GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2140, 15 June 1920, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Supers!ilion revived enormously during the war, among both soldiers and women, declared Air Gdward Lovett in a lecture on the folk-lore of London at a meeting of the London Society recently. Air Lovett is the lion, curator of the folk-hire section of the Imperial War .Museum. On Iwo oeea'-ions, after notiees of. his lectures had appeared in the press, women from the fashionable quarters of London, he said, had (-ailed or written to him for “dragon’s blood’ ns it love (lotion. A, different policy in regard to the closing of schools during epidemics will henceforth he adopted, under instructions from the Health Department. The Health Department lias intimated that the closing of schools as an epidemic measure has been so frequently adopted, and with such questionable results in reducing disease, that the use of this measure must he limited to special eases, it must lie insisted on only in areas where the need was considered very urgent, and in all eases the Education Board must ho consulted and the feeling of local school committees obtained. Closing might be adopted where local panic or depleted attendance warranted it on com in on -son s c gro u n ds.

It is not exaggeration to say that Melbourne lost its collective head over the Prince (writes The Post’s Sydney correspondent). Australians arc naturally suspicious of anything savouring of the aristocracy —but the charming smile ami simple unaffected manner of the young Heir to the Throne found a way straight to (heir warm hearts. The crowds indeed wore so enormous, and so demonstrative, that they made the performance of the Prince's onerous duties very difficult, and contributed in no small degree to his threatened collapse.' lie was late for almost every public engagement —simply because the people,thronged around him so that his carriage could not gel through the si reels. He never

failed to stand up in his car. salui-

in" them and smiling his famous .-■iiiile. Jlc refused lo have an escart of mounted polieo; lie Ihonulit they might diurt the people —and so he paid the penalty by having the people almost trampling on him in their eagerness to get near him. The authorities tried to help matters by having foot police move along radidly beside the ear. But the Prince noticed that these men wore distressed by their heavy work and the last pace—and so he stopped the ear and made them ride on the footboard. It is a lit lie incident like this that finds the heart of; the Australian people. "He has begged the crowds to spare him a little and keep back—but they only (dicer him the more and crowd closer.

We wonder whether any member of Parliament during the approaching session will try to induce the Government to submit a return of twelve months’ land sales in Taranaki, showing (he prices .and the Government valuations on which the tax is paid (says the Wellington Post). If such a return were compiled, would the average Government valuation be one-half the sale price? Would it be one-third? The point

is vital, because the difference between valuations and prices has reached a dimension that has no-iU-

lation to the proper conservatism that a valuer may legitimately employ. No one expects the Government valuers to lead the market up» ward; it is reasonable that they should lie cautious and should exercise a steadying influence. But the gap between.valuations and prices is such as to prove .either that the former are hopelessly low or out of dale, or that the killer are outrageously high. At present, the only cheap thing about a farm is the Government valuation. That tact is of no advantage when the owner seeks a loan, but may provide some consolation if, on a future falling market, borrowing gives place to sorrowing. In (lie meanwhile, however, the Government loses the revenue. The owner’s return and the State’s return arc based on utterly irreconcilable quantities. A Lyons textile firm has, if; is reported, just discovered a wonderful new fabric called’silk cellulose. This material is said to resemble real silk so exactly that only an expert can tell the difference.