NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 33, 3 November 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

If the Mangahao hydro-electric works are not completed up to time—three year 3 hence—it will not be for lack of public interest in their process. Keen as we may bo to secure cheap eleotric power we cannot all be climbing over the mountain ranges every week or two to see what the Public Works Department is doing. By stepping into the breach and setting up a committee to make periodic visits and issue reports through the Press, the Mangahao HydroElectric Power League is performing a public service for which it is entitled to the gratitude of the community. The report appearing in this morning's issue is favourable throughout, and the committee appears to be well pleased with the progress made 6ince its last inspection. The labour supply is now sufficient and the original difficulties in this respect have been satisfactorily overcome. The outlook is good provided the generating machinery for the tunnelling plant comes to hand shortly and work is not hung up thrqugh delay in its arrival. Tho committee does well to issue a word of caution to those districts talking of developing small supplementary power schemes. , With power available from Mangahao in three years and from Waikaromoana a year later the present attractiveness of the small projects is not likely to be lasting. It would also be unfortunate for thorn in the meantime to enteV into competition with the Government for labour and supplies.

* * That Hie roads around Wellington city are acquiring all unpleasant notoriety was indicated in Monday's debate iu Hie Ilouse of Representatives on the liotorua Town Lands Bill. Mr. Mnssey declared it would be difficult to find worse roads than those leading to Kotorun.' To this Mr. Nanta interjected that the Prime Minister would not need to leave ■Wellington to discover them. Mr. Mn?sey admitted this, but optimistically added that Wellinßton was improvinc every day. Later on Mri Edic also sought to minimise the' badness of the Rotorun roads, and opined that they were at any rate no worse than those around "■Wellington and some other towns." It is no credit to the city that the decrepitude of its two main WrKwws to the interior should bo used as a standard o! 'comparison t>y which to estimate the decrees of badness of the roads in remote centres elsewhere. The fault lies not so much with the city or the surrounding distriots as in tho breakdown of the local government system 60 far as main road maintenance is concerned. The two counties adjacent to tho city, through which nearly eiffhty miles of arterial roads run, are noither populous nor wealthy. It 16 quite beyond their financial resources to maintain these highways In. an efficient state for the johme

of through traffic running over them. Jfr. Massey is bringing down his Roads Bill before the session ends, and it is earnestly to be hoped that it will pavo the way to some early relief of tho situa* tion here and elsewhere.

* * # * One Bafcis£aotoiy result of tho British cool 6trike is its demonstration of tie Impotence of the Bolshevist revolutionaries in the trade union movement. A message this morning describes how tho oxtremiat policy was rejected when tho issue was nakedly stated. It does not, of course, require acute perception to understand that "social and economio eonditiona will not be improved by cutting one another's throats, hanging elderly 'politicians to lamp-posts, blowing up the Houses of Parliament and other foolishness of this sort.' This is the path of social reform which Lenin would have Britain tread, and curiously enough its advocates in Britain appear to bo recruited extensively from the same 6ourcea that provided ■ the "conscientious objectors" of the kto

war. Miss Sylvia Pankhurst and various .other irresponsiblos have been carried off itheir feet by tho Russian moon-madness, but it has left the responsible trades union movement cold. The British people have political institutions and a Constitution that have mado them the greatest and freest nation the world has seen. What they have built up by laborious efforts through the centuries they are in no mood to tear down overnight to replace with some concoction from Russia, of all places. Perhaps the developments in Britain may convince our local Labour extremist amateur* in blood and thunder that although Bolshevism may be forced on Russians who can neither road nor write the time for it passed in New Zealand when Te Rauparaha died.

