NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18104, 31 May 1922, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

AMATEUR WIRELESS OPERATORS. Tho number of liconecs held by amateurs in Great Britain for experiments in wireless telegraphy is 7286, of which 7000 represent/ plants for receiving messages. Tho annual revenue totals 4)3620, while the annual expenditure in connection with tho issue of licences and tho inspection of stations is about £5000. Pormiat>ion io uso wireless receiving apparatus for experimental purposes is granted with comparative freedom by tho post office, but there is a tendency in some quarters to press for the removal of reetriction of facilities for broadcasting messages, iho United States Government, on the other hand, is considering tho restriction of the uso of wireless telephony for purposes other than Government and commercial communications*. Tho number of wireless telephone receiving sets in tho United States is said to havo increased by "ver half a million in ono year, and tho entiro country has been plotted into circuits, each with a central station, so that the publio may obtain weather iorCAsts end business information as to prices and market conditions, as well as records of sermons, lectures, and entertainments.

BACK TO PALESTINE. The Colonial Oflioo states in a recent report th».t 9149 immigrants entered Palestine last year. It may bo noted that immigration is still limited to persons failing within tho following categories: — Travellers who do not intend to remain in Palestine for a period exceeding tl reo months; persons of independent means who intend to take up permanent rcsidonco in Palestine; members of professions who intend to follow their callings; wives, children, and other persons wholly dependent on residents in Palestine; persons who have definite prospects cf employment with specified employers or enterprises; persons of religious occupations, including tho class of Jews who havo come to Palestine in recent years from religious motives and who can show that they havo means of maintenance there; and returning residents. .Moslem inhabitants of Palestine appear to be perturbed over the prospect of an "invasion,' and have placed their views betoro the Colonial Secretary. In reply to the deputation, Mr. Winston Churchill declared that there could bo no question of tho British Government repudiating the obligations it had undertaken toward the Jewish people. But adequate safeguards would be provided in the interests of the non-Jewish population so that their rights would not bo prejudiced by tho establishment of the National Homo for the Jews.

NORTH AFRICAN ENTENTE. There has been a gradual, but very marked, rapprochement since tho war between Italy and Spain, writes a diplomatic correspondent in tho Daily Telegraph. Spain has treated Italy with signal generosity in such masters as the supply of essential ores and fuel, and even of financial assistance. "It is, perhaps, not surprising that this economic entente should have inclined statesmen both at Madrid and at< Rome to examino the potentialities of a political one. Both are .Mediterranean Powers, with North African and Moslem possessions, geographically situated, however, so as to preclude tho idea of any rival interests. In these circumstances, for Italy and Spain to accord to each i/ther mutual diplomatic support in colonial problems would bo a logical step. Italy, indeed, has shown, ever since the Algeciras Conference, a very natural concern regarding the Morocco problem. Indeed, she may feel that her general interests as a Mediterranean Power, and her local commcr cial interests, would warrant her admission to the proposed Tri-partito Conference between Great Britain, France, and Spain on tilie future status of Tangier."

MANDATES AND ALCOHOL. Since tho Convention of St. Germain the British Administrations in West Africa have heroically pursued a policy of prohibiting the sale of trade or common alcohol to natives and the imposition of "swinging duties" on the higher-class brands of spirits. This policy was excellent bo far as it went, observes Mr. John H. Harris, in the Manchester Guardian, and quite sound, provided that contiguous Adminstrations adopted the same policy. But the Committee on Trado and Taxation draws attention to a surprising situation; we are told that with regard to higher-class spirits France has only 5s l£d a gallon on whisky imported into tho mandated area of Togoland, as compared with a British duty of 23s in the adjoining colony of tho Gold Coast, and Ss 6d a gallon on rum, as compared with the British import duty of 40s. In Dahomey, whoso frontiers march with British Nigeria, France has a duty of 18s on gin, as compared with a British duty of 255. Nor is this all. The committee, in its report, says that trado spirits have not been prohibited in Dahomey, nor even in the mandated territory of Togoland. Tho unfortunate consequences of this situation leap to the eye. A considerable volume of trade flows over the border, the native carries his raw matorial to the market where liquor is cheapest, and while there, quite naturally, purchases parcels of manufactured goods.

TAXATION AND HEALTH. Hat-ley Street in all its history can have known few crises so acute as this one, writes the Times medical correspondent. "The tax-collector has the fees which, in better days, were spent on health; fees havo been reduced, acoommodation of every sort has been given, yet the fact remain.'? that a consultation with a physician or surgeon is rapidly becoming more than the public can face. Empty theatres aro bad enough, but empty consulting rooms at a time when many people aro only too anxious to seek expert advice mean that the public purse is cleared out. Tho permanent threat to Harley Street is of a widely different character. It can bo summed up in a sentence—wide diffusion of medical and surgical knowledge. To some extent tho war is responsible lor this, for in tho war hundreds of .young men became efficient surgeons and capable physicians. On return to general practice they carried on tho work they had begun. There can be no reasonable doubt that the future of medicine belongs to the general practitioner."

MAKING MUSEUMS PAY. British journals note in protest that the Geddes axe is hovering over the national museums. It threatens, for example, the free institution in Bloomsbury with an admission charge. If it falls then on four days of tho wcok tho public will have to pay to enter the British Museum, which always hitherto has been open to them gratis by right of Act of Parliament. And at other museums they will lose the privilogo of free entrance which they at present enjoy by an act of Whitehall grace. It is therefore a matter of popular concern whether the economies likely to be achieved by the committee's projected changes are commensurate with the inconveniences and worse that these changes may involve, says a Morning Post correspondent. Unless, says tho report in effect, there is a saving on tho warding staff the cost of upkeep must to a certain extent bo mot by this entrance charge on certain (say four) days of the week. The authorities aro probably unanimous that of these alternatives tho Utter is tho lesser evil. Better a temporery reduction of public educational opportunity than a decline of possible lasting cffect. in museum efficiency. A reduction of public opportunity it is to bo, then, four days of the week, with a resulting gain to the Treasury of a speculative £10,000 a year.