NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2395, 26 February 1915, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

To the development 'of the moving picture show .the Wellington public, it is said, largely owes the disappearance of the old Orchestral Society. The picture theatres demanded musicians for their orchestras, and in this and other ways the ranks of the Society became so sadly depleted that for thp last ten years it has been in a moribund condition. The movement to resuscitate it is one that deserves to succeed, and it is satisfactory to havo the assurance of Mr. Leon Cohen that there will be no lack of available talent. The old Society in. its day introduced tbe Wellington public to a wide range of orchestral music that we should otherwise have had no opportunity of enjoying, and has left behind.it one of the finest libraries of music in, Australasia. A little under a year ago an attempt was made to revive the now defunct Municipal Orchestra, but this, it. will be remembered,' was promptly squelched by the City Fathers'.unkind demand that the original guarantors should make good the deficit on the first series of concerts. A good orchestra would be a valuable addition to the recreative resources of the city, and the present movement is one that we can cordially commend to the support of the public.

That section of the community which is addicted to the pleasant habit of patting itself on the back on the least provocation, will find food for reflection in some remarks by Me. Hope Gibbons, of Wanganui, which we print this morning. As a matter of cold fact it is undoubtedly true, _as Mr. _ Gibbons points out, that in a business way the war is the best thing yet that has befallen our export trade. The official ' figures show, for instance, that/ in the twelve months ended on December 31 last the value of the produce exported exceeded by nearly three and a half millions sterling that of 1913, the previous record year. An extraordinary demand has been created for the foodstuffs and wool exported by New Zealand, and is likely to continue throughout the war. These are facts which it. is chastening to bear in mind when contemplating our war contributions, and they should be a stimulus to still further action in a community which prides itself on its patriotism. Australia has been stricken not only with a war but with a drought, but in these fortunate, isles practically the only point at which the shoe has pinched has been in a slight temporary shortage of ships to carry our produce to the most profitable market that has awaited it 1 for many years past. Our due part in the war should clearly not be measured entirely on a per capita basis with that of less fortunate portions of the Empire.

The overcrowding of the mental hospitals some years ago reached a scandalous point, and although the position is not yet what it should be, it. is satisfactory to know that steady progress is being made in providing the necessary accommodation. Some four years ago a • series of tragedies • forcibly directed publio -attention to the matter, and inquiries revealed a most disquieting state of things. From visits made by the Auckland Press it appeared that the overcrowding at Avondale Hospital was particularly bad. Mattresses and shakedowns wero to be seen in every direction, and were laid out along the floor in corridor after corridor and in all sorts of odd corners. The conditions at Avondale and elsewhere have since been radically altered, and the Auckland papers are now able to announce that with the opening of the new buildings there, now practically completed, all fear of overcrowding will be done away for the present, and a more adequate classification of the patients made possible. In New Zealand the State s conception of its duty to the insane has been merely to prevent them from being a nuisance. And even to-day our methods of effecting this result could bo greatly improved on.' Some day Parliament may listen to the experts and discover the possibilities in the curative treatment of mental disease in its early stages!

It is an extraordinary thing that an endowment comprising no fewer than fifty-two sections in the centre of the City should bring in to the Governors of Wellington, College a pittance of something under £200 a year. Yet such has been the case, and the block itself, though closely built upon, has long been as a whole

one of the most dilapidated and unattractive areas within the City boundaries, while a proportion of its residents have lived, under fairly continuous police surveillance. The College at the outset made tho mistake of bargaining away its heritage in block for a sum of £125 per annum. The lease, it is true, fell in for renewal at an increase of fifty per cent, at the end of twenty-one years, ;jn d in March of next year the land will finally "revert to the College. It cannot be said that, tho Governors of our leading educational institution have derived much credit from the management of a valuable endowment. It is to be hoped the mistakes of the past will not again be repeated, but that both the City and the College will be able after 1916_ to look with much more satisfaction than has been possible hitherto on the state of the College Street block. A public body should be a model landlord, and not a glaring example of how not to. do it.