UNDESIRABLE EMBARGOES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22295, 22 June 1934, Page 8

UNDESIRABLE EMBARGOES

The recommendation of a conference of experts, at which New Zealand interests were represented, that the embargoes on the interchange of fruit and vegetables between this country and Australia should be lifted, is to be noted with approval. Owing to a series of prohibitions and reprisals, the position for some time past has been that the trade in certain classes of fresh fruit and in vegetables between Commonwealth and Dominion has been virtually at a standstill. The exports from New Zealand principally affected are potatoes and apples, while Australian citrus fruits have been debarred from entering this country. The reason for the embargoes—the ostensible reason, at least—has been the fear of Australian and New Zealand growers respectively that the products of the other might introduce infection into their market gardens and orchards. These fears were doubtless real, but the two Governments before making their decrees certainly bad pressure exerted on them by interested parties—a pressure possibly influenced, first by a desire to protect home markets, secondly by a spirit of retaliation. Whatever the inner facts of the case, the embargoes have had an unfortunate effect in restricting what should be a profitable form of reciprocal trade. It would appear that the experts who met in conference have fully satisfied themselves that the danger of infection through the shipments of fruits and vegetables is not by any means considerable. Their recommendations would suggest indeed that it is negligible provided that reasonable precautions are taken. In view of this assurance, which confirms the judgment of the general public, it is to be hoped that the Governments of Australia and New Zealand will, upon reconsideration of the question, be able to reach an agreement for the removal of the several embargoes. They have not only deprived the public of necessary fresh fruit and vegetables at acceptable prices, but the embargoes have reacted unfavourably upon the operations of producers and have been the cause of a good deal of irritation.

The Shortest Day This is the shortest day of the present year. To-day the sun will reach its greatest northern declination, therefore traversing an arc of the sky which is shorter than at any other time of the year. Contrary to a widespread belief that a fixed day, generally defined as the twenty-first day of the month, invariably marks the occurrence of the solstices and equinoxes, these astronomical phenomena may occur on the 21st, 22nd, or 23rd day of the month. If the calendar used was truly solar in its basis, the equinoxes and solstices would occur always on the same date, but the small variations between the Gregorian calendar and the true movement of the uun cause these dates to vary slightly from year to year. The official commencement of a season is marked by the passage of the sun around the zodiac. About March 22 each year the sun crosses the' equinoctial colure, or the zero meridian of celestial longitude. The exact moment of this passage is given in many almanacs, and the day upon which it occurs is termed the equinox, with the inference that day and night then are of equal length all over the globe. The same holds for the other seasons, so that to-day the sun will pass the winter solstice, and consequently will be at its lowest noon altitude for the year in southern latitudes. Reference to a table of the times of sunrise and sunset reveals that the length of the day changes very slowly indeed at the solstices. This month, for instance, the length of the day remains almost constant, but with a gradual later rising and setting of the sun, for over a week about the solstice. The public will not observe an appreciable difference in the length of the days for several weeks. '

" Romantic New Zealand "

It is a recognised axiom in motion picture circles, involving also a tribute to the taste End discrimination of local audiences, that if a film makes a satisfactory premiere in Dunedin its success throughout the Dominion is assured. There is every reason to believe that this tradition will be followed in respect to the picture " Romantic New Zealand," which has not only appealed strongly to adults, but has been found of special value in providing school children with an opportunity for acquiring a knowledge of their own country. 'Full advantage of this opportunity has been taken by the city schools during the Dunedin season of the picture, and in order to afford some 500 children in Port Chalmers a chance of seeing the film it will be screened there to-day. During its Dunedin season of a fortnight more than 14,000 persons, including some 6000 children, viewed "Romantic New Zealand," which, at the close of its showings in the Dominion, will be- exhibited overseas for tourist publicity purposes.

Tribuate to the South A tribute to community effort and organising in the South Island was paid by Mr H. P. Kidson (rector of the Otago Boys' High School) at"the morning session of the Young Farmers' School yesterday. He said the South Island always did things properly. Such a course for young farmers would hardly be possible in the North Island. He could not imagine all sections of the community in a northern city co-operating in such an effort. Somehow, such endeavour seemed to be quite foreign to the North Island, whereas it appeared to be the most natural thing in the world at this end of the Dominion.

