GENERAL ELECTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 November 1919, Page 3

GENERAL ELECTION.

[I>ER PRESS ASSOCIATION. —COPYRIGHT.]

j FIXED FOR WEDNESDAY ! DECEMBER 17th. j ELTHAM, This Day. Hon W. F. Massey annnouced today that the general election will take ■ place on Wednesday Dec. 17th. NEWS AM NOTEj. The population of Australia is now over 5,000,000 ,exclusive of full-blooded aborigines. This is the latest estimate of the Commowealth Statistician-, (says the Melbourne “Age”), and it does not go beyond the year 1918, when the figure was s’et at 5,030,4 <9. This is a marked increase on the 1900 figures, I which gave the population as 3, i 65,339. It is somewhat remarkable that whereas large numbers of men were out of the country during the war period, the population statistics were inclined to go up in 1917 and 1918, at a time when the exodus of soldiers had probably reached its zenith. From 1900 to 1914 there was a steady increase in population, but in 1915 there was a falling off of about 9000. Again in 1916 the figures went down further by about 50,000, but in 1917 they returned to about the 1914 mark. Thence they jumped in 1918 to over 5,000,000 and are probably continuing to increase. There “was a steady increase in births over deaths from 1914 to 1918, but in 1915-16-17 there was an excess of emigration over immigration. In 1918 the position was reversed, the excess of immigration over emigration being 19,678.

The value of the film for propaganda purposes js now fully recognised. The ease by which an attack of influenza can be contracted through the non-ob-esrvance of a few simple precautions on the part of a person infected with the disease is clearly demonstrated in a cinema production entitled “Dr Wise on Influenza,” which the Department of Public Health has recently imported through the New Zealand High Commissioner from the Local Government Board of England. The film, which is over 1000 feet in lengh, was produced at the request of Sir Auckland Geddes during the influenza epidemic in England last year, in order to educate the public as to the dangers of influenza if due regard was not paid to the precautions recommended by the Health Authorities. Though there is now no semblance of ail epidemic of influenza in New Zealand, yet the authorities here believe that the exhibition of such a film in the theatres of the various cities and towns will have good results (says the “Post”). Arrangements are accordingly made with the film suppUers to undertake the distribution of the film along with their usual programmes.

A good story was related at the Supreme Court at Palmerston North last week by Mr Justice Chapman during the hearing of an appeal arising out of the decision in a case previously heard in Woodville in which a. dog had been run over and killed by a motor-ear. Counsel was wrestling verbally with the point at issue as to whether the driver had been guilty of negligence when his Honour intercepted. Many years ago, said his Honour, a case was heard before a Magistrate in which a vehicle had come into contact. with a cow on a narrow road on a hill abut ting trhe sea and had knocked the bovine into the water. The animal was drowned, and compensation claimed on the grounds of negligent driving. . After hearing the evidence, the Magistrate non-suited, the plaintiff, holding that the cow, having been on its wrong side of the road was guilty of contributory negligence.

An interesting ceremony took place in To Kuiti last week, when, in the presence of a large number of people, the monument which has been erected as a tribute to the men of the Maniapoto tribe who fought and fell in the great war, was unveiled. The Hon. Dr M. Pomare, who unveiled the monument, said they were gathered together that day to pay homage to the valour of their brave boys, living and dead. The noble sacrifice that these bravo soldiers had performed w r as one of unfading glory. He was proud to say that although conscription had been applied to the Maoris! as well as to the pakehas, not one conscripted Maori left Neav Zealand. The service that the Maoris had rendered to the Empire had been a voluntary service, in which they gladly bore an equal share of the battle and the strife with all pakehas. Ho was sorry that after all the heroic sacrifices that had been made political, strife should still be heard in the land and he would say: “Away with it! Away with it!”