DAILY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7765, 24 July 1903, Page 2

DAILY NOTES.

The local technical classes the are fairly booming. Although, technical they have been in existence boom:. scarcely more than a week they are being so lavishly patronised that the Board of Management' is faced -with the need for obtaining additional accommodation. This state of things applies to practically every class. Even the battle between Pitman and Gregg hi^ proved an excellent advertisement for the shorthand classes, and the rival systems are toeing taught and learned with an energy born of a. little healthy competition. Decidedly the classes have' "caught on." With skilful administration, and provided the Board is in ai position to keep pace with the growing demand' for space, they will continue to flourish. s

It has been suggested as the an improvement on the propost office, posal to erect additions on the west side of the Central Post Office that it would be preferable to add another storey to the present building. The suggestion fe not a bad one. 'When the present building was erected provision was made for a third storey if one should be required at any time. But it appears to us that there may bs need for both an extra •storey and the proposed additions to the westward. \v hat with the increasing business of the postal and telegraph departments amd the telephone exchange, not ,to mention the other public services quartered 'in'the present Post Office a great deal of fresh accommodation will be absolutely necessary before many, years have elapsed.

The liquor question

jLIQUOB abounds in inconsistencies problems. as most students of it are

v^ware. Two instances came under our notice yesterday. In one case a former resident of New Zealand, writing from America, declares that although there are 5000 drinking saloons or bars in San Francisco he has seen less drunkenness there than in a small town in New Zealand. The other is that coincident with the growth of the prohibition vote in this colony there was last year a marked increase in the number of convictions for drunkenness. The* latter anomaly can be explained in various ways to suit various tastes'. The prohibitionists would doubtless attribute it to an increased activity on the part of> the police, and certainly, as an indication of the necessity of abolishing the li0U«« traffic, while their opponents mighty

with some show of reaisonj point to it as evidence of the futility of no-license.

The Parliamentary corresnußUXTJi and pondent of this paper seems the land to have misinterpreted Mv A. tenure. W. Rutherford's attitude on the land tenure question. As^ the member for Hurunui explains _in

print this morning, he did not " turn* a somersault " on the question, as our correspondent implied. A comparison! of his two speeches during the financial debate dis* close nothing inconsistent in his utterances. He did ; indeed, refer to the aggregation of large estates in terms wnich probably accounted for our correspondent's mistake ; but, as far as. we can perceive, he said nothing else that could be construed into a renouncement of tlie belief to which ho gave expression at the hustings. To save further misapprehension, however, Mr Rutherford reiterates the pledge he gave last year, to support leasehold tenure for

three years,