NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2215, 30 July 1914, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The main point emerging from the discussion of the Motor Bill by the Minister and ; the' President. of the Counties' Association is that the, bearing, of the measure cannot' be properly appreciated until the Government policy on road maintenance has. been' disclosed. Me. Bell stated that the revenue from private cars will be expended on rural roads by an independent board. The Min-, later' estimates the yield from' this source at£4o,ooo, but'whether a special board is to be. set up to exor allocate this sum, or whether it will go to a general roads board, is not yet apparent. The creation of a special board- would •intensify tho main defect in the Bill —a cost of administration disproportionate- to the revenue anticipated. Me._ J ull, as spokesman for the deputation, showed some dissat- ; isfaction with the basis.of taxation proposed, on the ground that motors used for public aiid business purposes escaped too lightly. It should not be forgotten that the commercial motor. is still in its infancy. It would be questionable wisdom to discourage this form of traction with a penal tax at the out-set, and it will be quite a simple matter to increase the rate as may be found necessary in the light of experience.

The workers' dwellings policy of the past has lain in the provision of hcmies_ for city dwellers, and it is high time that an effective move was made to deal with hoilsing.. conditions. in the country. Population is showing a.n increasing tendency to concentrate in . the cities, and it is not at all a hoalthy state of things, as Mil. Hugh Morrison remarked at yesterday's Conference, that tho country should have to depend almost entirely'on the towns for its supply of labour. Mb. Massey has announced that a start is being made in the South with the provision of tlwellings for country workers, but it is highly desirable that'the county councils should be stimulated into greater activity in this direction. The matter is one to which the Board of Agriculture might well dovote attention.

A nice problem for animal psychologists has been raised by the discovery of a dog in Germany which helps a family of school children with their, home, lessons, is well versed in the catechism, and can dictate letters. An account of the achievements of this wonderful animal was given in the London Times last month, and they easily eclipse those of tho thinking horses of Elberfcld, of which so much was heard last year. The dog, by name Rolf, as the property of Madame Moekel, of Mannheim, and its abnormal tal powers are stated to have been discovered by her children, for whom Rolf worked out sums. Some ecclcsiastics, who visited the dog, put the strangest theological questions to it, and, we are told, received the most orthodox replies; When asked the source of his knowledge he frankly replied, "Catechism, Fritz," meaning, apparently, that he had benefited from tho regular catechism lessons of one of Herr Moekel's littk boys. Dn. Volkard, who is do scribed as an able arid levcL-headtl doctor, asked Rolf "What is an animal ?" To this lie received the reply Part of the-primitive soul." A man he defined as also a part, and a dead fowl in picture of still life jjs "gone to. the primitive soul." The answers to tho various questions appear to hare.been tapped.' Papers on the dog hare already appeared in a number of European scientific .lonrnals, and the problem he presents is admitted to be a most baffling one.