NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 24, 23 October 1920, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

•New' Zealand is fortunate in its new Governor-General,.and. judging from the receptions given His Excelloncy, is thoroughly aware of that fact. In these dais when there, is a feeling of slackness nnd indifference in the atmosphero it. is a big thing to have a Governor-General whose motto is "thorough," as Lord Jellicoe's yery clearly is.- Since his arrival less than a month ago ho has taken every opportunity of mixing with the people and giving his personal support and patronage to all manner of useful institutions. Now Zealand is intensoly proud in any ease that so distinguished a man should have cared to leave the centre of things in Britain to spend five years away at tho ends of tho earth here as its Governor-General, and it is now waking tip to the fact that in Lord Jollicoe it is likely also to have possibly tho most painstaking and personally popular representative of the' Crown who has ever occupied its Government House. Tho children who thronged tho Town Hall on Thursday evening at any rate showed themselves emphatically of that opinion, and their elders as' cordially shared it.

The decision of- the British railwaymen to strike in support of tho miners is especially significant in view of the revolutionary spirit that has permeated sections of Labour. If coal and transport come to an end it means the stoppage of industry generally, and it is precisely this general dislocation which the revolutionaries desire to bring about as a first step in their programme. This morning it is announced that the transport workers are discussing tho question of coming out. If they join in a complete hold-np of British national life will be imminent. In u country depending to bo largo an extent on imported foodstuffs tho position is exceedingly grave. So far the opening stages of the struggle havo been on tho lines desired by the British Bolshevists. at their conference lost year. It was thero stated that in anticipation of a general strike the Bolshevists had appointed numerous secret committees to supply fuel and food to the rebels and their families and to ensure that it should be withheld from the rest, of tho population. It is difficult to estimate, especially at this distance, what importance attaches- to tho Bolshevist elements in the strike. All wo know is that their ambition is to bring about an upheaval of this kind, and they may. bo relied upon to ,uso whatever influence they possess to foment revolutionary disorders during its conrso. It, is welcome news indeed to learn from the Public AVo'rks Statement that legislation is 1 being prepared making provision for tho Government taking over the control and maintenance of main roads. Mr. Coatcs adds that should his proposals bo carried out it is hoped to adopt the most modern methods of construction and maintenance, and to- putwork in .hand on a largo scale. T|»is legislation is bound to bo of a conleiilious nature, as there aro so many different views of .how the main roads question should be handled. Oiovornnient control of arterial roads is tho soundest course, but, although it .lian been talked of for years in connection with local government reform, no Government has ever' thought it worth while lo take the matter up and push it through to a definite conclusion. Tho attitude has always been to retire gracufiillv on the first signs of any hostility liv the local governing bodies (o what many of them regard as an encroachment on'their preserves. The result is seen in the present state of the Dominion's highways. Perhaps the hard logic of facts will by this time havo overcome the opposition to Government control of main roads. Road usors can

only pray that this may provo to be so. Mr. Coates's programme is .excellent. Tlie only thing that can improve it will bo to date, to make thnl. date an early ono.

On Tuesday evening next New Zealand is to be asked to fall into lino with the great, international peace programme of the League of lied Cross Societies, The league was organised at Paris in May of Inst year, and its purpose is to associate the Rod Cross societies of the world in a systematic effort to anticipate, diminish, and relieve the misery produced by disease and calamity. To effect this end the Bed Cross societies of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States have banded together, and have invited the other societies throughout the world to join them. After fifty years of honourable service in the cause of humanity the Bed Cross societies underwent an amazing development of their powers in the war, and the new organisation has been created, to cope with peace-time needs in a much more complete way than has been possible in the' past. It is lightly' contended that the health problems of the world can never bo solved by doctors alone,, nor by Governments alone. To meet them the henrty volunteer co-oper-ation of tho peoples themselves must be' enlisted. Port of. the programme is to organise flying columns to copo with epidemics and disasters in every; part of the world; to create a great educational movement iu favour of hygiene and.tho raising of children; and to establish central research laboratories where the world's efforts in solving tho problems of disease may be concentrated. At Tuesday evening's meeting the programme of work for New Zealand under the scheme will be explained.'' No more beneficent. organisation than the Bed Close exists in tho' world, and it deserves all the support that tho citizens of this Dominion can give it in extending nnd. developing its activities.

