CHRISTCHURCH NEWS NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13656, 27 July 1906, Page 6

CHRISTCHURCH NEWS NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

OURISTCHURCH, July 25. "At present,"- said the city surveyor the other day, " we have only countrv roads in Christclmrch." Most visi'tors to 'Christchurch will echo an emphatic "Hear, hear." The time was when a city surveyor put the streets inlo order a discriminating use of Ihe tarring system made them more or less smooth and fairly clean. But a new order of things has been instituted, and the slreeis of Christchurch to-day are Ihe filthiest, the most, uneven, and the most generally disreputable in the colony. Theyare covered in slush whenever i'l rains. They are full of depressions and hills at all times, and they are generally a disgrace to a progressive community. All sorts of excuses have 'been advanced for the condition of the streets. The ex-Mayor pleaded the shortage of metal and the difficulty of obtaining supplies as the reason for the delay in getting them into order, and the whole, council sheltered itself behind the statement that the work of tramway construction had so cut them up that it was impossible to put them right for the winter. Now, the engineer tells us that they wore both wrong, and that neither a sufficiency of metal nor a cessation of tramway construction work will get_ tho strcels into order. With the Exhibition coming on, this is serious,

Truth publishes the following article, which explains itself:—"lt is the habit of the Government, press to refer to Opposition journals as the Conservative newspapers, and the organs of crusted Toryism. Some time ago this' organ of 'crusted Toryism' started a column for workers. It gave a leading representative of tho workers the free and unrestricted right to discuss labour subjects from the labour point of view in its columns. But mark what follows. Our contributor, as is well known, is employed in tho Government railway service, and the following circular has now ' been despatched to every member of the service:— m ~ r , Wc,lin S ton . 30 'h June, 1906. To all Members of the Government Railway Service. Members Contributing Articles to Press and ... Magazines. Attention has been directed to the practice of mombera of the railway service in contributing to the press and magazine articles on various subjects, for. which payment has been received. j. This is contrary to the regulations, and must be discontinued. T. Eonayne, ' General Manager N.Z., Railways. Acknowledge receipt by note at foot. This circular, which has fortunately missed its mark, is aimed directly at 'our contributor, whose Radical doctrines are. unpalatable to the Government. . But we may ask which is the Liberal and which is the Conservative side—the side which permits free discussion of political subjects from every point of view, or the side which attempts to. gag it? The contributor in question is Mr J. A. M'Culloujjli, a leader of the Political Labour League."