The Commonwealth. Constitution has never been to the liking 1 of the Australian Labour Party, and its proposals for recasting it aro not surprising. When the movement for federation was afoot in Australia Labour was not highly organised politically, and the Labour politicians of those days took little interest in the project. The result- was that in the main the fields of industrial legislation were left to* the States. The Commonwealth Parliament can legislate only on tho subjects' referred to it by the Constitution Act, and tho residue of power lies in the hands of tho States. In this it follows tho model of the United States Constitution. In Canada the arrangement is the other way about; the provincial-Legis-latures have circumscribed fields and tho residue is with' tho Dominion Parliament, The Labour Governments of the Commonwealth have found their desires blocked in many directions by the limitations of the Constitution, and have failed repeatedly to secure its amendment, a complicated process. Apparently tho Labour Party now aims at replacing federal scheme by<a systeni of government .that comes closo to unification. Tills was tho ideaT for which Sir George Dibbs fought valiantly in the nineties, but local feeling was too strong for him and the colonies were emphatically against parting with more rhan certain specified to'a federal Government. •' State feeling still runs high in Australia, and it remains to be seen whether tho experienco of twenty years of federalism is to pave the way to unification, with subordinate provincial Legislatures. """" * • • « The Melbourne Cup, won yesterday by that sterling horse still continues to hold its place as the groat rac-' ing event, in tbo Southern Hemisphere. It is worthy of note, that on tho present occasion for the. 6ccond timo only in the long history of the race has it been won by a horse carrying the weight of lOst. or over. The previous winner, of course, was the most famous of all Australasian horses, Carbine, who in 1890 carried lOst. 51b. to victory. Sporting writers for a long time past, whan reviewing the prospects of top-weights in the Cup race, have been accustomed to measure them by the Carbine standard. "Carbine won with lOst. 51b., but is Poitrel, with lOst to carry, in the Carbine class?" One. wejl-known Australian writer at least expressed the-opin-ion that both Poitrel and Eennaquhair, the two top-woights in this year's Cup,' could compare with Carbine, and in Poitrel's case at. any rato his estimate has proved correct. Poitrel won in great style, and. save for last year, when Artilleryman put up the Tecord time for the race of Smin. 24-Jsec, the time recorded yesterday of 3min. 25Jsec. has never been bettered. Carbine's time was 3min. 28j6cc. Of course, times may be misleading, but Poitrel's performance i« a great one, and ranks with the very best. By the way, neither of the'two hig two-mile' races in New Zealand—the New Zealand and the Auckland Cupshas yet been won by a horse carrying lOst. or over. • * * * Many. New Zealanders travelling to and from Britain would* much like, if opportunity offered, to visit the military graveyards of Gallipoli, where this country gave of its bravest and best in the first flush of war. In a cable message, this morning it is stated that a "Times" correspondent visiting the Peninsula says he sers no reason, why arrangements could not be made for pilgrimages to Gallipoli. What is the position? Aro thero facilities for transport from Egyptian or other ports of call of this Suez liners from Australia? An official statement on the subject would be welcome. It is only a comparatively few parents who will be able to visit their sons' graves there, but those who do go will doubtless 'be asked to .net as depnlies for many'others, and it is timo that some access was given to the cemeteries. In* concert with Australia, this should not be a difficult matter, as almost every Suez liner must have its quota of passengers to whom the scarred hillsides of Gallipoli have a poignant personal interest.

When 'the last mail left London, Mrs. Asqujtli had advanced hot- biographical reminiscences in the "Smidny Times" to the stage of disposing of several other suitor*, and describing hor'first meeting with "Henry." It was at a dinner parfr, "and I sat next to Henry . I was tremendously impressed by his conversation and his olean, Cromwelliau face." Wo are told that "Henry." although abominably dressed, was "different from the others," and "I made up my mind at) once that here was a man who could help mo and who would understand everything." What "Henry's" impressions at the moment were have not boon publicly revealed up to the presont, doubtless booause of "an incurable modesty" to which his Spouse testifies, and which seams to be confined to one eids of the family, judging by tho memoirs. After this we reach the stage of 'Mm Asquith's eentim«nt» wi»a told ttW "Hwy" o«»d for

Jior. This is followed by a letter from a friend telling her "you would not have wished to lmvo loved Peter less . . . but you must kuow you lmvo allowed 100 much love in your life and bear tlie consequences. . . . With your rich und warm nature you need not bo afraid of not loving Asquitlh intonsely," etc., etc. It is all very edifying, and no. doubt well worth Uto threepence for Iho Sunday paper, to say nothing of all the other contents culled from tho law courls and the prize ring. Still, to old-fashioned people these confidences arc a trifle embarrassing;. And somehow it is a decensus Averni to find tho role of ox-Primo Minister of Britain combintid with that of "Henry" of the "Sunday Times."