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Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18600, 30 December 1920, Page 4

"We are sorry that Miss Jessie Mackay discovered a sombre note in our comments on the Scottish liquor poll. We had n.o intention of suggesting pessimism ; on the contrary, we are pleased with the determination of the great majority of the Scottish people to retain their liberty. For while no-licens© is not prohibition, everybody knows that prohibition of liquor is the ultimate aim of those who campaigned so' strenuously on behalf of no-license in Shetland during recent months. But while we dislike pessimism, especially as our correspondent says, in New Year week, we quite fail to see how any prohibitionist can extract from the Scottish figures tho jubilation that she expresses. After many years of preparation and a most vigorous, enterprising campaign, the poll has been taken, with what result? Tim cancelling of one license out of every hundred ! More than half the people were, indeed, so indifferent as to not demand polls. Of the rest, 40 per cent—less than 20 per cent of the whole—favoured no-license. Miss Mackay says, “ nearly two-fifths of the Scottish people voted no-license.” We make 40 per cent of half one-fifth. This means that four-fifths refused to have anything to do with no-lioense, except to oppose it—truly a significant verdict by “ a nation pre-eminent for deep reflection and lightning action ” !

A correspondent asks: “How is it that the Auckland coal-dealers went to the Board of Trad© for permission to raise the price of coal whereas the Christchurch dealers made an increase without permission?” Our reply to this question is that wo do not know. W© doubt if anybody knows. However, wo can see no particular reason why ,a coal-dealer should go hat in hand to the Board of Trad© to hare his priees fixed. There is no law that requires him to do this. Gas companies do not ask permission to raise their charges. The Railway Department, so far as we are aware, did not. allow the Board of Trade to interfere in the arrangement of the increased schedule of charges. Nor did the Post and lislegraph Department. Nor do shipping companies, banks, and the majority of people who may bo disposed to give another turn to tho screw ©very now and then.' Millers and bakero must, wo believe, abide by the decision of tho Board of Trade, and some coal-dealers seem to think they ate required to submit their price-ljpts to that body* But'no intelligent rules govern the situation.

Tt is satisfactory to learn that the New Zealand Institute has been sufficiently encouraged by the results of the Science Congress held in Christchurch early in 1919, to arrange for a gathering of tlio tame kind next year. The second series of meetings, at the invitation of the Manawatu Philosophical Society, will be held at Palmerston North from January 26 to January 28, and the Council of the Institute, guided largely, no doubt, by experience gained in Christchurch has prepared a programme not only of scientific papers, but also of public lectures, by moans of which .people who havo no tirao to go deeply into scientific problems will be brought into dose touch, with modern science and scientific thought. A notable feature of the Christchuroh Congress was an effort by many who took part in it—a highly successful effort—to throw fresh light on economic problems and problems that may" bo said to he of a work-a-day character. A Science Congress, presumably, is intended to deal mainly with pure science, but it is hoped that the New Zealand Institute, in conducting the biennial gatherings it has established, as far as possible will_ develop- the other brandies of usefulness.

A suggestion by Mr D. .Tenness, of the Victoria, Memorial Museum; Ottawa, that New Zealanders should study the Maoris more thoroughly tfian they have ueen studied in the past, will recommend itself to all who are interested in the Maori race. Admirable .work in ethnology has been done inf New Zealand, particularly by early students, and ethnological articles'in the. “Journal of the Polynesian Society,” published in New Plymouth by enthusiasts, and. in the “ Transactions of the New jftaland Institute,” hold a high place in the world’s ethnological literature. As Mr Jenriess states, however, the time.has come for more accurate and intensive study. The Dominion Museum in AYellington began work in this direction about two years ago, but the field of research offered by the Maoris is still a rich one. Full and reliable information should be obtained of the different physical types represented in the rnoe, and the phonograph might be used further than it has been in recording old incantations, songs, laments, which, aro largely- traditional and historical.