The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1935. LOYAL OBSERVANCES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20508, 9 January 1935, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1935. LOYAL OBSERVANCES.

JI NOl LIKELY that Captain Macleod s appeal for more courteous observance of loyal convention during the playing of the National Anthem will he received indifferently, for New Zealanders as a whole are attentive to punctilio in matters touching their national affections. If one is sight-seeing on or near a warship one should, indeed, stand at attention while the Anthem is being sung, but if one is not connected in any way with the proceedings it is a nice question how far this mark of respect should be carried. A man hurrying to catch a train obviously is not expected to make an instant stand when these strains of music reach liis ears. Nor would an audience be expected to rise during the screening of a film of Princess Marina’s wedding, in which the arrival of the King and Queen at estniinster Abbey is accompanied by the playing of the National Anthem. The usual time for this tribute to the King falls at the end of the programme, and the careful observance of this rule locally was illustrated in a recent Old Colonists’ ceremony at Lyttelton, when the proceedings concluded with the Benediction, Auld Lang Syne and God Save the King, a decent order, and one typical enough of the New Zealander’s insistence on a proper and thorough conclusion to his public occasions. LEAVING ENGLAND BEHIND. ' I 'HE London “ Spectator ” of A November 30 deplored the fact that to the end of November no fewer than twenty-one persons had been killed in accidents at level crossings in Great Britain. It demanded that all roads should he carried over railways by bridges or under them by tunnels—“ a piece of constructive work that should be undertaken without delay.” If England, with an annual average of twenty-four deaths from this cause, should feel uneasy about it, what is to be said of New Zealand, with fourteen deaths last year, and as many as thirty-four in 1930. It is not practicable here to adopt the overbridge system except near the cities, but it is possible to put a red light day and night over every crossing in the country. A PREMIUM ON CARE. nPHE ANSWER given by a lawyer to a correspondent in the “ Star ” to-day is that if a motorist appears to have been an innocent party to an accident, the insurance companies will defend him against a claim in respect to compulsory third-party insurance. That is good business from tlie point of view of the insurance companies. In effect, they represent the interests of the great mass of insurers who, by the way, have lately had their annual premiums substantially reduced to cover the damage that they do collectively. But there is one direction in which a special concession should be extended to the careful motorists among them, and that is in the provision of an annual deduction for “ no claim.” A MULTIPLYING FACTOR. AN ONE IMPORTANT PHASE of Britain’s recovery, an immediate reply to Lord Rothermere’s pessimism appears in the buoyant report of an increase last year cf more than 50,000 in the number of motor-cars and commercial vehicles manufactured. It is in this industry that the greatest inroads have been made on the American manufacturers’ business. This year’s increase is progressive, for the end of 1933 showed only a slightly lower figure. A triple combination is edging the American vehicle off the British market. The first is a 33 1-3 per cent tariff, the second is the annual tax of £1 per horse-power (lately revised), and the third is the Buy British movement. And the third of these happens to be the determining factor. Britain is ceasing to import American cars and trucks, and the same tendency is becoming marked in Australia and New Zealand, where English cars more suitable to the conditions can now he offered owing to the 25 per cent reduction in the British horse-power tax.