WELLINGTON TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17663, 27 December 1920, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

GOSSIP OF THE WtfcK. SEASONABLE RESOLUTIONS. THE MAIN ROADS POLICY. [BY. IUtCKAI'K.-OW.S- COEEESPOM)ENT.] WELLINGTON. Saturday. This is the season of the year when wo are all supposed to be making good resolutions for the coming 12 .months. In these degenerate days, perhaps wo do not worry about these tilings as we ought, though most of us would be willing to 1 supply other people with New Year re-solves'-that profiteers should not profit, ' and that workers should work, for instance. However, the press has lately recorded two seasonable good resolutions ' for the New Year. Tho Minister for ' Public Works has lately announced that after the holidays the long-promised Mam 1 Roads Bill is to be drafUd and circulated 1 to local bodies. Years ago ono Of the newspapers here made a collection of the t unredeemed promises of local government [ and main roads reform. It began some- , where about 1890, and extended onwards with almost annual extracts from Govcrf nor's Speeches in a depressing procession that could be brought down to the pre- • sent day. The difficulties in tho way are | considerable with so many jealous local - bodies to be appeased, but everybody will ' hope that Mr. Coates will at last achieve , something where so many of his predei cessors have failed. I War Memorial Conundrum. ;' Tho other good resolution is that of the ' "National War Memorial Committee to J select the site lor tho memorial after the I New Year. The committee has vouchf safed very little information to the public I as to its methods of procedure. The only . really definite thing is that the memorial is to be in Wellington. Various sugges--5 tions have been put forward as to the | form it should take, ranging from a i national gallery to a column un the top ■ of Mount Victoria. The bulk of feeling r seems to he in favour of a monument ! pure and simple, but there is a good deal i i of obscurity as to the intentions of the . committee, and whether the idea is first i to select the site and afterwards decide on i the nature of the memorial, or vice* versa, , The National Viewpoint. In the old days the annual battle for Pubiio Works expenditure used to be North v. South Island. The progress of time has seen the southern portions of the North Island brought up to the South ' Island stage of development, while tho - northern districts have still to be fully 1 opened up. This has shifted the venue, t and the Wellington Central Progress i League is hotly contending that its (lis- ! trict should receive a bigger proportion •of the expenditure. One of the most ' persistent advocates of development - works in this portion of tho Dominion , is Mr. Coleman Phillips, of Carterton, t Mr. Phillips, it is worth noting, while » battling hard lor the Rimutaka deviation • via Wainui-o-mata, dissociates himself in I a newspaper article this week from any : grumbling about the relative share of the a different provincial districts. "Far more ' money," he writes. " wants to Ofl spent s in the unopened North than anywhere i else in New Zealand. Tho Auckland ! railway station is worsa than ours in Weif lington. . . . Mr. Coates has not s spent more money than he should have 3 done in the Auckland Province, and our s worthy Prime Minister is playing the I game to-day, as he has played it right i through the war. For the past 43 years i I have lived in the Wairarapa, away from ' Auckland, but I still take my hat off to th* Queen City of the North, and say 1 she richly flfservSS all the public funds I we can give her." i 1 Architecture and Earthquakes, 1 The recently recorded occurrence of '• severe earthquakes in various parts of the I world lends a topical interest to an ari tide on volcanic research contributed by ' Dr. T. A. Jaggar, the Hawaiian expert • to the New Zealand Journal of Science - and Technology. Dr. Jaggar says that ; in New Zealand great volcanic disasters, i such as the earthquake at Wellington in j 1855, and the Tarawora. eruption in 1886, ' may bo prepared for and expected at long > intervals. New Zealand engineers, in his , opinion, would do well to make exhaustive ■ studies of what happened to the various structures of wood and masonry in (san Francisco, Guatemala, and Jamaica. He points out .that Kingston has an exccl- - lent new construction law framed in 1907. - It would be an interesting field for inquiry ! fo learn to whit extent the earthquake 1 risk is affecting the present development t of architecture in New Zealand. It is so t many years since we had really severe .' shakes that it is doubtful whether ' the matter is much more present to the • minds of architects than to those of most ) of their clients. Dr. Jaggar observes that . as earthquake centres lie east and west 3 of New Zealand tidal waves from off-shore - earthquakes aie to be expected from time ' to time. In tho thermal district wc have i " rare treasurers of nature's building— 3 shafts many miles deep ready dug in this I comer of the globe, and ready to yield t priceless information when once they are • harnessed for the benefit of humanity. 1 ' f The doctor adds also that no one can assert that they may not yet be hnrnessed f to furnish power or light or heat. 3 » t Dental Scheme Supported. In the fierce controversy raging round I the school dental scheme it is interesting 1 to find support forthcoming from the • local School Committees' Association. The 1 association says: "We do net think for • one moment chit the scheme is perfect, f but at the same time we believe that it ! is tho best that (an be done at the present. I time." It has been emphatically asserted ■ on the other side in the controversy that it would be improper to allow denial work on school children except by dentists who have undergone the four years' course in Dunedin. Attention has been directed here, however, to the fact that if such a qualification were required of dentists before they were allowed to operate on the children's elders most of those now in- ■ the profession would be out pi business, i An inspection of the Dentists' Register, i as' published in the Gazette, shows that ■ there are about VSO registered dentists in > New Zealand. Of these about 560 were i entered after examination at the end of j three years' apprenticeship, between 60 ' and 70 were registered without other > qualification than the fact that they had ' been in practice for a certain number of i years, and about" 70 came in on miscelI laneous grounds. This accounts roughly f for 700 of the total, and of the remain- • der thero are under 40 in possession of • university degrees, and a few -who have I served apprenticeships of over three years, i These figures aft) alleged by their compiler i to indicate that despite the remarkably - efficient dental sen-ice the Dominion ■ possesses the four years' university course ' as a general Qualification still remains an • ideal of the distant future. / Ex-Soldiers' Empire tfoni6rence. Field-Marshal Lord Haig is to preside at an Empire conference of ex-soldiers' organisations to be held in South Africa in February. The New Zealand returned i Soldiers' Association has selected two i- delegates, but desires Government supEC port toward the expense of sending them ! ' so far abroad, It is suggested that tho d accumulations in the canteen fund, still • awaiting distribution, should be drawn on for the purpose. This is a reminder that there are still miscellaneous war-time funds whose ultimate disposal has yet to • bo cleared up. New Zeslanders who ■" served under the Admiralty will be interested to learn that some "of their nume ber have lately received tl|ir sham of s- naval prize monev, the sums apparently rancing from £20 to £40, according to if length of actual sea service. IS .—" ' —-»