» * » » Although they disclose n big increase in traffic, tho figures of tho Railways Working Account for the period from April 1 to September 13, 1920, show also ii much less prosperous state of affairs than wag shown for the corresponding period Inst year. The marked feature of this year's return is a great, growth in expenditures which much more than balances tho coincident increaso in revenue and leaves a much smaller balanco of not revenue than was shown last year for a similar period. Tho position appears in the following table:— 1918. 1920. (Aprillto (April Ito Sept. 18.) Sept. 13.) £, £ Ilcveniie WIS.SBt 2,(101,217 Expenditure ... 1,670,031 Ui%\% Wet revenue M 7,953 4P2.022 The difference of live days between tho two periods does not seriously affect the comparison It will be seen that although gross receipts for 'the period increased this year by nearly .£600,000, tho net revenue or last year's period is redpeed this year by nearly one-third. These figures demonstrate that Hie increase in fares and freights which camo into force on August 26 Inst was badly needod. In 1919, the ' revenue and expenditure amounted respectively to about two-fifths of the revenue and expenditure for the comploto financial year If the same held good o c this year's April-September figures, and' the present ratio of expenditure to revenue were maintained, the percentage of net revenue to capital invested for the current year would be only a little over three per cent., as compared with 4.53 per cent, last year and 4.65 per cent, in 191819 Unless expenditure is further incretsed, an improvement in the figure's for the half-year may be looked for, how ever, in view of the fact that on September 13 the latest increase in-fares ahd troights had been m foreo only for a week or two. Even so, it seems rather doubtful whether the railways, during thi current financial year, will earn interest on tho' capital invested. The latest return casts instructive light on tho enormous increase in working costs—due mainly to wago increases and the high cost of coal—in an enterprise which is not called upon to provide anything in the shape of (private profit.

In the days of our youth stage favourites whose popularity was on the wane had a habit of becoming the victims of jewel robberies. These misfortunes still afflict the stage, for only a few months ago Signorina Caruso was robbed of jewellery valued at somo hundreds of thousands of pounds, or dollars, wo forget which. Caruso, who was singing in Havana at the time, gallantly telegrnphei to his wife telling her not to worry' as a cheque was coming by followingpost to replace the stolen articles A Caruso can still bo robbed of jewels and secure N bold headlines in the newspapers. When a musical comedy actress reaches the ago of fifty interest in either her peiaonality or her jewels is apt to be languid. Miss Connie Eddis, a popular favourito of a quarter of a century ago, at this stage in her career has had the brilliant inspiration of seizing on the latest olixir of life th© scientific world has to offer. In June it was announced that Professor Veronoff, surgeon to tho Russian Hospital in Paris, had made experiments in grafting thyroid glands to counteract old' age. The thyroid gland, as is well known, is nn important factor in controlling tho giwvth of tho body, anl irregularities in growth can be successfully overcome .by thyroid treatment; usually administered by mouth. Professor Veronoff, however,- went further, awl in 1013 transplanted the thyroid gland of an ape into a boy with completely successful results Lately he claimed to havo discovered by experiments on two old people that old age' could bo arrested by replacing the worn-out thyroid glands with those of young apes. After her operation Miss Connie Eddis stated that she felt young enough to scamper across the fields, and not anything like fifty. Thero may possibly be more significance than appears in her added remark that B he "wanted to climb trees-liko a inon-

Cabled news of tho forthcoming election in America deals as a rule chiefly with Presidential prospects, but an outslat ding fealn.ro of tho campaign is tlie keenness with, which both main parties aro concentrating on the elections to tho Senate. At prcsont'the Republicans nio in a, majority nf two in the Senate, ami with parlies thus almost balanced the campaign managers on either side are fighting hard not only to elect their caud'datc as Presidont, but to givo him a Senate containing a majority of his own political faith. Owing to the fact that milv one-third of the members of thu Sci'itiu retire at each biennial election, neither of the two great parties has any prospect of securing -&B two-thirds of the Scnnlo membership which would give k a ready-made majority on Treaty railCoition and other questions (if foreign I policy in which the Scimto shares'~a~ir-- . thority ond responsibility with tho Prosit

dont. Of the 32 Senate seats about to bu contested, 17 aro at'present'held by Democrats and 15 by Republicans. In order to secure a two-thirds majority, the ltvpublicans would have to capture nil but oho (if Iho 32 scats. The Democrato, if they captured the whole of the 32 seats, would still be short of a two-thirds majority, llesults as sweeping as this are lilt anticipated one way or the other. Neither party is at all likely to obtain more than a simple majority in the Senate, but the measure of advantage such a. majority.entails is regarded as vitally inipt riant, and each party is straining every nerve to secure it.