NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 103, 26 January 1920, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Tim refusal of tlio Dutch C!iiv«ni-| nicnt lo surrender Hi'.; _ ex-Kaiser ■ raises a thorny problem for tin; A\-\ lies. Tim demand for surrender was made hy i\l. C'i.emknceau as snokwiman for the Allies, and was in pursuance of thi) terms of the Peace Treaty. Holliind's reply to it is that, she is not a party to the Peace Treaty, and is not bound by its terras, and she consequently refuses

surrender. If the ex-Kaiser wen; in Germany he would have to lie surrendered for trial by the German Government with the other spseified war criminals, and the question is whether a filth-rate little neutral State is to override (he terms of peace signed at Versailles by thn majority of the nations of thn world. The Dutch take their stand on technicalities. It remains to he seen whether they intend mora than a gesture, of protest with a view to keeping in with all parties. They are a people with a constant dread of being ground between ihe upper and the nether mill-stone. If they imcrely want a demand for submission from the League of Nations it should not be difficult to give thorn one, as that body has been constituted and has already held its inaugural session.

A CORI!IWPONT)F.N"T has written directing attention to (he slackness: of certain conductors in collecting fares on the city tramways. _ Hu states that on Saturday morning hn travelled in a car from the beginning of its run at Lambton Station up to Manners Street, and, although the car was crowded, the conductor did not collect a. single fare until half way up Willis Street. In the meantime many passengers had left the car. There, is undoubtedly at times a great deal of slackness in the collection of tramway fares. Many conductors are keen and alert, but there appear to be some who aro quite the reverse. It is noticeable also that ticket inspectors arc met with much less frequently on the Wellington cars than on those of most other cities. Attention to these matters hy the Tramways Department is needed if a heavy leakage of revenue is to be stopped.

It is not very sporting of Mr,. Brookes to enck'iivour to deprive AW' Zealand of its right to have the next Davis Cup contest decided In the Dominion. Unhappily it is true that at the moment we have no player who is likely to secure a, place in the Australasian _ team which will light for the retention of the highest honour in the world of tennis. Our best player to-day is the present champion, Ollivier, of Christchurch, who has all the skill but lacks the temperament of a firstclass player. Still, it was a New Zeajander, the late Anthony Wilding, who assisted to first bring the Davis Cup to Australasia, and who later on, when it was lost by a purely Australian team, again assisted to regain it for this part of the world. Mr. Brookes admits that New Zealand has the right to claim that the contest should be played here on the next occasion, and this being the case why should New Zealand tennis enthusiasts he deprived of the educational advantages which such iv contest would afford'! As to the opinion expressed that the Americans would not care to play in AW Zealand on account of the weather conditions, well, after the experiences of the recent contest in AW South Wales, when the play was interfered with day after day by the rain, that is rather amusing. New Zealand weather is good enough for most people, and the bogey rinsed by Mr. Brookes on this account is really too childish to deceive anyone. It looks very much as though Mr. Brookes were more concerned for the convenience of Mr. Brookes than for the wishes of the possiblo challengers for the cup,

A first step towards the creation of an arterial road from Taihapo to, Napier was taken by a representative meeting of settlers at Taihapo last week. After an explanation of the proposals by Mit. Maid, the liangitikci County Council Engineer, resolutions were adopted in favour of raising a loan of £6u,CUU for roading purposes. The worka contemplated include the completion of some fifty miles of road and the building of two bridges, and will mean tlie construction of a good metal mad from the Main Trunk railway at Taihapo, via Pukcokahu and Otupae, to Napier and Hastings. Besides providing a new through route this roading scheme will give needed access to a large area of back country in course of settlement. The undertaking is one that deserves to be pushed through to completion with as little delay as possible.

Twenty years ago, when Cecil Rhodes drafted his scholarship scheme, an income of £300 a year was liberal for a student at Oxford University. From the inception of the scheme in 1002 until the war broke out twelve years later the cost of living was already busily climbing and the purchasing power of the pound had materially decreased by 1914. That decline, however, was as nothing to the cataclysm that has since befallen the possessors of fixed incomes, and the Rhodes Scholarships wear a vastly different; aspect financially from what thcy_ did in pre-war days. The University Senate is bringing the matter of an increased allowance under the attention of the Rhodes Trustees. The published summaries of the annual reports of the trustees do not disclose in what the .Rhodes millions are invested and what accretions ol capital and income have taken place. If the money is in Consols and similar pre-war securities which have declined in value during tl)(j war, it will clearly be a case of plainer living and higher thinking for future Rhodes Scholars.

Samoa as a field for soldier settlement has been under discussion by the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association. The fate of the late German plantations in the group baa yet to be decided, and it has been stated that married men could make r.n admirable living on these cut up into blocks of a hundred or a hundred and fifty acres each. Samoa is not, a white man's country, and any settlement there must be on vastly different lines from that in this country. The first essential is a sup ply of labour for the plantation work, and until our policy for the development of the group is worked out it would be a great mistake to attempt to push any settlement scheme. The matter, however, is one that may well iorrn fchs subject ol some consideration by members of Parliament on their forthcoming tour to our new dependency.

Mr. P. Frasek, _M.P., proposes to take "a deputation, not of the ordinary kind, but a very big deputation of the working women of Wellington" (o impress on Hit. Mawu'.y the urgency of !he housing ■ (luestion. Mil. Fuasku denies that i there is any shortage of labour to : build houses. "This Building Trades Federation said they were prepared to find the labour, and," declares f he member for Wellington Central, "be i would not accept the excuse thai", houses could not lie built because labour could not bo found." If Mn. i ; Phaser has any other object than

getting up a hot-air performance and really desires to contribute something in a practical way to the solution of the housing question he would he wise to make up his "very big deputation," not of housewives, but of members of the Building Trades Federation not now employed on building work. If he. cannot produce these out-of-work carpenters and builders' labourers he will only be wasting the time of his lady friends by marching them about the town.