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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19009, 3 November 1923, Page 8

Somewhat peremptory in its terms, the admonition “Keep to the Left” greeted the public yesterday for the first time at street corners in the’ city. The admonition was pretty generally disregarded by people who have, under the influence of the custom of years, reversed on the pavements the practice of “the rule of the road.” Nor is this surprising. One does not very readily change the habifc of a lifetime, even so simple a habit aa that of walking on a particular side of a pavement. The municipal authorities in Auckland have begun to realise this in their effort to introduce the rule for pedestrians of “keeping to the left.”- Devices on the pavements are being utilised there to remind the public of the change which has been deemed desirable in the regulation of street traffic. But the rule of “keep to the left” was hardly introduced so suddenly and so distinctly without warning in Auckland as it has been in Dunedin. There had been.no preliminary announcement by the Corporation authorities in this city of their intention to ask the residents to reverse their practice of the past. It is possible, even, that it will be news to most - people in Dunedin that the Municipal Conference adopted a resolution in favour of the application of the rule to “keep to the left. ’ The Conference does not usually find it* resolutions accepted so unquestioningly. In expressing the hope .that Mr Bnica and Mr Massey would meet the Chamber of Shipping, and discuss the question of dues, port charges, and pilotage and quarantine expenses, Sir H. Mackinder, chairman of the Imperial Shipping Committee, touched at the Economic Conference upon a matter which is receiving increased attention in relation to the prospects of British shipping. Small profits and large operating expenses are a disturbing combination. In a recent article Mr Archibald Hurd observed that in Australian and New Zealand ports in particular shipowners have to submit to : uequitable treatment, “which of course eventually injures the oversea trade of those dominions.” It was recently pointed out by the Chamber of Shipping that in Australian ports dock dues and charges are still 148 per cent, above prewar level, whereas the percentage in the case of United Kingdom ports range# from 47 in the case of London to 72 in the case of Liverpool. It is remarked that an Australian pilot “is surely more than passing rich on £2OOO a year,” and that it is a curious assumption on the part of the Commonwealth Government that 10 per cent, of all gross earnings are profit, income-tax being levied accordingly, although “at present shipping services to Australia are running at a loss.” Tho Chamber is exercised, also, by the charges that must be incurred at every port in New Zealand at which a vessel in search of cargoes has to call. It has cited the case of a steamer which, visiting six ports in this dominion, had to pay £7OO for pilotage, while another, visiting four ports, had to pay £340 for similar services. In six out of the 10 principal ports, it is alleged, “port” charges exceed stevedoring expenses. In several cases they are said to be nearly twice as high. The Chamber of Shipping at Homo may be credited with having its case well prepared for submission to Mr Bruce and Mr Massey, and the interview should be interesting. When Zaghlul Pasha returned to Egypt, after some months of recuperation in tho South of France, it was to enter Cairo “in triumph.” One of his earliest acta after his return was to issue a manifesto in which he affirmed that “together we are going to complete the work of liberation.” This is somewhat cryptic, but it is believed that the Zaghluiist policy now aims at a rapid settlement of the Anglo-Egyptian problem on a business basis. Important developments took place in Egypt during Zaghlu! Pasha’s absence. The Constitution was promulgated which declared Egypt to be a sovereign independent State, with a hereditary monarchical Constitutional Government, and established Islam' as the official religion arid Arabic a* the official language. The Constitution represent* something of a compromise between King Fuad’s desire for an unlimited monarchy and the British desire for one conforming more to Western ideas of popular government. In a criticism published in May, Zaghlul Pasha complained that all pretence of a constitutional regime 'was - vain while the country remained under martial law and many of its leaders were in prison, or in exile. But when he returned to Egypt in September martial law was no longer in force and all the Zaghluiist leaders, including those detained in connection with outrages against British soldiers and officials in Cairo, had been accorded their liberty. The remaining ground for possible complaint was the fact that certain questions were still outstanding and “reserved ’ for further discussion, these including those of the position claimed by, Great Britain in regard to the foreign relations of Egypt, the military protection of the Suez Canal, and the Sudan.

Since every right-thinking petson is. a dog-lover, if not a dog-owner, there will be legions of persons who will throughout the Empire hail with considerable satisfaction the progress of a fund promoted by the Field, the object of which is to wage a scientific campaign against the mysterious and ill-defined disease, known as distemper, the dreaded scourge of the canine world. The Daily Telegraph, in opening its columns to an appeal on behalf of the fund, published an interesting joint letter from the Duke of Beaufort, the Duke of Portland, and Sir Theodore A. Cook. The campaign is well under way. Kennels where the disease will bo studied are in course of erection at a cost of £3540; the expenses of maintenance at £IBOO a year have been guaranteed for the noxtvtwo years; and a, sum of £IO,OOO is asked from the public to enable the work to be carried to completion. American dog lovers have been spurred on by the British example to initiate a similar fund in their own country. The contributions that have been acknowledged in England have varied from £lO5 to a shilling, and the subscribers extend from the King and the Prince of Wales to the humble owner of a terrier in the Midlands, from the Northwest provinces of India to the ranches of the Argentine. That is as it should be. Man lias been so much taken up with the conquest of his own diseases that he has given too little attention to those of his faithful ally. From a scientific and economic viewpoint the appeal should also widely commend itself. The Daily Telegraph observes; “The yearly loss on •well-bred puppies dying from distemper in this country alone must far exceed the whole amount required for the Field Distemper Fund." Another aspect of the matter is indicated n t>joint letter to which we have referred: “IVhile the whole of our funds are devoted solely in investigations of canine disease, wo are assured by the highest medical authorities that there is sufficient connection observable between the symp toms of distemper and those of influenza to warrant the hope that, when more is known about the first, there will be far better chances of dealing with the second.’’