Generosity Exploited Despite the fact that most people are now decidedly chary.about giving assistance to those men who come begging at the door' without a card carrying the authority of a recognised responsible body, it appears that there are still some individuals who are prepared to try their luck and are meeting with at least some success. On Wednesday night two young men called at the home of one resident in the city, and said that they were in desperate plight. They had had no food, and were without any place in which to sleep. They had called at the Salvation Army Shelter, and had been informed that accommodation there was taxed to the limit. So convinced was the resident of the truth of their story that the two men were given two shillings with which to buy themselves some food, and they departed, loud in their gratitude, and promising to. come back in the morning to chop some wood* as a return for the kindness shown them. Nothing has been seen of them since, and inquiries at the Salvation Army' headquarters reveal that the two men had never been near the shelter. Crow's Nest Cabaret Case

"It seems to me to be impossible on the facts to hold that there is anything in the nature of a club connected With the concern,'' said Mr E. Page, S.M., in giving a reserved decision in the Wellington Magistrate's Court on Tuesday in convicting Stanley Dowdall List, proprietor of the Crow's Nest Cabaret, Island Bay, on two charges of Sunday trading. The magistrate imposed fines of £2 and £3 respectively, 1 and fixed security for appeal at the amount of the fines, plus £7 7s. Mr Page said that the two defences set up in answer to the charges were that the cabaret was a genuine club and so was not subject to the statute, and that the operations of defendant did not amount to transacting business. The concern lacked all the indicia of a social club, he" said. There was no evidence of any entrance fee or of any subscription or of any real membership, or of any semblance of control by or on behalf of those who defendant said were members. He thought that it was in reality just a cabaret open to suitable members of thf public. The magistrate held that on the dates in question the defendant was transacting his business of running a cabaret, and entered convictions accordingly.

New Zealand's Socialism Mr Bernard Shaw said recently that New Zealanderg did not realise that the Dominion was a Communistic country; many Americans use it as an example of Socialism, and not always favourably. A Christchurch man who has just returned from the United States remarked on Wednesday that,when social troubles became prominent there a year or so ago American ideas about New Zealand were well illustrated. One of the newspapers published a cartoon showing two dilapidated sandwich men going past an American One of them was labelled' "Russia" and his hoster proclaimed that he had tried Communism, and still had social strife, hunger, and unemployment. The other was labelled " New Zealand,"- and his poster announced that he bad tried Socialism, and still had riots, unemployment, and—strange in this connection —earthquakes.

Another Radio Balloon Another balloon equipped with apparatus, for recording temperatures and pressures in the stratosphere and with a radio 6et for transmitting these particulars* was released on Tuesday night from the Government meteorological office at Kelburn, Wellington. After attaining a height of nearly 30,000 feet the balloon ceased to send morse signals, and it was presumed that it had burst prematurely. The temperature at that altitude was signalled as 3 degrees Fahrenheit, or 29 degrees of frost. Conditions being favourable, the balloon, one of the Russian type, was despatched shortly before 8 o'clock. For 25'minutes thereafter messages came through to the observatory staff strongly, indicating the progress of the radio-sonde, as the balloons are called, into the upper air. All at once, to the disappointment of the men listening-in and recording, the signals failed. It had been hoped that the balloon might have done as well as one sent up three weeks ago that ascended approximately 60,000 feet before it ceased to signal Kelburn. On that occasion the altitude was believed to be a record for the southern hemisphere.

City Police Court ; There was no business to occupy the attention of the City Police Court yesterday 1

City Fire Calls A justifiable false alarm summoned the City Fire Brigade to the. Excelsior Hotel shortly after 9,30 yesterday morning. At 4.40 p.m. the machines were. called to Black's road, North-East Valley, to attend a chimney fire. No damage was done. -

Restoration of Salary Cuts The Order Paper presented at the meeting of the Otago Harbour Board last night contained the following motion of which notice had been given by Mr T. Scollay:—"That that portion of the board's resolution of May 17 whereby the question of the restoration of the second 10 per cent, cut on all wages above £2OO was deferred to September 30 be rescinded; and that the second 10 per cent, cut bs restored as from June l.'f Mr Scollay agreed to hold over his motion in view of a discussion that was to take place in committee. At the conclusion of the meeting the chairman (Mr H. C. Campbell) stated that the motion still' stood in Mr Scollay's name and would come before the board at a later date.

The Example of Australia " We hear often of the manner in which Australia is coming out of the slump, but their statesmanlike action in tackling their major problems is in no small measure responsible for this, and when the slump is over our friends over the water are going to be in the position of forging ahead instead of wasting valuable time which might just as well be spent in slump times," said Dr H. G. Denham, in an address at the annual dinner of the Canterbury Advertising Club on Wednesday evening. "We here in New Zealand," he added, " have yet to learn that education and research are the foundation of our future; we neglect them at our peril. The time to endow research is in times of prosperity; the time to do research is in periods of depression in order to be ready for the advance."

