The Star. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1924. IMPROVEMENT OF CATHEDRAL SQUARE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17354, 20 May 1924, Page 6

The Star. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1924. IMPROVEMENT OF CATHEDRAL SQUARE.

The City Council did wisely in rejecting the proposal to make alterations and additions to the parcels office in Cathedral Square, but it is very doubtful whether any good will come of the request that the Works Committee should bring down a comprehensive scheme for the improvement of the Square. This is like referring the improvement of the Avon to the Drainage Board, which is not interested in the matter, or has perverted views on the subject of rivers generally. Four out of the seven members of thc'Works Committee showed by their votes last night that they were quite prepared to go on with the additions to the parcels office, while the chairman of the committee (Councillor Winsor) expressed the opinion that a building in the Square owned by the council was the solution of the difficulty. Apparently he thinks “ there is money in it.” What sort of a report this committee will bring down, in thp face of the council’s rejection of its plans regarding the parcels office, can be left to the imagination. An original view was taken by the councillor who favoured adding to the tramway shelter until the people rose up and demanded its removal. Unfortunately the people don’t rise up nowadays, and even their representatives on the City Council, when they are really in a majority of nine to seven in favour of improvement, manage to avoid the real issue. This councillor, however, voted against the additions, because lie probably realised, as the Mayor pointed out, that every delay makes it more and more difficult and expensive to obtain proper sites for lavatories, rest rooms, parcels offices, ticket offices and so on. Councillors profess to guard the city reserves very jealously against raids for electrical substations, but they are not so punctilious where the most valuable and beautiful reserve is threatened by the most unsightly and objectionable excrescences. Valuable time is being lost while possible sites for tram shelters and other offices are rising in value. There is. however, a gleam of hope that good will result from the City Council’s latest'decision on this important subject.

It seems very difficult to decide the rights and wrongs of the case reported to the City Council last night regarding the upsetting of one of the Council’s by-laws on the subject of dangerous driving. The council withdrew a driver’s certificate of ability and prosecuted him for continuing to drive. The Magistrate held that in regard to the alleged offence which brought the matter to a head, the council should have given the driver a right to be heard. This appears to be a perfectly sound contention, and the council would do well to protect itself in this regard in future. We note, however, that the. Magistrate is credited with the remark that if there had been a conviction in Court for dangerous driving the council's decision, without calling on the motorist, would have stood. It appears, however, that the motorist had twice been convicted for dangerous driving and had been warned that his certificate would be cancelled in the event of any further complaint. It may be argued that this would be a sufficient ground upon which to proceed, but we still think that every man is entitled to be heard in his own defence, and on such a trifling point the council would be wise to make its by-laws watertight. The case, however, emphasises the need for wider powers both by licensing authorities and Magistrates in checking the very common offence of dangerous driving.

Recent cables have drawn attention to the efforts being made in France to increase the birth-rate, which for many years has declined so rapidly as to give grave cause for alarm. The losses that were suffered by France in the war, too, have made it absolutely necessary that something should be done to remedy a state of affairs that has become a national menace. One of the means adopted in France to combat the decline in the birth-rate is a scheme of family allowances. Since 1916 many industrial concerns have paid allowances based on the number of children in the family. “ Equal pay for equal work,” states Professor Roger Picard, in an article in the “ International Uabour Review,” “ is liable to favour certain categories of workers, but to place others at a disadvantage. If the worker’s wages are proportionate to the quantity and quality of bis work, and if no allowance is made for his responsibilities, the consequences will be that a married man will earn the same wages as an unmarried man doing similar work.” The system of family allowances is designed to help the married man, and the method by which the allowances are made possible is interesting. The firms, in order to equalise the expenditure involved in the paying of the allowances, pay contributions into a compensation fund, in proportion to their staff, or wages bill, and the allowances are then drawn from this fund. The method of payment of the allowances differs, but it is generally eouceded that the institution of the system of allowances will have an appreciable effect in increasing the birth-rate.