NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 4, 30 September 1920, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The troublo on the waterfront which arose on Tuesday is due to the wrtorciders Again ignoring their undertaking to refer differences ■with tlio employers to the Disputes Committee, and in the meantime to continue working. The men engaged on tho steamer Calm decided, about 10.30 a.m., that as rain ivas falling they would cease work. The shipping company thereupon paid them up to 11 a.m. and dismissed them. Apparently the men had expeoted o, standby at tho company's expense, and not getting it they were aggrieved and claimed that tlu(y should havie been paid to noon. This griovanco was not referred to tho Disputes Committee, but • when calb were subsequently made for labour for the Calm none was forth- e coming. The shipping companies thoro- t | upon refused to eugage labour until tho J Calm is worked in accordance with the * agreement. The issues in the case are 1 simple. The prinoipal fact that emerges i unfortunately ia that an agreement 1 with, the Wellington Waterside Work- ( ers' Union ia not worth the paper it is | written on, ' e ««..*• 1 The refusal of the Imperial Govern- i ment to release Air. M'Swiney and the 1 Cork hunger-strikers has not been followed by the immediately fatal results predicted. Tho prisoners af Cork yes- : torday completed the fiftieth day of j their fnst, and Mr. M'Swiney his forty- ( soventh day—at least that is the position as near as we can check it. The text-books 6tate that when deprived of both food and wator tho human body is capable of supporting life under ordinary circumstances for little more than a week. The use of drinking water and medicinal preparations will greatly prolong tho period, and cases' are recorded of such fasts, or alleged fasts, lasting to £1, aud, in a. few rare instanoes, 50 days. The absolutely indisputable instances, where men have been imprisoned in mines or adrift at sea, do not yield evidence of anything liko such long survival, a fortnight being about the limit of endurance. It lias been alleged that Mr. M'Swiney <uid the other prisoners are being miraculously sustained, but it is more probable that their survival can be accounted for on natural grounds. * # * ' » .. Mr. Holland was again busy in Parliament yesterday attempting to excuse tho inexcusable and identifying himself and his party with the fantastic "grievances" put forward by tho coal'miners for thoir perpetual stoppages of work. If tho Stato miners wish to ride to work in first-olass railway carriages they are much better able to pay tho first-class • fare than most people, and wo fail to see what grounds they can advance to he allowed first-class travel at second-' class rates. Mr. Holland says they went into tho first-class: compartment because there was no room in the second-class. Mr. Maseoy produces figures showing that there were 100 miners on tho train, and second-class accommodation for 112.' Mr. Holland has the effrontery to represent tho Government as "pin-pricking" the poor miners. Even if the case had been ns bad as he rep-resents, and the miners had had to stand during the three miles from Dunollie to Rewanui, they •would still lie suffering much less hardship than that faced daily by the thousands of city workers who make their trips to and from work clinging to a stop on a tram. Mr. Holland must think the people of New Zealand are imbeciles if he would dehfde them with tho claptrap he talked yesterday. They will justify this opinion if they submit' •like sheep to the tyrannical proceedings . o£ those whom he excuses. * # * * A new view of tuberculosis is presented ' by an Italian scientist, Professor Marti- ' nctti, in a communication to the Eoyal ' Academy of Science- at Bologna. At one 1 time the idea was-that whenever a baoil--1 lus was present in tho body there must - bo disease. In consequence, a very grave - outlook was adopted whenever tubercle b bacilli were found. -Yet experience showi ed that many peoplo infected with " tuberclo bacilli onjoyed a romarkable de- ■ gi-oe of good health. Professor Mar- " tinotti pute forward the theory that the ' bacilli occur in tlie human body in two w<vys —they may bo present as the deadly I agentß of disease, they may also be present as more or leas harmless "eaproj phytes." In tho latter case they are unable to exercise their ovil effects. The 3 professor soys it is .nocessary to realise - that the bacilli aot by stimulating tho - colls of the body to multiply and form i a kind of tissue which is not normal, but f dies with great rapidity, and in tho re--1 Bulting dead substance the bacilli cstabf lish them solves and multiply exceeding--0 ly. This disaster can. only bo brought I 1! about if tho bacilli are successful in drivn ing tho .cells of the body "mad." If the j cells resist them, the bacilli aro power- : |e, s s to harm the body of their heat. n l'rofesor Martinotti attempts not to toll n tho baoilli, but to raisO tho resistance of n tho body cells against thorn by a system h of vaccination. He has recorded some 1- good results, and tho progress of his in--8 cestigations may possibly throw much further light on one of the most dreaded )" diseases of mankind.