The Bristol Schema There has been an encouraging response to appeals in connection with the Bristol Back to Work Scheme launched by Christchurch Rotarians. The scheme has appealed to all sections of the community (says the Christchurch Times) as a constructive effort, and in the three months of the campaign it is confidently expected that promises of work—either, direct employment or indirectly through the purchase. of goods—will reach the satisfactory figure of £50,000. The Rotary Club's task is to induce householders to undertake work ranging from house painting to resilvering mirrors.with the object of keeping .skilled workmen in employment during the winter. Circulars issued include" a list of 70 suggestions covering so wide a range that everybody must be interested in some section, while the cost of suggested works is varied to mit the pocket of 'll. Gold and Wealth

In the years of debt-paying (by Britain to America) that preceded the crisis of 1929-30, much gold crossed the Atlantic, but the wealth implied did not cross. Although (says the Economist) the British and other payments to America were vast, from the economic point of 'view the transfer of wealth which they imply wa s never made ty; all up to the years of crisis, for more than their equivalent was lent back to Europe, .and in particular to Germany, by the United States people. During the years 1922-1930 700,000,000 dollars' worth of gold was shipped to the United States, and 4,300,000,000 dollars (net) was invested abroad by United States citizens. Then the United States ceased lending; the following year, 1931, United States banks and investors tried to recall some portion of their loans, and precipitated the crisis.: ..= ~'.

Free Reading for Children Children of residents or ratepayers will not be called upon to pay subscriptions for the use of library facilities in Auckland in future as the result of a decision of the City Council last night.. This was done (says our special correspondent) on the suggestion of Mr Ralph Munn, director of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburg, who has been investigating New Zealand libraries on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation. In his report which was recently received by the City Council Mr Munn said the subscription plan was acting as a barrier to the use of libraries by thousands of residents. He suggested that.if the subscription plan could not be, abolished in the immediate future a free service to children at least should be established.

Australia's Cricket News It is estimated that Australia will receive by wireless more than 500,000 wordg on cricket to satisfy her. interest in che English tour. Most of this amount will be at press rates, but scores, close of play figures and important messages will be sent at full rates, costing two shillings a word. The bill for Australia for these cricket reports, at a conservative estimate, will be anything from £15,000 to £20,000, and if anything of a sensational nature happens the figures would be considerably exceeded. In addition to the wordage for ordinary matches and general news, an official of Imperial and International Communications stated recently that from 20,000 to 30,000 wordg would be sent covering each of the five test matches. Nearly all this press work goes by beam wireless, and occasionally there is heavy pressure on the cables as well.

The Codock Aeroplane The Codock passenger-carrying. aeroplane, which was built at the Cockatoo dockyard to the order of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith has been leased to a Newcastle syndicate, which is using it in an aerial passenger service, twice daily, between Newcastle and Sydney. This information was given to a Christchurch Times reporter on Tuesday by Mr Wilfrid Kingsford Smith, business manager for his brother, Sir Charles. The syndicate has an option of purchase of the machine at the end of a month, but even if it is sold another of the same type will probably be built and flown to New Zealand. Mr T. W. White is acting as pilot on the Newcastle service, having joined the staff of Kingsford Smith Air Services, Ltd.

Woman Attacked by Dogs The story of her fight with two dogs in Winchester street, Christchurch, was told by Mrs Rebecca Jane Garden, of Office road, in the Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, when she claimed from Mrs Jean Lindsay Rumbold, the owner of one of the dogs, £l3 19s 6d for damages. She was awarded £3 ss. The plaintiff, in her statement of claim, set out that she was attacked in the vicinity of the defendant's home by two dogs, of which the defendant was the owner within the meaning of the Dogs Registration Act, 1908, ae the result of which the plaintiff suffered damage to the.coat she was wearing and the umbrella she was carrying. In addition, the plaintiff wa s subjected to a terrifying experience, and suffered severely from shock, and therefore claimed £l3 19 s 9d, made up as follows:—Cost of repairs to umbrella, £1 cost of repairs to coat, 7s 6d; depreciation in value of coat, £2 2s; general damages, £lO. The magistrate said that he did not consider the plaintiff entitled to general damages. He gave judgment for £3 ss, with costs.

A. E. J. Blakeley and W. E. Bagley. dentists, Bank of Australasia, corner of Bond and Rattray streets, next Telegraph Office). Telephone 12-359.—Advt. Save your eyes Be wise, and consult W. V. Stunner, optician (2 Octagon) thus conserving eood vision for old aare.— Advt Those who are requiring an engagement ring will do well to inspect our tings.— Peter Dick, ring specialist, 490 Moray place, Dunedin.—Advt.