CROWING PAINS.

Evening Star, Issue 20138, 1 April 1929, Page 8

CROWING PAINS.

Dubtng these Easter holidays many motoring townspeople arc making or renewing acquaintance with Central Otago. Its good roads, on the whole, testify’to capable local administration, and tho characteristic bonhomie of the people suggests prosperity and contentment. Hut there is no diminution ol signs of dissatisfaction with the general administration. In various parts of this big district public meetings arc periodically hold to discuss grievances. A few months ago irrigation formed the centre of interest. Tims far not much that is vital has been achieved in the way of improvement or amelioration. Tho committee of inquiry which the Government appointed went exhaustively into grievances, but before the Government had time to take action ou tho recommendations it went out, of office. What responsibility the present Government will assume in the matter is a subject for anxiety cu the part of those interested, who are many indeed. The recent mission of the Hoard of Agriculture in paying a flying visit to enable it to traverse the committee’s report has not tended to allay that anxiety. The Government has expended over three-quarters-of a million sterling on irrigation in Central Otago, and tho committee’s report indicated plainly that tho resultant benefits arc nut commensurate -with that expenditure, in many eases owing to a lack of knowledge and experience, and that some of tho matters complained of could bo righted with little or no additional cost. If tho report is to bo pigeonholed there will be grave disappointment. Its framing is popularly credited in the main to two responsible permanent officials of the Government, and ou an important economic question such, as this tho recommendations should carry just as much weight with one Government as with another, irrespective of what may bo the advice of a reviewing body whose requisitioning in this case appears to us rather superfluous. Undoubtedly tho question now uppermost in Central Otago is that of land administration. Just before Easter there was held in Cromwell what is reported as a record public meeting. Tho outcome of it was tho formation of an Upper CTutha Progressive League to urge and advise the Government on the

subdivision of’ runs and closer settlement generally. Tim Government has a declared policy of closer settlement, but if anything it disavows further .subdivision of runs as a general policy. However Ibis may apply to the rest of the dominion the land-hungry in Central Otago will most strenuously contest its applicability to their district. Since the formation of the present Government there has been almost a procession of new Ministers through Central Otago, and they cannot fail to havo discerned the feeling which is paramount among the bulk of the people—viz., that tbo land administration—possibly the legislation also, but certainly the administration—is retarding the rate of progress the district is capable of.

The excursion train from Dunedin (o Lawrence on Saturday was not altogether coinmendably arranged. Allowing for the delays on route, the departure of tho tram could have been deferred for three-quarters of an hour. Tho “eight minutes’” stop at Milton for refreshments was a long one. Last year tho train stopped at the racecourse siding, but on Saturday it was taken into Lawrence This did not meet with llio approval of patrons, many of whom were far from satisfied vyifh the short ride, at a charge of Is, given Iby some bus owners. After tho races | ono bus scored by taking the people I from the course to tho station for a lower charge. Or, the return trip tho journey was slow, and at Milton the train was held up to allow a goods train to go through to Dunedin. Unless .some improvement is made on this service next Easter, tho buses and motor cars will doubtless bo given the i patronage of the usual race-goers.

Eor the first time- for many years a liquor booth was permitted on Saturday at the Tuapeka County Jockey Club’s meeting at Lawrence. .Bulging from the opinions expressed by the officials', it is doubtful whether tho club or ihuso interested in tlm retention of its totali.salor permit will support a booth license being granted next year. Many of tie . patrons attributed tliu decrease in totalisator returns to the bold h Old-timo observances that arc competing lor well-deserved etfacoment aio Guv Fawkes Day and April Fool’s Day. The betting is in favour of the latter. Year by year the sending of somebody on a. bootless errand is dropping out of fashion. To-day it seemed to he quite disregarded. The custom has been supposed to he a travesty of the sending hither and thither of the Saviour from Annas to Caiaphas and (roup Dilate to Herod, because during the Middle Ages this scene in Christ’s lile was the subject of a miracle play at Easter. More probable it was a relic of some heathen Celtic festival. Years ago the Dunedin public at large was hoaxed rather seriously. Some joker, simulating a wellknown reporter’s voice, telephoned to this paper, just as it was going to press, tliat a whale was stranded near Lawyer’s Head, and the innocentlyprinted paragraph caused thousands to walk thither. The point of the hoax was the unanimous secrecy of the returning stream.

AVeaihor lias a governing Influence on tram traffic, hero and everywhere. Considering the meteorological mixture that Dunedin experienced on Saturday, showers ami sunshine alternating, it is satisfactory to learn that tins Easter .the decrease in fare receipts is not greater than that ■ recorded.. The manager reports that, the takings on Saturday came to £403 7s 2d, as against £447 2s od last year, and on Sunday (yesterday) £253 IGs od, as against £2BO 15s 4cl last year. The observation buses were liberally patronised botii days. To-day opened in brilliant weather and high barometrical promise, so the returns are likely to show a recovery. All the buses were commissioned in the morning. A six-roomed wooden house in Mclvorn street, Woodhaugh, was totally destroyed by fire on Saturday night. The brigade was called out at 10.48, and it was found almost impossible to inn ke any headway against the flames, '('ho house, which was the property of flie Diocesan Trust, was occupied by Mrs E. Eady, who was absent at, the time of the outbreak. The cause is as yet unknown, and particulars of insurances on the contents and the building are not available. At 1.1.5 yesterday morning the brigade answered a malicious false alarm to the corner of the Anderson’s Bay road and Melbourne street..

