WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 February 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PROHIBITION IN AMERICA. TESTIMONY OK ALLIANCE PRESIDENT. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, February I. Firs! hand information in regard to Llic fruits of prohibition in the l nited States is-still rare enough to make it a welcome novelty. Mr Charles Todd, of Dunedin, the president of the New Zealand Alliance, will not expect to be. accepted everywhere as an unbiased witness on this subject, but be 1 s sufficiently well-known in both business and social circles by a great number of people to ensure his word being treated with respect and deference. At a

“ welcome home” from a tour of Great Britain and America extended to him here last evening, he declared that no one in thee t'nitd States wanted the saloon back; that in the biggest and best hotels sly grog-selling was unknown ; that the numerous of the “ wet ” days were now serving useful purposes; that first offenders convicted for drunkenness in New York had been reduced from an average- of 2! per 10.000 of the inhabitants in 1914 to 0 per 10.000 in 1925. There were people in America, a decreasing number, who favoured the Canadian system of control, but even these stipulated that engine drivers and others carrying similar responsibilities should be prohibited. -Mr Todd, in concluding bis testimony, announced bis intention to devote his time and energies during the next two years towards banishing intoxicants from New Zealand. THE ROYAL SHOW. The announcement made this morning to the effect that the council ol the New Zealand Royal Agricultural Society lias decided that the Royal Show ol 1927 shall he held at Christchurch. and has recommended that the show for 1928 shall he hold at Palmerston North lias not occasioned universal satisfaction here. Wellington. very naturaliy. is more interested in the welfare of Palmerston North and its own immediate agricultural and pas. toral surroundings than it is in Christchurch. and it is arguing that the fact of the show having been held at Auckland last year should not deprive Palmerston North of the rotation established between Christchurch and itself in 1921 and 192-">. The capital city is not yet aspiring to a Royal Show of its own. but it is finite possible ft may be in the running five or six years lienee, when the Unit Valley lias been fully developed and peopled, and it does not approve of annual alteration between tbo North Island and the South, which ultimately, its champions maintain, would result in Christchurch having three shows within six years and Auckland. Palmerston North and Wellington onlv one apiece during tin- same period. That the council of the Royal Society has nothing of the kind in contemplation may be judged from the fact that it has laid down the policy “ that other agricultural and pastoral associations than Palmerston North and Christchurch shall have an opportunity of holding the Royal Show every third year.” This suggests no favours to either island. RIVALRY OK THE SENES.

A correspondent of the “ Evening Post.” apparently a recent arrival from the Old Country, tells a piteous tale of the rivalry of the sexes.. “ Having had several years’ experience as short-hand-typist in legal and commercial offices in London.” he tells the editor, •• ! advertised for a position, in your paper, and received a letter from a. business man asking me to give him a call. I had an interview with him. and was politely informed that he could get a member of the female sex to do

the work at a cheaper rate than lie was prepared to pay me. Now, in view of this fact no sensible man is going to

get married and possibly bring children into the world .when he knows that members of the female sex are frying to deprive him of his living or undercutting him in t !-0 clerical market. Further, as a result of so many women being engaged in clerical and oilier callings which used to he filled by men. and refusing to take on domestic duties, it is very hard at the present day to get one who is thoroughly domesticated. and what is badly wanted is classes in domestic science and nursing instead of commercial subjects. If the unfortunate state of affairs is not altered it will mean a serious decline in marriages, and the nation will gradually go down.” This solmen warning seareelv can be taken seriously, hut tlio letter as a whole shows that emigrants from the Motherland are not being sufficiently informed as to the conditions existing in dm Dominion.