NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2521, 21 December 1922, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES

The sudden death occurred at Wellington last Saturday of the Rev. R. S. Gray secretary and treasurer of the Baptist Union of New Zealand mid the Baptist Missionary Society from heart failure.Tile late Mr Gray was recognised as one of the Dominion’s finest platform speakers, and shared with the late Mr T. E. Tiiylor and Mr B. Isitt, the chief advocacy of the prohibition movement. Few men in New Zealand possessed equal power over a crowd, while in tin* pulpit Mr Gray has not many superiors. He came to the Dominion thirty years ago from Ballarat, and was for a time in business in Wellington as an accountant. After joining the Baptist ministry he was stationed in Nelson and later in Clu’istchurch and Dunedin, becoming in. the two cities a great power for righteousness. His death will be sincerely mourned from end to end of New Zealand.

Huge crowds witnessed the final evacuation of the British troops from Dublin. Colonel MeCready handed over headquarters Id Commander Mulcahy, whose first act after the courtesies of the departure of the British, was to hoist the white, green and orange tricolour. The Free State troops paraded the streets and took over the various barracks. They then assembled and were reviewed by Commander Mulcahy. The difference in the behring of British and Free State troops was most marked and Commander Mulcahy was overheard to tell the Dublin Guards, ‘‘For God’s sake, put your shoulders back and try to look like soldiers.

We have to acknowledge from the Government Statistician a copy of the 1922-1923 New Zealand Official Year Book, which follows generally the same line's as its immediate predecessor,’ the 1921-1922 issue. The inclusion of new matter has necessitatedl an increase in size, a section ‘having been added on the subject of “wage rates/’ a branch of statistical enquiry only recently undertaken officially. Articles; inelud- N ed are “Historical Outline of Primary Education/’ “Tariff Reciprocity with Australia,” “Inland Fisheries,” “Rating Powers of Local Authorities,”' and “The Totalisator.” The list of principal events has been revived in this issue, which also contains an interesting extract form the Hon. Sir John Salmond's report on the Washington Conference. Consequent upon a return to normal conditions in the census and statistics office the Year Book appears on this occasion much earlier than for years past.

One of the Dominion's keenest students of industrialism is unquestionably the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, a member of the Massey Ministry. lie deals always in facts and is thus very disconcerting to critics of the Government. “In no country,” said the Minister for Customs at Dunedin, “had there been a smaller reduction in wages than in New Zealand. For instance, in America, the railway surfacemen’s wages had been,-since the war, reduced to 11 id an hour, while the rate in the Dominion was 1/9MI an hour. In private employment the reductions had been less than would have taken place without the Arbitration Court. Where direct action obtained, as in America and England, the wages had been reduced in many cases by 50 per cent. On this showing the Arbitration Court here had more than justified its ex■3ollo] st