NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19549, 31 January 1927, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

"GREATER" CITY GOVERNMENT. Although the Greater Brisbane Coun cil has been in existence little more than 12 months, the results of its administration have so impressed the new Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Mr. S. J. Mor roll, that he has declared he " would like to see a clean sweep made in Melbourne and a new body created." His enthusiasm has been enthusiastically ap plauded by the Melbourne Age, which declares that conditions in the city's metropolitan area are sufficiently deplorable to constitute *» scandal. " The administrative ch'aos which has so long pre vailed, the administrative conflicts which have so frequently recurred, are a reproach to any community hic.li "ecta to b< possessed of the capacity to manage its affairs," it says. " There are numerous essential things that ought to be done But they have been left so long undone that citizens are filled with despair; they feel there is no course open to them save stoically to endure. Melbourne's civic ares, has great 1 extend 1 its population has greatly increased; but her municipal governmental machinery has not kept pace. Entirely because of past indifference metropolitan Melbourne is now standing impotent before her administra tive burdens Nothing will remove these burdens satisfactorily except some new administrative machine. After every form of substitute has been surveyed, the impartial citizen is certain to decide that a directly elected Greater Melbourne Council is the administrative body best suited to the metropolitan need Despite all the endeavours of vested interests to discount it, such a. council is calculate'' to achieve the highest efficiency while operating in harmony with the bedrock principles of democncy."

RURAL HOUSING IN BRITAIN. Legislative provision has been made in Britain for grants to assist in the reconditioning of small rural houses, the scheme comprising not merely the reconstruction of houses that have become uninhabitable by process of decay, but the provision of reasonable amenities in the case of houses and cottages that are now in occupation. "Many town-dwellers think that the slum is an urban disease. There is no greater mistake," says the Times. "The urban local authorities are ever vigorously striving to eliminate slum conditions and are in, at any rate, the position to insist on a pure water supply and adequate sanitation. The worst slums are in country villages, where often enough the water supply is tainted or even absent and the sanitary conditions unspeakably bad. A vast number of country cottages provide the worst possible environment for the young child. There are leaking roofs, are small windows, many of which are never opened even if, as is not always the case, they are made to open; there is every opportunity for dis ease to find a • footing and to make progress. Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain, too often rears children who bear on their pallid faces the ■ whole record of slumdom. That there has been some improvement in recent years is, hap pily, certain, but that is due to the edu cation of the mothers, who, in ever-in-creasing measure, are fighting for the health and the lives of their children under grievous conditions.. Many thousands of cottages are capable of reconditioning. They can be made fully wind and weather proof; they can be supplied with pure water; the sanitary arrangements can be made good at small cost; the windows can be enlarged and free tc let in the life-giving air and sunlight. All this can be done at small cost, while the building of new cottages—too often very badly built on damp foundations without damp-courses—is an economic impossibility so far as the private owner is concerned."

A MONARCHY FOR FRANCE. Writing in the London Outlook Comte Louis de Blois, Senator for Maine et Loire, contends monarchical restoration in Franca would aid not only France, but England, and help the peace and tranquility of the entire world. The worst danger for England and for the British Empire, he says, lies in the slow drift of France toward an advanced Socialism, not far removed from Communism, with effects felt not only across the English Channel, but across the Mediterranean and in Africa and Asia. He calls attention to the fact that the elections of May 11, 1924, established in the French Chamber of Deputies a majority in which the Socialist influence has been predominant, and though the contrary is oft<=r» affirmed. Socialism always tends toward revolutionary action in France. In countries blessed with a monarchy there exists a beneficent hereditary power which is the judge of final appeal and the supreme expression of public good. "In July, 1926. numerous Republicans' were secretly thinking of this hereditary power, superior to the blind suffrages of the masses," says the writer. "Some even made open declaration of their sentiments, in a moment of exaltation and horror—with considerable risk, it must be acknowledged, for in France the monarchy has against it prejudices that are widespead and teua cious. Many p.eoplo wrongly imagine that, in the words of Emile Bure. 'monarchy would mean domination by cure and chateau.' It is these prejudices which form the most serious obstacle against it.s re-establishment. They are, however, entirely without foundation. The Due de Guise, the actual pretender, cousin and b?cther-yi-law of the Due d'Orleans, is an essentially modern prince; h© is open-minded, interested in all questions of social amelioration, with a weli-halanbed and reflective intelligence, Madame the Duchesse de Guise is a princess of great charm, brilliant in intellect, endowed with 3 wide, exquisite and subtle culture. The Due and the Duchesse de Guise pre sent themselves to us as a very modern King and Queen, accessible to sill, very adaptable to the exigencies of the present day."