BY THE WAY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14977, 24 April 1909, Page 4

BY THE WAY.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. On Wednesday next the much-de-bated question, " Thursday or Saturday," will be settled at the poll. Meantime the advocates of both days are rallying their forces, and fighting strenuously to ensure victory. There can be no doubt that the employers aro almost unanimously in favour of Thursday, and it is hardly less certain that the bulk of the employees would like to see Saturday made the early closing day. This is a question of too much importance to be lightly considered, and 6hop should endeavour to look at it from the standpoint not of their personal predilection in preference merely, but from that also of the probable consequences to the employers. Of course, the interests) of both parties are, to a large extent, identical, and if the employers should suffer in consequence of the substitution of Saturday, this must inevitably affect those in their service. Reports from other places where the change has been made to Saturday are somewhat conflicting. In some centres the Saturday half-holiday appears to have answered satisfactorily enough; in others it would seem to have been a failure. There is no saying with any degree of certainty how Saturday would suit Christchurch. The change if made, must be largely in the nature of an experiment, and it is for the voters to say whether or not the present time is exactly the very best that could be selected for the venture.

The gaol chaplain at Auckland, the Rev E. C. Budd, holds sensible views regarding youthful offenders. In a sort of ''open"letter" to the Minister of Justice he says: " For lads of twelve or fourteen and upwards wo meed a reformatory ship. To send these lads on board ship would be far better than to send them to the common gaol. ... If wo can manage to divert this constant stream of first offenders from a career of idleness to one of honest industry we shall have gone a long way to lesson crime and improve things generally. In the treatment of youthful offenders the present method is stupid and harmful. . . . Concentrate attention on the younger men. They have life before them and immense possibilities for good." The reformatory ship has proved a conspicuous success at Home, and has been the mean 6 of converting many thousands of idle, vicious and criminal boys into good and useful men. The discipline is sharp, but salutary. It is. in fact, precisely what these young fellows want, and infinitely better than that of the gaol, ordinary reformatory or industrial home. One rarely or never hears of the escapo of boys committed to a training ship. They are too well looked after. Decidedly the experiment, which lias answered so admirably in the Old Country, is worth trying here.

At Invercargill, a day or two ago, it was sought to'have a young woman, a confirmed drunkard, committed to some institution where sho could receive skilled treatment, but because sho had not had three convictions recorded against her for drunkenness, arid was not, therefore, an habitual drunkard in. the eye of the law, the Magistrate was powerless to do anything save impose a fine, with the alternative of two months' imprisonment, the fine to be remitted provided the woman consented to stay for twelve months in the Mount Magdala Home. This is a very unsatisfactory state of things. Only a few months ago an unfortunate man, a Christchurch resident, was similarly charged at the local Police Court, and bego-ed that he might be 6ent to Pakatoa Island. The Magistrate expressed regret at his inability to comply with the request because the man had not been three . times convicted,, and he frankly advised him to " go and get drunk again," in order that he might qualify s>r Pakatoa. Surely such oases as these* point to the urgent need for some amendment of the law. It should be within the discretion of the Bench

to commit persons to inebriate institutions irrespective of the number of convictions for drunkenness against them. In any case, such places as Mount Magdala Home, admirable as they no doubt; are in many respects, are wholly unsuitable for the reception _ and scientific treatment of dipsomania. To subject a patient to enforced abstinence from liquor while at the same time withholding the proper treatment of the disease which lies in these cases at the root of the trouble, is as cruel as it is futile.

According to an Adelaide daily (quoted by the " Lyttelton Times " on Wednesday last), there does not appear to be much likelihood of any great development in the export of South Australian grapes to New Zealand. The high cost of packing and the competition of Victoria are alleged as reasons for this. But there is another reason, and that is the inferior quality of the Australian grapes so far shipped to New Zealand. In Adelaide, luscious muscatels, each berry from an inch to an inch and a quarter in length and of exquisite flavour, are obtainable at twopence a pound. Such Australian grapes as are usually retailed in New Zealand, at prices ranging from eightpence to a shilling per lb, would not command any sale at all in Australia. They are small, flavourless and insipid. Now Zealand fought long and strenuously to have Australian grapes admitted, and now that they aro admitted, generally speaking they are hardly worth eating. Henco the poor demand. There is no reason why the best Australian table-grapes should not bo retailed in this country at sixpence, or sevenponce a pound, and still leave a sufficiently wide margin of prone to pay Prowers and exporters. But there is little prospect of an increased trade in Australian grapes here under existing conditions.