The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1913. FEDERAL REFERENDA.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 12 June 1913, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1913. FEDERAL REFERENDA.

The formidable nature of the referendum taken of tho votes of the Australian Commonwealth last month is shown by the fact that tho Government thought it desirable to issue a pamphlet of eighty octavo pages making clear the position. A copy of this pamphlet is in possession of Major Burlinson, of Levin, to whom we are obliged for the opportunity to peruse it. Jt shows tho textual alterations and additions proposed to bo made to the constitution by the proposed laws, and contains the arguments in favour of each proposed law. These are set out in a form authorised by a majority -..f the members of both Houses of the Australian Parliament who voted for the proposed law. On the contrary side, the arguments against the referenda proposals :ilso a re dealt with exhaustively in the pamphlet, the arguments against each proposed law also being authorised by a majority of (lie members of both Houses of the Australian Parliament who voted against the proposed law.

A supplementary publication for guidance of electors was a booklet o(' •'}'-' pages Cpicpaiod under instructions from the Minister Administering the Commonwealth Kiwi oral Act) for the purpose of explaining fully the provisions as to enrolment, nomination, voting, candidate's expenses, etc. Undoubtedly the Federal Government of Australia considers very fully the needs for guidance of the electors, and to meet these needs goes to lengths previously unheard of in Australasian politics. THE WELLINGTON LIFTSTAKJSS. Tho "lii'tstakes competition" between The Dominion and The New Zealand Times newspapers continues. .Both are showing form, but the relative difference between them is small. Tho Dominion came out again yesterday with two columns odd -J clipped and unacknowledged paragraphs from its country exchanges. The Times failed to pace it with its rival on this round of the course , , but in the vicinity of Levin it made a. spurt and annexed two paragraphs from Tho Chronicle to match two paragraphs annexed from Tho Chronicle by The Dominion the sanio day. All four paragraphs were printed exactly as clipped from The Chronicle, and ostensibly as the original work of the respective Wellington newspapers. As both papers contained one particular paragraph, word for word exactly, some Well-

ington renders will he struck by "an extraordinary, coincidence." " * This nowspaped. is pleased to have its paragraphs reprinted with acknowledgments, but it objects strongly to having them palmed off as ano-

tlior newspaper's-original work in tins paper's <nni district. Tf the Wollington morning p ; , [K . r , s o |,j t . c t to acknowledge iudebtiiess to our columns tho Wellington newspapers eliould face the alterative of paying sonic Levin resident to supply tjiom with nows. LUXURY; ANJ) COST OF LIVING.

Various commentators Iwvo rufcTrerl to the. increased cost of living in Au&traliii—and its source fn limtrlous living-as though tlio trait were peculiar to these islands. Evidently it is manifest in every civilised country in theso times. ' Certainly America has inoro than an average share of such extravagances, and in recent years Groat Britain has boon shown to ho tending in a

similar direction. Xow wo read that Germany is fast moving along thoso lines of change. A special artiole by Mr G. V. Williams gives some interesting sidelights on this problem. There is a growing demand for luxury in Berlin, he

writes; they instal restaurants to soat 20,000 diners (like the new restaurant at the Berlin "Zoo") in palatial edifices, and go to absurd extremes in window-dressing in Berlin because the publio domande it.

That the Berlin public demnnde it is a .sign of the growing influence of materialism which is going to cause ravages in this country in the oiul. With the growing demand for luxury nnd comfort the cost of living is rising in the most alarming fashion in Berlin. Everybody now wants a flat with "modern improvements"—i.e., steam heat, permanent hot-water supply in the bathroom and throughout the house, oleotiic light, lift, nnd vacuum cleanser installation. Tt matters not that the house be jerry-built, with walls so thin that they will hardly support a picture; so long as tho "modern improvernonte" nre there: and the vestibule is adorned with gilt mirrors and bright carpets, tho house will bo filled with tenants from top to bottom before the walls are dry. The groat exodus to tho newer suburbs is emptying the older residential quarters of tho city, where thousands of flats are unoccupied. There is an enormous'multiplication of the night restaurants and cafes. The once exclusive west is now in-

varied by a swarm of night establishments where dancing is kept tip until dawn. Sido by side with the numerous night restaurants and liars in tlio centre still more gorgeous and more ambitious dancingrooms and casinos hare been opened. It is necessary to remember that this night life of Berlin is not exotic as the night life of Paris. It does not >xist for tho foreigner, but primarily for the Berliner and the German im.vincial. The voice of warning ins often been raised in Germany ißainst its steady growth. Tt is

mother symptom of that tendency awards materialism which cannot nil to nffocf" ultimately the moral volfare of the German people.