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Otago Daily Times, Issue 18320, 10 August 1921, Page 4

It would perhaps be more strange than otherwise were the ear not greeted by passing rumour of speculation in tickets for important football fixtures of local interest. Discussing the ethics of these transactions must involve some rather nice distinctions. It is of interest to note that “ gambling in sports tickets ” is said to bo increasing in the Old Country. It is pointed out that so limited is the accommodation on many important sports grounds that tickets for some of the big events are bought 'in large quantities by speculators and resold at high figures to the public. Tennis, polo, and cricket are mentioned as providing the latest instances of this form of gambling, and there is report of cases in which tickets were offered for the Wimbledon games.up to £25. Officials at Hurlingham and at Wimbledon have had under consideration this ticket gambling or “ premium ” problem as it is called. It does not appear that their deliberations have been very effectual. At Wimbledon it seems there is accommodation for less than 4000 people, And, as all England is interested in lawn tennis to-day, holders of tickets have no difficulty in disposing of them, while the club officials, who are not anxious to charge the public high prices, have to look on and see outsiders reap the harvest. While they do make some effort in the direction of the suppression of this ticket-profiteer-ing, they are apparently powerless, and ha/ve to admit that those who carry on such speculations arc quite within their legal rights. It is of course only in the case of the demand for tickets exceeding the supply that the speculators have their opportunity, and it is just under these circumstances that they are a> nuisance, since, not having personally pernaps the slightest interest in the games, they deprive other persons who are so interested of the opportunity of securing admission at i reasonable cost. Tims, morally, an inj istice is perpetuated.

A recent message from Paris seems to bistify the belief that a use beneficial to the community has been found for poison gas. It k reported that it was circulated in a sewer, with very successful results in the destruction of rats. All rats do not, of course, live or have their headquarters in sewers, but the popularity among them of these underground resorts, both as abodes and as avenues of communication, is unquestionable. In New Zealand we know nothing of a crusade against rats such as must needs be kept going in the Old Country and elsewhere, where the cities are vast and the population dense, though we may learn through experience the desirability of greater vigilance in self-protection. One amusing suggestion which is the outcome of the war against rats in England is that rathunting should be made a fashionable sport. This has inspired a facetious contributor to the Daily Chronicle to observe : “Those who have never been able to afford to ride to hounds will find it easy to walk to ferrets, and, when all tho equipment required is a cricket stump for the reception of the rat as he emerges from his hole, we shall all meet as equals at the covert side.” A sport, he goes on to say, should be picturesque as well as democratic and dangerous. Hunting has its pink coat, cricket its white flannels, tennis its jumpers donned between the sets, and the rat hunt should lend itself to similar decorative effects. An old book is cited as authority for the information that a scarlet coat embroidered with yellow mice devouring wheat sheaves was once the official uniform of the Royal rat-catcher in England. But it is to be feared that there is no hope for the revival of such glories. The rat is regarded very seriously as an enemy in the Old World, and there is nothing -romantic about poison gas as a weapon to his undoing, oven were human nature quite capable of contemplating efforts at his extermination as sport.

It is not uncommon for a local body to resent having to meet a levy on the part of an external rating authority, but it is unusual for it to carry its objection to the stage of flat and obstinate rebellion. Such, however, has been the attitude of the Poplar Borough Council in its relation with the London County Council, with the result, as we wore informed In- cable last week, that a writ of attachment has been issued against its members, and that an appeal has now been lodged against the issue of the writ. The position has been developing for some tim past. Several weeks ago the case, of the King v. the Poplar Borough Council was called in the Divisional Court, when application for the issue of a mandamus to tin borough council was made on behalf of the London County Council. Counsel for the Poplar Borough Council said its nonpayment was due to the fact that it wa practically insolvent. An affidavit from the Mayor and others affirmed that there were no means to pay such a rate —as, that which would be nec&ssary to meet the levy—in Poplar, whoso guardians had to finds? £4500 a week in outdoor relief, while a population of 160,000 included over 15,000 unemployed. It was contended on the borough council’s behalf that it had reached the limit of its resources, and had no alternative to a refusal to levy this rate. It was suggested by it that the (xindon County Council could distrain upon its property. The answer to this suggestion wae that the instalment of the levy due was £33,944, and there was nothing to distrain npcs

except the tables and chairs in the councilhouse, the horses and dust-carts, and so forth, while exercise of the power of distress must have consequences unfor-' tunate for Ideal government. The court, which consisted of the Lord Chief Justice, Mr Justice Sankey, and Mr Justice Branson, ordered the issue of the mandamus, counsel making it clear that, in the event of the order being disregarded, proceedings by attachment of the individual members of the borough council would follow. The fact that the order was disregarded explains the more recent developments. The Lord Chief Justice left the councillors of Poplar, who have been swayed by a Labour majority, under no misapprehension as to the real significance of their attitude, giving it a name at which all reputable members of local bodies ought to shudder. But, if it be the fact that it would take a rate of 9d in the £ in Poplar to meet only the first instalment of the London County Council’s “precept,” which amounts in all to £135,778, the actual effect of the issue of a writ of attachment will, it is to be apprehended, be to make martyrs of the recalcitrant councillors. An old adage respecting the impossibility of divesting a Highlander of certain garments seems to be in point.