NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 104, 27 January 1919, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The appearance of influenza in epidemic form in Melbourne, coupled with the discovery of a case-on the steamer Niagara on her arrival al Auckland from Sydney on Saturday last, show the necessity for proper precautions being maintained in .New Zealand in regard to overseas shipping. The Public Health Department no doubt is fully alive to the # clanger of the reintroduction of a virulent form of disease from some new source, and presumably is making the fullest possible inquiries as to the nature and extent of the outbreak in Australia. The wise and the only sound policy to pursue in the matter of safeguarding the Dominion against another visitation such as that experienced last year is to take no risks—to act when in doubt on the side of safety.

Whether New Zealand is to have one or two representatives ■at the' Peace Conference would seem to be tioubling Me. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward a good dea-1 more than the question is troubling the people of New Zealand. Since Mr. Hughes set the example of lecturing and hectoring the British Government and gained a great deal of publicity thereby, the practice seems likely to become pqpular v with colonial politicians. Distance may perhaps alter one's perspective, but the average citizen in these parts of the Empire, instead of'being'impressed, usually feels rather uncomfortable when he reads of these ebullitions. .

The decision of the Peace Conferonce to send representatives to confer with those of Russian factions, including the Bol'sheyiki, does not seem better justified in light of the fuller information supplied to-day. Indeed, it seems very possible that, in this matter'the Allies may proceed from one false step to another. It is stated to-day that the Conference decided "to hold any party blameworthy" which, makes the conference in the Sea of Marmora abortive. If this decision, has actually been reached, it represents at Ivst an attempt to-coerce the moderate elements in Russia, and it looks perilously like helping a gang of murderous criminals to attain the supremacy they desire. The Bolsheviki are stated to be ciuitc willing to confer with the Allies, and no doubt they are. They have everything to gain and nothing to lose "by such a conference. On the other hand, Phince Lvoff, who was at the head of the first Provisional Government formed after the abdication oi : the Tsar, has now declared even more emphatically than M. Sazon'off that the forces opposed to the Bolsheviki will never consent to meet and confer with them on common ground.

A somewhat highly-coloured picture of the tremendous migratory movements to be expected in the near future is drawn in one of today's messages by a correspondent at Paris. He is chiefly concerned with the_ danger that would result from failure to efficiently regulate "the tidal wave of restless humanity," and perhaps t&kcs.too little account of the fact that the wave will hardly attain phenomenal dimensions within the next year or two unless the ayailablo shipping of the world is particularly well organised. In all aspects, however, tho questions raised aro of compelling interest to this country. The importation of Bolshevism is the last thing we desire; on the other hand, the importation of as many desirable immigrants as can be absorbed and established is much to be desired. Our representatives at the Peace Conference should bring back some useful' information in regard to the possibilities of immigration, but the grand difficulty is that of creating openings for immigrants, and it can only be overcome by local action. The first thing necessary is to comprehensively survey and overhaul existing conditions of land settlement and national development with a view to extending settlement in all possible directions. Orderly consideration should be given also to the possibility of introducing new forms of cultivation which might give value to some lands now neglected or little used, and to the possibility of introducing new industries, particularly rural industries. Unless comprehensive national activities are undertaken on-these- lines the. problem of immigration is one in which we shall have a somewhat limited practical interest except from 'the standpoint of excluding undesirables.

While the Allied decision to confer with the- Bolsheviki seems utterly unjust to the moderate factions in Russia, it at the same time seems to assign to the party of terrorism a position of greater power than it actually holds. It has been stated before, and is stated again to-day Tn general terms, that the power of the Bolsheviki is increasing, but reports dealing with military events seem to tell a different story. The Bolsheviki, it is said, are evacuating Petrograd, and an immediate reason appears in the loss of an army of 60,000 men which surrendered to the Esfchonians, who are advancing on Petrograd from the west. One message suggests, however, that the main cause of the withdrawal from Petrograd is the heavy defeat lately sustained by the Bolsheviki in the Perm region (which extends- to the Urals, on the eastern confines of European Russia), where they have long been fighting the Czecho-glovaks and Siberian forces. If the Bolsheviki are in fact meeting military disaster in east and west there should be less reason than ever for inviting them to confer. Their vile record of murder, outrage, and terrorism might in itself, however, have been expected to induce a determination on the part of the Allies to have nothing to do with them. It is suggested that as one result of the projected conference the Bolsheviki may ■ assume responsibility for the debts owing to the Allies by Russia-debts which they repudiated as one of the first formal acts of their usurpation. The recovery nf those debts, however, would Dborly balance tho humiliation involved in havin/r dealings with the criminal pranjt kel by Lenin and Trotsky and in dragooning the parties which are struggling bravely to redeem their country from a tyranny as vile as that which Germany sought to impose.