Tho first showing of tlio cinema in Dunedin was on November 20, 1896. not with any flourish of trumpets, but as it wore apologetically, in a shop near Wain's Hotel. , Though the forerunner in these parts of a momentous conversion in the theatre world, it was a puny and sorry affair. The defect that in succeeding years •became known as flicker was in that heralding picture almost defacing. Tho subject, a mounted regiment on the march, could hardly be discerned through the scintillations that seemed to bo like what one could imagine as a dense shower of icicles. In regard to -speed, the picture was almost comical—at one moment tho horses marched at the rate of thirty miles an hour, then, to cure that fault, tho pace was so slow that tho feet came down on the spot that they lifted from. Such was tho beginning of thoanovics that gradually eliminated the flicker and became as Arm as a painting. Now we have in the cinema, the second of the five senses. Tho first full progrmmo of the movietone in Dunedin, at the Octagon on Saturday night, opens up dreams of further wonders. Who dares to pronounce as impossible the development of the cinema, until it conveys the other senses, not only of taste and touch, but of an indication as to whether the hero lias eaten onions at supper?

Nobody need hunt very long fur a shop wherein to purchase tobacco or the popular cigarette. Within a, sevenmile radius of the Dunedin Post Office there are over 1,100 such shops. - No license is 'required—that may bo one of tho inducements to start retailing the weed—but the proprietors are supposed to register with the inspector of factories.

Quito a number of Dunedin lawyers have gone to Wellington or are on their way thither for tho legal conference, the second of what is likely to become a series. Several entrained this niuru-

ing. Judging hy the programme. tho conference will . be very attractive, on tlie social as well as the business side. The lion. I'. K. Sidoy is to deliver the inaugural address, which follows the Governor-General's speech.

The Grand Orange Lodge of New Zealand commenced its annual sessions at (,'hristchurch on Saturday last. R.W.G.M. Bio. 11. Smithcrs presided, and was supported by a full attendance of Grand Lodge officers and delegates front all parts of the dominion. The Mayor of Christehureh accorded the brethren a, eivic welcome, and on behalf of the R.W.G.M. and the Grand Lodge, Past, Master Rev. Bro. G. K. Aitken briefly outlined the objects and ideals of the institution. —Press Association-

“ .Haven't anything smaller.” said ilie passenger on the first, tram from the depot, as ho tendered half a erown lor a 2(1 ticket (says the Auckland ‘ Star ’). The conductor had no change, so he overlooked the matter of collecting the fare. Next morning the same passenger had nothing smaller than a ten shilling note. The conductor seemed indifferent. Next morning the passenger had 2d. Ho got a ticket. On the following morning ho presented half a crown once more. “ Thank you, ’ said conductor, handing him three 2d tickets ami a Horin. ” Hey. yon. f only want one ticket.” protested the passenger. “ You’ve got it,” was the reply, “ and the two tickefs you should have gut last Monday and Tuesday. Any complaints'' ” .For the remainder oi the, journey the passenger found much to interest him in the passing landscape.

When shown a paragraph which reported that eels had been seen ravenously eating trout, Air .1). Hope, curator of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society s gardens, said that lie thought the story most unlikely (states the ‘ Press ’). He. had frequently, however, seen a trout about 2ih in weight, which had swallowed an eel about half a, pouml_ in wnighl. He had even caught trout in the Avon in which the eel was still alive. It was quite probable, ho thought, that trout fed on eels as much as eels on trout. Kels in the elver stage came up the rivers in shoals in the spring. They came up with the whitebait, and were frequently sold in the shops along with genuine whitebait. These elvers furnished a large part, of trout food. Mr Hope said that ecK as a, rule, did not come out in the day time, and it would have to he a very large eel that would swallow a trout weighing a pound and a-hali. No doubt eels got a certain quantity ol small trout, 5 hut the story teemed to him highly improbable.

Tno Corsair C.'luh’s 800 excursionists got away all right from Dunedin on the return journey to Christchurch by tho special that leit at 11 o clock on Saturday night. There was a big hiring of pillows from the attendant on the train, 250 adopting that means (if making themselves comfortable. 'Clio trains 'from the south on Saturday night carried normal loading. About GUI) travelled by the U.3U train for Oamaru yesterday. r .l he 11.12(1 p.m. to Christchurch yesterday consisted of seven ears carrying approximately 2(10. The express from Christchurch that reached Dunedin at 0.24 this morning brought 2UU. The principal outward trains from Dnncdm this morning were; 8.35 to Gore, about- 2->U; 1t.40 to Christchurch, 180; !) to Invercargill, 180; two trains to Palmerston with GOO between them; 11.84 to Christchurch, about 500. Tho bookings lor the northern express due at Dunedin at 1.25 to-day numbered 300 when it left Christchurch, Good patronage is probable on to-night's express for tho north leaving at 10.20.

The Police Court sat lor a lew minutes this morning before. Mr it. E. Mollcr, J.P., and Air R. Ferguson, J.l’. A female first offender for drunkenness was fined the amount of lior bail (£1). The annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party opened at Wellington to-day. In the absence of the president, the Jfov. J. K. Archer, who will not attend until to-morrow, Mr J. Thorn (vice-president) opened tho proceedings. The visiting delegates ■wore welcomed by Mr J. Bromley, secretary of tho Wellington District Council of tho Alliance of Labour. The conference is attended by about 100 delegates. The annual report says that while iho party agrees with some planks of the Government's policy, it opposes the Government's attitude in regard to State trading, and says that the Labour Party will use all its resources to conserve the benefits of the far-seeing legislation of earlier statesmen, while at the same time doing all in its power to extend every public service that will give a greater return to the community.—Press Association.

Two Chinese, who overstayed their permits in New Zealand, wore each lined £25 in the Police Court by Air APKean, S.M., who said that the lines in the future would be much heavier. W eng Dwin was two years aml four months over his time, and Young Ming exceeded his time by ten months.— Auckland Press Association telegram.