PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17572, 24 June 1925, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION.

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING. TRAMS AND ’BUSES. In Wellington the City Council, faced ! I "'ith motor ’bus competition against . the Corporation trams, is contemplating restrictive by-laws in imitation of Auckland’s efforts. Efforts of this kind must be viewed with grave suspicion, because there must always be a fear that the municipality is using its power as a lawmaker to stifle fair competition by private enterprise, where it is unable to meet it legitimately. Traffic congestion in narrow streets demands , action by the controlling authorities, and it is possible that in extreme cases \ it may be necessary to limit the traffic in certain thoroughfares in order to avoid crowding, but only on this basis can the local authoritv use its powers. The tramway systems established and run by local bodies must be regarded as ordinary business concerns, enjoying no advantages that could not be claimed by a private company, because if they are assisted by concessions which private enterprise could not secure, the result is merely to reduce operating charges artificially and to hide losses. If the motor 'buses can provide cheaper street transportation, the only possible method of dealing with the situation is for the local authority to adopt the motor 'buses with the idea of ultimately scrapping the tramways if this is found by experience to be necessary as a business proposition.-—" Southland Times.” THE MOROCC AN WARM. Painlevc. the French Prime Minister, has returned from his aeroplane visit to Morocco, and reported on arrangements which have been made there for the most efficient conduct of the war. For it is Franco’s war now as well as Spain's. Abdel Krim may have reason to regret soon the temerity which has made him throw down the gage‘to a second antagonist many times iiis size before he had got rid of the first. France, for her part, has no love for the outlook. It is not only her protectorate in Morocco which she has to defend, ("ommunist and other agitators arc known to have been busy sowing the seeds of disaffection among the native tribes in Algeria and Tscwhcrc. and a few initial successes for the Riffs would create the danger of a, 11 North Africa being embroiled in a state of war. It is feared that in any case a long campaign, involving the maintenance cf a large force, will have to be waged by France before Abdel Krim can be brought to reason. The time is most inopportune for such a war. A rickety Government is dependent on the vote of Socialists, who would make almost any concessions to a\v r t hostilities, quito regardless of the fact that, by pursuing such a course, they would merely be inviting worse trouble for the future.—.“ Dunedin Star.” PEA I 'E AND SECURITY. The summarised version of the French Note in reply to the German proposals for the execution of a Security Pact can hardly be said to furnish the material upon which a judgment can be expressed by the peoples of the dominions. It is to be rfoted, however. that a condition which is imposed by France as necessary if she is to enter into any agreement with Gcr- . many at. once cuts away the ground of one form of objection to the conclusion of a Security Pact between Germany and the Allied nations of Western Europe. It has been apprehended that any measures which these nations might take with the object of bringing arbitration treaties into force between them and Germany would amount, in Effect, to a flouting or at any rate to an ignoring of the League of Nations. France stipulates, however that Germany must become a member of the League of Nations if an>' agreement with her is to be entered into. Necessarily, in these circumstances. a breach of the agreement or a failure to observe the terms cf the agreement would be an offence of which the League would take cognisance. Germany has not so far evinced any desire to be admitted to the League of Nations upon terms of equality with all the other Powers, but has been disposed to specify conditions on which she should be permitted to join.—"Otago Daily Times.” “CHIEF OF POETS.” Shakespeare would have felt "very much at home in his adopted Bankside one day in April last, when Southwark citizens, young and old, their Mayor and councillors and churchmen, gave thanks for his genius in the bare grey cathedral, placed wreaths upon his memorial tomb and went on a pilgrimage through darksome streets and byways in quest »f his most lovable ghost’ The Bishop of Southwark, in resplendent cope and mitre, the Mayor and aldermen, in civic robes, who paid homage at the tomb, might have steplied out of one of the historical plays. The fresh-faced, sweet-voiced choir of boys who filed chanting behind the processional cross, were not they, too, the very youths who played Rosalind and Perdita before the bard's eyes? 1 And the commoners who filled the great nave to hear Shakespearian anthems. and the chivalrous tribut • < ! the Rev E. Hermitage Day at the commemoration service in the morning - would not Shakespeare have found in them congenial spirits also? After the service the whole congregation wound through Banksidc warehouse alleys to the site of the Old Globe, and there, standing on a table, under the bronze memorial tablet and the gaunt, grimy walls of Barclay s brewery in Park Street. Mr Lascclles Abercrombie, poet and scholar, delivered a panegyric on Shakespeare “chief of poets and most fortunate of men. ’ - "Hawke's Bay Herald."