"I am a Bolshevik, and I don't care who knows it," declared a member of the audience at the labour meeting in the Alexandra Hall laet night. This profession of. political faitb was received with, .warm applause,

LOCAL AND GENERAL _ » _

Tho Wiltshire, carrying returning draft No. 210, is now reported as approximately due to arrive at Wellington about February 3.

The Union Steam Ship Company has granted members of the Merchant Service Guild a war risk bonus of £2 10s. per month. The guild originally asked for .£3 per riionth, and the company offered to pay Jci. The company, however, met the guild half way. The bonus will lie paid as from October 1, 1918. A general meeting of the guild will be held at 11 a.m.-to-day to consider the Union Company's amended proposal for a new agreement. '

For five hours on Saturday night the Union Company's Moeraki lay in the stream waiting for her stokehold complement to be brought up to full strength. Several of her firemen who had signed on. the articles did not report for duty at- the appointed hour of sailing, and as tiiev had not put in an appearance at 5 p" in. the ship a little later left the wharf for the stream. A search for the missing men was instigated, and about ten o'clock the men—four of them—had reached the wharf. They were taken out in a tup, which, however, had hardly left her berth when.the Moeraki began to move down the harbour. The tug tried 1 to overtake the larger ship, tut failed, and the Afneraki steamed on her way to Sydney. It is thoueht that the vessel was able to engage, the necessary men from among fourteen firemen who were passengers on board % These men were of the crew that brought the Moeraki from Sydney to Wellington on Mondav last.

Persons serving liquor to soldiers in hospital blue are liable to a very severe penalty. The blue uniform was originally adopted in England to protect tho-in-valids against themselves in the matter of drinking. Under permit a soldier in a military hospital may visit the city, but on no account must he be served with liquor in an hotel.or anywhere else This warning is givtn, as on at least two occasions recently soldiers from the military hospital at Miramar North have secured liquor by some means or other, and have suffered relapses in. health in consequence. One man—shell-shock casebecame violent, and had to be held down on the homeward-bound' oar, until handed over to the hospital authorities. Captain (Dr.) Levy, of Wellington, has been appointed medical' officer to the Miramar Military Hospital.

Bather a serious accident occurred at the Lambton Railway Station on Saturday morning. Bdmond Adams, a married man, whose, home is in Adelaide Road, was doing some work about one of the gas cylinders tieed for the lighting, of the railway carriages, when some gas became ignited, and he was severely burned about his head and arms. After he had received first i.id he was removed to the Hospital.

"The Dynamics of the Labour. Movement" was the subject of an address delivered by the Rev. Moses Ayrton, of Hnlccmbe, at the Alexandra Hall last night. The speaker denned the dynamics as being the motive forces. One of these forces was political independence. The Labour Party sought to improve the sdcial conditions of the age, and .considered that it could best achieve this aim by holding aloof from other political parties. Labour sought to secure a greater degree of unity among tho people, and desired to promote international amity and peace. Inasmuch as it was necessary to have unity.in the members of the human body, it was also essential that there should be unity in the body politic. ■ ■

A touching reminder of t!je tragic death which befell ten \ew Kvalano'ers who wero run over by an oxwess tiain at Bere Ferrers Station/Devon, on Scptomber 24, 1917 (says the London "Daily Express") was provided recently in the old and qiinint church ol Bore Ferrers, which nestles on Ihe ehoi-ps of the upper reaches of Plymouth Pov.rd. To sen these soldiers, newly arrived from thousands of miles overseas, killed at tha door of the village, .truchcil llie Devra folk profoundly, so they ~ have cre''.Ud a memorial tablet on the stone walls of then , church, -in which Drake on:e worshipped. Engraved on the tablet are the New Zealand coiit-cf-arms, a f^-n leaf, and an inscription. ihe tablet was unveiled and a memorial service 'held, tho Bishop of Exeter (Lord William Cecil) officiating. Almost all the inhabitants of the village attended. The New Zealand Military Headquarters wns represented. , ■ v Tinder a new Act of last session it wn<s provided that a Promotions Board should be set up in connection with the Post and Telegraph Department to deal with promotions in that branch of .the Gov'eminent service. The board, it. was enacted, was to be comprised of the Secretary of the Department, the Chief Inspector, the Chief Telegraph Engineer, Hie Superintendent of Staff, and one elected member to be appointed by the staff. Tho election of the, last-named member of the bonrd has been fixed 'to take place on February 12. Ah , . A. T. Marknmnn, Acting Chief Inspector, will act ns returning officer. .

