QUERIES AND QUANDARIES

NZ Truth, Issue 979, 30 August 1924, Page 6

QUERIES AND QUANDARIES

"Truth" Would Like To Know —

Whether the gasworks-owning local bodies who have "the wind lip" because of the coming of hydro-electric-ity will get level by adulterating the article they sell; and how much air is already sold as gas at so much per? Whether. Wellington City will ever recover from the curse of narrow streets placed on it at its birth (despite the protest m 1840 of Felton Ma,tthew) ; ~ and whether our newer generation of public men are not ?iS tlameable as the pioneers m allowing the old Te^Aro railway station site to remain as a barrier, * cutting off the reclaimed land streets from their proper connection with Wakefleld Street and Courtenay Place? ' Whether the construction of the tramway loop now m progress via Johnston Street has not put the final stopper into the city's "bottle-neck" (between Stewart Dawson's corner and the Queen's Wharf ) and whether traffic needs will not before long compel the driving- of a tramway tunnel from' the broader part of Lambton Quay, under the Terrace, to Upper Willis Street? Whether the increasing losses m fidelity insurance m the United States (25 per cent, of fidelity premiums m 1921, 34 per cent, m 1923) are indicative of a world-wide increase m business defalcations? V What the farmers will think of Massey's direct attack at Levin on inflated land values and on 1 any; artificial means (such as . the moratorium) of holding them up? Whether the Post Office Savings Bank authorities will welcome the proposal of A. A. Ransom (M.P. for Pahiatua) that the State Advances Department should recruit its finances by' issuing short-dated 5 per cent, bonds; what proportion of the State Advances- Department's f unds .is already drawn from Post Office Savings Bank deposits; and whether Savings Bank depositors will continue to be content with the rate of interest the bank pays them? Whether the Welfare League's mission .against State interference with Commerce and : trade will be helped by Minister Downie, Stewart's State brick works theories? " ' Why— seeing that both boot, manufa cturers and boot retailers m New " "abhor shoddy"— the Government cannot deal with, the matter by prohibiting import? , ; Whether travellers ,m the Petone trains j who see motdrs outpacing Coates's engines (quite as a matter of coursje) on the Hutt Road will feel much surprise* if the casualty rate on the bitumen surface is doubled; and | how long it will be before -motor traffic m Cambridge Terrace and : some other smooth surface streets m the city provide a few first-class' "accidents"? What excuse there is for the Government's' belated announcement that it will hot pay the £ 1 for £ 1 subsidy on radium •subscriptions — an announcement that leaves . some voluntary movements short of their objective — and why the Government was not sincere about the matter ,m : the first place?' : ' ■■ ' '■■''■■ ■•■;•=■-.'■. ; ' ;.'.- : .'- :■ •.■• -■