LOCAL CONDITIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3413, 13 August 1919, Page 15

LOCAL CONDITIONS.

SPEECH BY SIR JOSEPH WARD. WELLINGTON, August 8. In concluding his speech at the civic reception to-day, Sir Joseph Ward referred to local conditions. "We have our troubles here," he said. "Think for a moment that it is possible for any huge river you may know to be blocked at + he mouth for a period of four years. If such a thing were possible, would it be unnatural in the meantime for new tributaries to have broken out? In this country we have had all our peace conditions blocked up for four years and a-half. Does anyone believe that in these circumstances it was to be expected that tributaries of the river, industrially, commercially, and socially, would not have broken out in parts? Our duty, he considered, was clearly to exercise to the full our free and independent rights to our own judgment, and to see that no sectional rule against the laws of the country interfered with the onward movement of the people to a new era The Peace was really the beginning of a new era, in which New Zealand would not only take its part, but in which, if it lived up to its part, it would be in the forefront. —(Applause.)

Th« restricted railway service is having an effect on sly grog-selling /says the Taumarunui correspondent or the New Re&land Herald). The cutting out of the Mghb trains makes it difficult for the sly

grog-sellers to obtain slip plies. The result of the consequent shortage of whisky is an increase in price. It was considered high in war tirno at 15s to £1 per bottle, but the price has now soared to 30a and £2.