WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Northern Advocate, 18 December 1923, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

RULE OF THE FOOTPATH.

KEEP TO THE LEFT

(Special to "Northern Advocate") WELLINGTON, This Day.

The new by-law of the Wellington City Council requiring people to keep to the left on the cty footpaths has just come into force. How long Wellington has been discussing this matter in its customary apathetic fashion it would be difficult to say. In the earlier days of settlement "keep to the left" was the unvirsal rule, both on the road and on the footpath, but in the early nineties some municipal busy-body returned from the United States with the story that the Americans "kept to the right" and succeeded in persuading the local authorities it was the proper thing to do, so far as the footpath was concerned. Then followed years of confusion, arising out of one rule existing for the road and another for the footpath, and an inevitable increase in accidents. Now Wellington, having discussed the matter in a desultory fashion for two or three years, is back to the old rule. A large force of police will be employed to see. as the authorities put it, that the new by-law is observed from the first and that the stream of traffic is kept moving. There is to be no trifling with the municipal edict. DAIRY CONTROL. The promoters of the measure made such a fuss over the Dairy Produce Export Bill while it remained suspended between heaven and earth in Parliament that it was expected when the farmers had an opportunity to put the finishing touches to the legislation they would exercise their privilege to the fullest possible extent. But, strange to say, once the Act was on the Statute Book their enthusiasm for its (beneficent provisions began to wane. First of al lthey had to say whether the Act should come into effective operation or whether it should remain among r,he State archives merely as a monument to their exhausted energy. Barely twofifths of the people entitled to vote troubled to save it from oblivion. The poll for the election of nine members of the Board to administer the measure has closed and it is found that out of 33,000 odd persons entitled to vote fewer than 20,000 have returned postal ballot papers, unless some of the envelopes contain more than one paper. It seems, therefore, that after all the campaigning on one side and the other by interested people a majority of the dairy farmers do not think the whole business worth the stroke of a pen. THE RAILWAYS. The railway returns for the first, peven months of the financial year show a substantial improvement upon the figures for the corresponding period of last year, but the critics still insist that the best possible results are not yet being obtained from the lines and that radical changes in the methods of management are required. Their general contention is that the railways are beinc larsclv used to exploit the set- | *' • • tiers in the older producing districts and not at all to assist the. -pioneers in the backblocks. The foundation for | the indictment is found in the high charges maintained on the paying lines ! and the reduction or discontinuance of services on the non-paying lines. It is complained that the idea of making the State railways a stimulant to settlement has been abandoned altogether and that they now are run a? might be the most sordid of private enterprises. This, of course, is scarcely fair. At

best the railways are not paying 1 per cent upon the accumulated cost of their construction, and their charges do not compare unfavourably with those imposed on the Australian lines. What is wanted more than anything else is the consistent development of a sound business policy.