The Star. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18640, 18 December 1928, Page 8

The Star. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

THE VIRULENCE of mosquito bites in New Zealand is increasing, especially in the North Island. Very had news comes from Auckland of a new mosquito that bites in the day-time as well as the night-time. Day-biting mosquitoes, of course, are quite common in Australia, but if this particular visitor is a near relative of the yellow-fever-carry-ing mosquito, it will be a bad thing for the North Island. Some of the workmen have been half stunned owing to the number of bites inflicted on them by mosquitoes, and a bush workman is a fairly hardy specimen of humanity as a rule. It can therefore be imagined what havoc these mosquitoes might do among tender-skinned and more delicate people. New Zealand should be engaged at the present moment on a campaign for the extermination of the mosquito pest. A Christchurch citizen pointed out last year that New Zealand’s 1 greatest drawback as a tourist and holiday resort was the mosquito and the sand-fly, and Unfortunately this is true. It "will be most regrettable if public opinion on this subject is aroused only when it is too late, and the yellow fever mosquito has obtained a footing in the country.

ALTHOUGH the voice of fashionable London has been raised in protest against the police methods of dealing with night clubs, it is beyond any shadow of doubt that their suppression is in the interests of public morality. If similar breaches of the licensing law occurred in New Zealand, the whole country would be outraged at the laxness of the police supervision that permitted such flagrant disregard for the law. To quote only one case, taken at random, and given a place of little importance in London papers, it is recorded that the police motor van made several journeys between the night club premises and the police station in order to transfer the number of offenders. As a result of the raid three principals ahd thirty-seven others were up for trial the next day. The activities of Mrs Evelyn Meyrick, notorious as the “ night club queen,” whose name is again appearing in the cables, have been carried on in utter defiance of the law and regardless of the fact that she has already served several terms of imprisonment. In spite of her rather shady past, she has made the most of her opportunities among the “ smart set,” and has married her two daughters to Peers. In both cases they met their husbands at her night clubs. If Lord Byng has, indeed, killed these clubs beyond resurrection, as it is claimed, then he has accomplished something which the most optimistic regarded as scarcely possible.

THE RADIO BROADCASTING COMPANY, wisely, has washed its hands of the difficulty of allocating church services over the air, and has left the matter to a committee of the Protestant churches. That committee has decided on a rota based on a church census, and that rota is unacceptable to one of the committee, whose church has been cut down to four services in the year. We are bound to say that the new arrangement gives promise of very much better things than the old. In Christchurch during the past year or so we have had little else than Congregational and Baptist churches, taking a very large percentage of the services week after week, and Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist listeners have had a genuine grievance. And after all the Broadcasting Company, however anxious it may be to escape a charge of sectarian bias, has a duty towards its listeners. In that connection it might do something to ensure that under the new arrangement the best and brightest services arc put on the air, without merely giving everybody a turn, irrespective of the quality of the service, musical or otherwise. It is most regrettable that the Roman Catholic Church has not so far been able to take any part in broadcasting in Christchurch. The Roman Catholic services that have been on the air from Wellington have been most enjoyable to listeners-in generally, irrespective of creed, and so influential a church must have a message for listeners in this country, as it has in other countries.

XT IS CURIOUS to note that the cabled weather reports A from the two Antarctic expeditions arc just the reverse of one another, and also the reverse of what each desires. Whereas the City of New York, on this side of the Antarctic, is waiting for the ice-pack to open up, and whalers report that the ice is extra thick this year, Wilkins, who is 300 miles further north than Byrd, says that the season is a month early, and appears to be searching in vain for a suitable snow covered icefield for the aeroplanes to take off. There the ice has already disappeared and the seaplane Los Angeles is to be commissioned at the earliest moment to make the trip into the Weddell Sea. The element of luck enters largely into these expeditions. Sliackleton’s experience when he pushed south into the Weddell Sea was also contrary to his expectations. He said: “ I had been prepared for evil conditions in the Weddell Sea, but had hoped that in December and January the pack would be loose, even if no open water was to be found. What we were encountering was a fairly dense pack of a very obstinate character.” His description of the pack-ice was: “A gigantic and interminable jig-saw-puzzle devised by ’nature. All through the winter the drifting pack changes—grows by freezing, thickens by rafting, and corrugates by pressure. If finally, in its drift it impinges on a coast, such as the western shore of the Weddell Sea, terrific pressure is set up and an inferno of iceblocks, ridges and hedgerows results, extending possibly for 150 or 200 miles off shore.” At present it looks as if Byrd had better hopes of success in the south than Wilkins. He will be sure of a safe base and the certainty of good-flying conditions at intermittent periods, between which he is safe enough. Wilkins, on the other hand, lias to rely upon his aeroplanes to get him south, and the element of chance is greater in his case.