CASUAL COMMENTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10440, 20 April 1912, Page 8

CASUAL COMMENTS.

(By " SIMPLICITAS.") The triangular contest for the Mayoralty (or '•' Mayorality," as the suburban chairman invariably calls it) promises to bo an interesting one. For this we have to thank Dr Thacker. Any election in which Dr Thacker mounts the hustings is bound to be interesting. Dr Thacker says so himself, and he ought to know. Like a good_ many ether citizens, I am rather in a quandary as to which of the three I ought to vote for. Mayor Dougall has had a short sojourn in the robes and chain, and the period has been one of blank and utter uneventfulness, municipally speaking. Dr Thacker was a councillor for a short while, and ho took away the fences from Latimer and Cranmer Square, a light sensible, praiseworthy and doughty deed.. Mr Holland is a conscientious, honest, democratic-minded gentleman, but he does not appear to have accomplished anything sufficiently striking to stick in my memory. What Mr Taylor said to him is not evidence. All these gentlemen have programmes of reform which seem to indicate that if any one of them is elected as Mayor, Christchurch will progress at such a rate that Auckland, by comparison, will look as if it was going hackwards. But can they carry out their programmes? Or one-hundredth part of them?

Dr Thacker deserves another paragraph all to himself. Ho is so big and breezy and bountiful. In every one of his public addresses he showers upon his grateful auditors all manner of municipal blessings—post-dated and contingent on his election. He also chastises the newspapers in a beneficent and delightful manner, and belabours the Gas Company in a way which must strike terror into the hearts of the shareholders. And withal he has plenty of original ideas—some good, some bad, some indifferent, but all undoubtedly original. In matters of public health he talks what sounds to me like remarkably good sense, but when ho gets on to his pet theme of reducing the cost of living I seem to somehow lose the thread of his discourse. Ho has not yet explained to my dense understanding how he is going to reduce house rentals by making a canal at Sumner. He is careful to offend no possible voter, but he is sometimes unjust to outsiders. He stated ,"t the King's Theatre that the only time the denizens of Methven smelt fish was when they came to Christchurch and walked down High Street. Passing over the reflection on High Street. I rise to state in no uncertain tones that Methven is tho proud possessor of a veritable fried-fisn-and-chips-shop, and very good fish they sell there, too. Dr*Thacker owes Methven a humble apology.

The terrible disaster which has befallen tho girnt liner Titanic and her passengers and crew has been a subject of much moralising in the newspapers and places where they speak in public. Mr Asquith, on behalf of the House of Commons, " expressed deep admiration for the manner in which the best traditions of tho sea had boon upheld by the saving of those least able to save themselves." Wo must all agree with Mr Asquith in admiring those heroic sailors who lost their lives in saving the women and children. That part of the "traditions of the sea" is nil right. But is it one of the best traditions of the sea to send a passenger steamer out with only sufficient boats to carry one-fifth of the souls she may have aboard P The Titanic had accommodation on hoard for 2400 passengers and a crew of 900. Her boats (which we are told were more numerous than the Board of Trade required) had a capacity of 650. If this was in accordance with the best traditions of the sea it seems high time the sea got some fresh traditions and that England got a new Board of Trade.

That suggestion in regard to honorary members of Territorial corps is an excellent and timely one, ana should orovide the money necessary to cater for the social side of military training as well as for shooting prizes. I have a vivid recollection of a most interesting chat with Mr J. P. Sousa, when the famous bandmaster was in Christchurch, in the course of which he described the social side of the American militia regiments. Each regiment has its friends and subscribers, and tho regiment is made quite a centre for social intercourse, in addition to its military functions. Everything possible is done to foster social relations between the members and friends of the regiment, and esprit de corps seems in this way to have been much stimulated. There is keen rivalry between the various regiments as regards shooting records, smartness of drill and equipment, and. of course, seeing that Mr Sousa was my informant, as to possessing a " crack-a-jack " band. If we can get to work on _ these lines in Now Zealand, not only will the last objections to the Defence Act vanish., but there will be a positive scramble for plnces in the various corps. The "strike" oi prisoners at Lyttelton Gaol the other dar appeals to me as being one of the most weirdly ridiculous things that ever happened in this country of ridiculous happenings. The gentlemen in durance vile were filled with resentment, at, the fact that they were searched daily, so they simply resolved to work no more. That they were allowed to enrry out their little strike is inexplicable. Surely it did not need the attendnnce of an Inspector of Prisons nnd Mr Kayll to cope with a little difficulty of that kind. I don't know what powers the keepers of bis Majesty's prisons possess, but if they are so limited that they preclude any attempt, to ensure that prisoners sentenced to hard labour do bard labour, it is time those powers were considerably extended. We seem to be getting remarkably squeamish in our dealings with those under the ban of tho law, and it would not surprise me in the least if someone started a strike fund with a view to providing some solatium for the wounded feelings of the strikers who aro now undergoing solitary confinement. It Is really time that the cyclists and motor-cyclists of this city arose in their fnight and demanded, redress lor cer•tain dire grievances against the Tramway Board and the Drainage Board.

The Tramway Board lays nice big smooth iron rails, groved to a width of anything from ono to three inches, all over the streets. It lays them flush with tho roads, and then apparently rests quite contented, unmindful of tho fact that road metals wear more, quickly than steel. It is not safe to cross any tramway-line on a bicycle at a more acute angle than forty-five degrees, but some of them stand so rjerjlously high above the roadway that they have to be taken at right angles. The Drainage Board has contributed to the diseomforture of tho " people who ride on rubber" (I thank thee for this comprehensive term, Dr Thacker) by constructing all manner of lumps, manholes, and other openings in the roadways, and surrounding the iron coverings thereof with slabs of solid stone. Cycling along Stanmoro Road the other night I bumped over nineteen of thesp hillocks in about tiro hundred yards, and most other streets seem to be similarly equipped. When we got that Metropolitan Board of Works, perhaps matters will improve somewhat..