The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdsys, and Saturdays Saturday June 24th, 1916. CURRENT TOPICS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7740, 24 June 1916, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdsys, and Saturdays Saturday June 24th, 1916. CURRENT TOPICS.

Education Board Election. It is not generally known, and the education authorities are not unduly exerting themselves to let the fact become generally known, that the Education Board elections this year will be conducted in accordance, with the provisions of the Education Act, 1914, which provides for the redefinition of the education districts. Under the old system Hawke’s Bay had three wards, North, South, and Middle, each having three representatives on the Board. Under the new Act the wards still remain, but they only apply to the rural areas. Thus Napier will elect two members, and the Middle Ward, which includes Waipawa and all the schools in this district, will also elect two members, as against three in former years. Nominations are due next Wednesday. The Act specifies that the election shall take place on the third Wednesday in .July, 1916, but the Hawke’s Bay Education Board, for some unknown reason, have fixed it for Monday, July 19th. Each member of a school committee lias a vote in the election.

Middle Ward Representatives. There appears every indication of a keen contest for the two seats in the Middle Ward. The retiring members arc; Messrs G. F. Roach and J. A. Miller, who, we understand, are offering themselves for re-election. Mr Beattie, a resident of Napier, has been nominated by the Westshore School Committee, and Mr Gilbert McKay, of Otane, is likely to be nominated from this end of the district. So that with four nominations, committees will have plenty of choice. We would suggest to members of committees that in recording their votes they should consider the claims of this district to representation. We do not put this forward in a parochial spirit, but simply from the fact that a resident in the district will be in a much better position to present matters to the Board than one who probably never visits the district from one year’s end to the other. Napier will have two representatives, so that from the country point of view the claims of Mr Beattie need not be considered, and so far as this district is concerned the contest will lie between Messrs Roach, Miller, and McKay. If we narrow it still further and suggest that Mr McKay has strong claims on the country vote, the dual choice lies between Messrs Roach and Miller, both estimable gentlemen, but the former has the longest service to his credit.

State Enterprises. Parliament has entered on the discussion of the Estimates, following the collapse of the Budget debate, and some very pointed questions are likely to be asked concerning some State enterprises. One subject will be the lack of enterprise shown by the State Fire Office. This Department, which was originally created to break up the lire insurance ring, has settled down into the groove made for it by the companies, and makes little or no effort to secure now business. Yet it continues to improve its position financially, showing the need for competition. The State coal mines, too, are bound to come in for some measure of criticism, as they did the other night from the member for Mataura; but here Mr P. C. Webb is prepared with a. reply which will appeal to many housewives, however it may strike the unsympathetic taxpayer. The member for Grey claims that the State mines already save consumers £60,000 a year, and that they would save them ten times that amount if they were developed as they should be. When questioned upon the matter in the House, Mr MacDonald said that while the private dealers had raised their prices from 5s to 8s a ton since the beginning of the war, the State depots had made no increase at all. It was on this statement that Mr Webb based his calculation.

Germany’s Food Supply. It is not wise to attach too much importance to the messages that are now reaching us in increasing numbers about the shortage of food in Germany—that is, importance to the extent of thinking that the nation is on the verge of collapse or can over be beaten by purely economic means. But after making due allowance for the vagaries of rumor and the German policy of hoodwinking the enemy, there is abundant evidence of the distress and unrest caused by the war. The following extract from a letter appearing in a Leipsic paper tells a plain tale: —“On Wednesday night, about 10 o’clock, I passed a closed butter shop on the Konigsplatz. There were about thirty women gathered there, and standing among them children of 12 to 14 years. In reply to my amazed question what they were ail doing there at that time of night 1 was told that these poor folk stand there the whole night through in order to get margarine when the shop is opened next morning. So all night long, in wind and weather, these un-

happy people wait to get a little margarine. "What will be the ponderings of our soldiers at the front when they discover how hard things arc made for their women and,children to obtain a little margarine at an exorbitant price?’’ It is no wonder that an otlicer urges the censoring of letters to the troops lest they be discouraged. Turning from the poor to the well-to-do, we find that even in the most expensive restaurants the law does not allow more than two kinds of soup, two hors d’oevres, and two meat dishes to appear on the bill of fare at once, and only one each of these may be served to any person, while second helps are absolutely forbidden. Moreover, to economise in the use of fat, food must be brought in on the plate, and not in the dish. These restrictions, of course, are not terrible, but they are a hardship for people who have been accustomed to live well. If people of means are so restricted, the sufferings of the poor may be imagined. Two recent cases are reported in which women carrying food were mobbed in the streets of Berlin.