NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1103, 17 April 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

_ The details of the finances of the city for the past financial year, as given to the City Council by the Mayor on Wednesday last, arc upon the whole satisfactory, although Mr- Wilfohd's rough and ready summary, in which lie shows better results under some heads than in the preceding year, is not very scientific. The Electric Lighting Department appears to be running well, and to afford a proof that the city would gain nothing desirable from being tacked on to any portion of

the Government's hydro-olcetric scheme. Of most importance was the Mayor's statement upon the working of the tramways. AVe have never boon able to feel that the finances of this important enterprise are as thoroughly sound as they ought to be, and the figures for the past year do anything but give us a reason for revising our opinion. The increase in the revenue was only £2663 (the increase of £064 from the sale of power is quite fortuitous, and is apart from the system as a transport system), but working expenses increased by £3018. The final result was thus roughly the same as last year. The Mayor was accordingly stating an obvious enough fact, and deducing an equally obvious moral, when he said that the revenue was not buoyant and that the Council should therefore proceed carefully and warily. As a first step the wasteful traffic management is to be overhauled, as it ought to have been long ago. The city is now a large corporation, and the time has arrived when the citizens should realise that municipal finance is as important as national finance. It appears that three years hence the falling in of city leases will benefit the city by an extra £30,000 a -year, a sum that would certainly pay the interest on large works, as the Mayor says; but it is to be hoped that the everpresect need for economy, which the extended franchise must make still more difficult to maintain, will not bo lessened in anybody's mind by calculations as to how many hundreds of thousands can be borrowed on the strength of this coming windfall.

The Wairarapa Racing Club is reported to have turned off its course on Saturday a number of bookmakers suspected of "tote" betting, and we hopt to see other clubs taking similar action. The increased taxation imposed on racing clubs by the Government, as a sort of set-off to the abolition of the bookmakers from racecourses, has pressed very severely on some of the smaller clubs, and it is necessary for them to protect their revenue from tho incursions of the illegal layer of "tote", odds. But apart from this aspect of the question, the bookmaker has no right to exist as such in New Zealand. The law condemns his business as illegal, yet it is common knowledge that these people continue to ply their calling all over tho country in defiance of the law. There is not a race meeting of any importance in any part of the country that is not the subject of wagers at- "tote' , odds in Wellington, and the same state of things exists in the other towns. This, as we have pointed out on previous occasions, is a far greater evil than racecourse betting. Very few people outside those who live by racing or who have the means and the leisure to travel about tho country attend any but the race meetings held in the vicinity of their place of residence. As such meetings are comparatively few in number, their opportunities for legal betting on horse racing are ssverely restricted. But with the bookmakers operating in the towns those who choose to take the risk can bet all the year round on meetings held all over the country. It is this class of hotting on horse races that is most harmful, and which every effort should be made to restrict to tho narrowest possible limits. We do not think it can be stamped out altogether, but when the person betting v/ifch a bookmaker is made to realise that he, as well as the bookmaker, is liable to a severe penalty for his breach of the law, there will unquestionably be a substantial fall-ing-off in this class of gambling. The police have not up to the present distinguished themselves in the matter of enforcing the new Act. Perhaps it is' that what is everybody's business is nobody's business; or possibly it is that the fact that the bigger bookmakers have powerful friends in high quarters is a damner on their enthusiasm. If the Commissioner of Police were to select two or three of the best of his detective force to give up their time exclusively for a period to the task of breaking up the bookmaking fraternity, we have no doubt that the result would be beneficial. It is a dangerous thing to have a law of this kind on the Statute Book and for the public to know that it is constantly being violated without the law-breakers being brought to book. It certainly is not calculated to increase respect for the law or for the guardians of the law.

If he is correctly reported, we are afraid that although ho did not wish to do so Sir Joseph Ward actually did "trespass upon the domain of English politics" with his statement upon Home Rule. It was "possible," he suggested, "that the continued failure of English statesmen to find a permanent solution of the Irish question barred the way to complete Anglo-Saxon unity." Perhaps there is nothing improper in Sir Joseph Ward's indirect censure of the statesmen of Britain, but it was undoubtedly unwise of our representative to make a statement that, in the present state of tho Irish question, can so easily be turned to party uses by the British Radicals. Even if he wished, the Prime _ Minister cannot in his present position "speak for himself" on public questions; and New Zealand certainly would rather not have itself identified with any view of a burning question in British domestic politics. In any event there is plenty of reason for believing that Sir Joseph Ward's idea is entirely baseless. It is an idea entertained only by those who take seriously the activities of the German-American and Irish-Ameri-can ' Associations in the United States. A meeting was held by these anti-British enthusiasts in New York recently, and some very fiery speeches of the usual kind were mado against the proposal for; an arbitration treaty between Britain and the United States. But a shrewd comment upon the meeting was that it would not influence a single vote in Congress. No doubt Sir Joseph Ward's speech will tempt the less scrupulous Radicals in Britain to picture the colonies as likely to cut the painter unless Home Rule is granted to Ireland.

LOCAL AND GENERAL,

The Huddart-Parker s'.camer from Sydney did not arrive at Auckland in time to connect with the .Main Trunk express, which left far Wellington n t 9.15 o'clock last evening. The mail—Australian only —will arrive by Die second (extra) express due here to-morrow morning. A man who had fallen into the harbour oft' Queen's Wharf, about 10 o'clock on Saturday night, was hauled ashore by Constable Doggcit and a couple o'f civilians. On account of the man's condition, tho constable arrested him for Urunkeuv.os;. Over 7CO persons attended a temperance meeting last evening, held at Petone. The Kev. L. SI. Isitt presided, and in his speech dealt extensively with various arguments put forward by the supporters of the drink traliic. At tho conclusion of his address, a number of questions were asked and answered. The application by Captain F. B. Ivnyvett for a new trial of his case has not yet advanced beyond the stage of correspondence with tho Defence Department. The present position, the Hon. G. I'owlds told a "Herald" reporter, is that tho Department is now waiting for a reply to a letter sent to Captain Knyvett a. few days ago. . The proposal to hold a big exhibition in Auckland within tho next few years is now assuming a more definite form (says the "Herald"). The suggestion was made some months ago by the then president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. J. H. Gunson, who urgal that an exhibition should b<; held in Auckland in 1015 to commemorate tho opening of the Panama Canal. The question was remitted to a sub-committee, comprising Messrs. Leo M. Myers (now president of the chamber), J. H. Gunson, 11. A. Clark, S. A. Longuct, J. B. Sfacfarlane, A. B. Ecberton, and F. E. N. Gaudin, for consideration, and to report within six months. A meeting of that subcommittee is now being convened by the president of the chamber for Thursday next, when the questions of the date and location of the exhibition will come up for discussion. It has been suggested that the exhibition should be held about the end of 1913, as to hold it over until IDIS would be unnecessarily delaying the consummation of an excellent project. The president of the chamber, it is understood, is strongly in favour of holding an international exposition in place, of a provincial one provided sufficient interest is manifested by the commercial community in the undertaking. At midnight the clouds were broken in many part? of the heavens by traces of blue sky, and though tho weather did not look quite settled, the prospects of fine weather for the holiday were brighter than they had been on any of tho last few evenings.