NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 8, 4 October 1919, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

, A particularly satisfactory reply has been made Jo the allegations of a local Lahouw candidate who asserted a few days ago that there were five, hundred returned soldiers nufc'of work in Wellington. The. records of the. Repatriation Board show that at the end of September' there, were onlv V!) veluvned soldiers on the iist awaitiint employment, and even (Ids miniV-v cannot be regarded,"-- a. nra-ir - " -iicmploymeut. Where em pie. '!-. is being found for »■ stream <'■' return-, iug men it is, of course, inevitable that there should be at all times a floating balance. The until ion is summed up in the satisfactory assurance eivon by the. local Repatriation authorities that when an applicant keeps in touch he is invariably placed "inside of a week or so at the most." ' Probably no country in the world is able to show a better record in regard to the rapid absorption of its returned men than Mew Zealand. Conclusive evidence on the point' was afforded in the Repatriation report lately presented to Parliament. It mentioned, for instance, that in August only 17 returned men throughout the Dominion were in receipt of unemployment l sustenance. While it must be attributed in pari, to the keen demand for labour that exists all over the Dominion, this state of affairs certainly speaks well for the enterprise and eflieiency of the Repatriation Department and its subsidiary, organisations.

Full heed ought to be given to the complaints made at the meeting of the Wellington Centre of ths Life-Saving Society about public indifference to the work in which itis engaged and consequent lack of support. The members of the society htc enthusiasts who devote a great deal of time to promoting a hcalthv sport while at the same time.the instruction they impart is of gFy>tvaliin'as Hiding to safcpuard life. The idea mooted at the meeting that instruction in swimming and life-saving should he. made compulsory (presumably in the case of school children) where facilities ■"••'ist is well worthy of considera' -.- Compulsion may not be found 'visable—at all events provision ..oukl have to be n\."de for exemption in some cases—but there is much to be said [or giving swimming and life-saving .<>. recognised place in the range of' school sports in all places where facilities exist.

Escapes by prisoners arc brooming su frequent as to'suggest that the authorities responsible arc guilty of serious laxity. It was reported yesterday that a long-sentence prisoner had succeeded in breaking out of Mt. Eden Gaol, which is par excellence the strong prison of thfe Dominion. Another criminal who escaped not long ago from a mental hospital is still at large, and there have been other escapes in comparatively recent times, includ jn£ that of a man who gained . a brief period of liberty when he was about to be returned to prison from the local hospital. The latest es-cape,-from Mt. Eden, particularly reflects \iv>oii the methods of the Prisons Department. The man who got away contrived to cut through an iron bar, which implies that in the first, instance ho secured tools of some kind. In a strong prison, specially organised with a -iew to 'he safe keening of danserou* criminals, such things are distinctly discreditable. ,*s a whole the series of escapes lately recorded sug<r<>st!> that the,arrangements for holdim? nvinowM's Frurelv in detention badly need overhauling.

■ Signs point to'a growing'sentiment in favour of placing the family man at an advantage over the single man in llf matter of taxation. Several members of Parliament in. recent times liave specially stressed the necessity of lightening the burdens of the" man with a family, and the idea usually favoured is to increase the .exemption allowance for each child'under the income tax. One member yesterday went further and'suggested that any loss to the revenue should he reeouned by lowering the exemption under the income tax in the case of single men. There h somethinsr *o be sa ; d in support of this proposal as .effecting single men But the relief granted the marred man by an allowance for each child in the matter of income tax., thou fdi welcome, enough to those wlvse incomes are sufficient to coi'i«»l th«m t'i nav taxation, does notbp'M for I' 1" inan with a' 1 income of Ws '-b 'n f''.fin a yea.v. Hoy- is he to be helped and encouraged?

A dip.ect hit was scored by the member for Wairarapa yesterday in his somewhat caustic snetrcstion that the member for Wellington South stood in danger of coining to be known as "the man with one speech. 1 ' Jfot that Mil Seotlk is lacking in a capacity for speech— words flow from him in toriential streams. But there is siieh a sameness about the speeches—f'wnvs a straining after a ton-note effe"t— nhvavs a grievance . ' aeainsf; somebody nr something—-lOwavc everything and cvp.rybofl'- •,(■, fault "veept lb" sunev'or gcnlloiiicn of ''he red lies and (!)(- l,Vii,] i-oif. r? Pavlmmenl. is dull aH dro:"--,-enmipli these days without this add"d monotony.