting speakers to say it merely confirmed a deep-rooted impression of "the swing buck of the pendulum of public opinion to Reform. '' At all centres visited votes of confidence in Mr. Coates as leader and in the Reform Party were curried. A Graceful Gesture. "I have ono vory pleasant experience to report, "Captain Thor Hannevig told an "Otago Daily Times" reporter after tho arrival of tho Norwegian steamer June at Port Chalmers with a partcargo of phosphates from Nauru. Captain Haunovig is accompanied by his wife and little girl. Tho very pleasant experience took place at Lyttelton, where the waterside workers brought bunches of flowers on board for the captain's wife and daughter. Hint for New Zealand. A delightfully humorous touch enlivened the sermon, which the Rev. R. O. Roberts delivered in the Mount Eden Congregatioual Church on Sunday. Mr. Roberts, who comes from Wales, referred to the early days of faith in the principality, and also to tho pre-Ite-formation period, when religious observance was at a low obb in many parts of Great Britain. So lax had both ministers and congregations become that, out of over 10,000 churches, tho complete sorvico was faithfully observed in only about 2000. It was no uncommon thing for a parishioner who desired to hear a sermon to have to walk 20 miles or more for that privilege. ■ There was an ancient statute wliicli enacted that a parishioner who failed to attend his parish church at least ouco on a Sunday could bo fined, and the fine generally took the form of a sheep. "If tho samo law applied to-day," said Mr. Roberts, "it would not be hard to stock a fair-sized sheep run ix\ Now Zealand,''

Liners Pass at Panama. By a somewhat unusual coincidence, the New Zealand Shipping Company's two big new motor liners, Bangitiki and Eangitata, paßsed through tho Panama Canal on the samo'day. Tho Bnngitiki left Southampton on 14th February for Wellington, being due here about 19th March, and the Eangitata, with tho lato .Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, and Lady Alice Fergusson on board, sailed from Wellington on tho afternoon of Saturday, Bth February. Both vessels arrived at tl.o canal on Thursday morning and continued ou their respective journeys, later in the day. Japanese Press Enterprise. Newspapers iv Japan, said Sir. W. B. Matheson, at Now Plymouth the other day, in his lecture "Our Asiatic Neighbours^'" have some of them a circulation of over 1,000,000 copies a day. The type for these papers is all hand set from a selection containing over 4000 characters. To illustrate the linking of ancient and modern methods, he said that at one ,meeting they wore snapped by a Press photographer, who enclosed his ncgativo in a quill which ho fastened to the leg of a pigeon, and then tossed the bird out of the Ivvindow. One and a half hours later tho picture was reproduced in the newspaper. Fro. the Wrong End. ! The opinion that the Government was tackling the unemployment question "from the wrong end" was oxpressed by Mr. A. M. Samuel, Reform M.P. for Thames, in commenting at Paeroa on the report of the Unemployment Investigation Committee. Mr. Samuel considered that tho only solution was in using unemployed workers to bring unproductive lands, of which there .were hundreds of square miles in tho Dominion, to a productive state. His scheme was to engage groups of unemployed workers under proper supervision to clear and make such lands ready for settlement. When lands were brought to a productive state each worker should be given the option of acquiring the particular piece of ground he had been interested in. Assistance could bu given by tho State in tho• way i of purchasing stock and necessary implements for good farming.