QUERIES AND QUANDARIES

NZ Truth, Issue 985, 11 October 1924, Page 6

QUERIES AND QUANDARIES

"Truth" Would Like To Know-—

; Does endurance piano -playingr pay from a showman's point of view.' " is said that about £70 was taken at the' doors at Montecino's test m Wellington last week.; Out of that amount would have to be paid shop rent, assistants' wages, medical and legal expenses and other incidentals. Whether all law-abiding folk will not express approval of the action or Magistrate Page m refusing to order suppression of publication of essential details m a case m which a Manawatu medico was . charged with failing to supply accurate returns to the Incometax Department? Whether it should not be made compulsory for solicitors to at once report to the proper authorities receipt from fellow-practitioners of every letter that savors,, of blackmail? Or would such a. rule result m the aforementionedS "proper authorities" (m such case made and provided) being snow-ed-under? When will the chronic evaders of income-tax wake up to the fact that the Tax Department is out after their scalps— -and, incidentally, out after revenue? Whether it is true that the Rimutaka railway deviation has been postponed for four years to see whether one of the principal natural obstacles to it (named Coleman Phillips) will be removed by effluxion of time? "Truth" is backing the old 'un, whose fixity of purpose is about the only stable thing m our public life. How much extra money was obtained from curious persons who passed by the Montecino piano-playing per-formance-last week and. were influenced by the repeated reiteration of the official announcer that "This is an absolutely genuine, performance: 'Truth's' representatives are oh the premises day and night?" We should like 'to add that the voluntary supervisors from "Truth's" staff paid for admission. They were uninvited and, no doubt, unwelcome guests, but they made no' attempt to-stop the "record" -breaker's endeavor to justify his claims. The his obstacle was Nature. ■ What was the brand of cigarette which is stated to have* . probably caused the explosion at the Avondale tote house and which must have smouldered at lea-st three hours before the report was heard? And would it not be the greatest boon to smokers if this line was put on' the market? i , Why there is so much difference m the various clocks about Auckland, and why there should not be some system of synchronising such time pieces at an early hour daily, so as not to mislead the public? If and when the Auckland City Council intends to invite tenders for the supply of the new approved type of taxi meter, and if they will be available by the appointed date? Whether our Official Labor Party will cable congratulations to Ramsay Mac Donald on his declaration that Communism is the product of Tsarism, war and brutality? "As such," he said, "we have nothing to do with it." Have our Labor frifends who ridicule the idea of Communists white-anting the Labor movement, taken note of the decision of the British Labor Party's conference which, by 3,185,000 votes t0' 193, refused a Communist application for affiliation and also decided by 2,456,000 votes to 654,000 that no .jmember of the Communist Party should be eligible for endorsement as a Labor candidate for Parliament or any local authority?

Whether, at long last, one Wellington paper has decided to drop the use of the horrible word "Gents"? But is "Gets" any improvement? And whether the same paper was being" sarcastically when.it referred to a "Dixie Jazz Band" as a "Disiie Jass Band"'? Both "Gets" p and "Dizie" appeared m neighboring Advertisements, so perhaps the Jazz was again responsible. . Whether the writer of an article m a daily paper appealing for the remarking of city- footpaths with a chalk line is anxious, to restore the old-time methods of testing the sobriety of pedestrians of the post-banquet type? Is Mayor Wright unduly optimistic m predicting that Wellington will have the Mangahao power available m the j Empire City?