A Press Association telegram from Auckland states that a New Zealand record was established on Friday by a soaplana from tho Ebhimarama School, which reached an altitude of 65(10.feet. The previous record was established by Mr. Hill, of Sock-burn, with 5600 feet.

The spectacle of n four-foot shark swimming about on the surface of the water a few feet from the shore in Karaka Bay last evening caused considerable excitement among those who happened to bo in the vicinitv. The fifih was so close that the boys pelted it with stones, and several limes hit the Intruder, but without disturbing its equanimity. Finally the shark appeared to realise that it was regarded as an enemy, and made for the. open water and security.- The fact that there are sharks about given to inshore frolics should make beach bathers careful.

In tho Magistrate's Court on Saturday morning, before Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M.. Timothy Donovan, convicted of drunkenness for the second thno within six months, was fined 10s.. in default 48 hours' imprisonment. A fine of M was imposed on William Honry Whiterod, who was convicted of discharging offensive matter on to a jjublic street.

At a meeting of the directors of the Wairarapa Automobile Association Mutual Insurance Company, hold in Tarterton on Friday night, Mr. H. A. Bunny was elected chairman.

Many of thoso people who have been detained in AVcllington owing to the epidemic nnd consequent dislocation of tho steamer 'traffic, and who. after two months' delay sire passengers by .the Moeraki. nro bound for Melbourne. In view of the outbreak of influenza in that city it was not without considerable trepidation that they loft these snores on Saturday. ' Some openly confessed that it was tantamount to jumping "from the frving-pan into the "fire." Tho.-n whnso business. forces 'them to go to Melbourne will nrobahly find themselves held up, or at least inconvenienced, by the tiropnced interstate restrictions on traffic. There have been cases where people intending to go to Melbonrne havo, after two months' waiting, deemed it prudent to cancel their arrangement to avoid the possibility of lining penned up in the Victorian capital.

Advices by the mail iust to handetdte that members of thn New Zealand Expeditionary Forces in the French hospitals were being quickly sent across to England. One of the most recent was die" case of a young soldier from the Wairarapa district who had wr.ipletoly lost his eight. He was engaged on divisional headrmarters work, fi'id was one of a party sitting arnmid .a. f'e they had built around an oM l-eich. There must have been a lomb in (he earth Mow ttii , five. as..it Wew ).p and destroyed his sight. The interest evinced by returned soldiers in national matters augurs well for the future of this Dominion. Tho problems to be discussed on Wednesday night next at the massing meeting will affect not only the returned men themselves but the" country generally, and nmongst the most important questions the big ii.iittp- of vopr.h-intion, in which tho pssoeinlion dec"' tlionnelves flouted by Pnrliiment, will be fully discussed. The Wellington Returned Soldiers' Association, under whose auspices the meeting is tobe held,- is inviting all returned Men whether members or not of the organisation to be prewnt,

"The bravest man I ever saw" is the description given by his brigadier-gen-eral of Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil Humphreys, of Christchurch, who went to Franco as a private in 1914, and wae commanding a battalion of the Norfolk Eegiment before he died of wounds. , .Pilfering from shops is quite a common practice in Wellington, but it is seldom thnt the offenders are brought to the bar of justice. Ill'-conversation with a Dominion reporter on Saturday, a local chemist remarked that every time a rearrangement was. made of goods oh top of the show cases in his pharmacy it was discovered that some article was missing. The latest disappearance was that of a small pocket camera, valued at r£2. This had been kept in a box on the shop counter, and had lain there for some time. Olio day last week, however, tt was desired to show the camera to a customer, but when the box was opened it was found to be empty. "When people in need of. n wash stenl a cake of soap we don't mind so much," said the chemist, "but the theft of o .£2 camera is viewed in a somewhat different light." Miss Maude Eoyden, preaching in the City Temple, London, recently, said it must strike English people with both pride B,nd shame to see the physique of the soldiers from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—so tall, well-eet-up, and .splendid. That was not an. impossible thing to do in Great Britain, but it rad not been done because they were aiways trying to shift their responsibility. In New; Zealand the death rale among babies under 12 months old used to be as high as in Great Britain. The (It&th rate had been reduced from 100 per 1000 to 40 per 1000, because the [uoplc bad eet to work to improve their nnlk 3".p----pi}*,-and did not think i.nythiag txo small to care about. Now the war was over England would have the chiir.ee of an age .to improve these tnin?s, and she hoped they would not say tiiey could not help them.