FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 203, 16 November 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN” “DISGRACEFUL HOVELS’’ Mr. W. K. [lowitt, of the Hospital Board, bluntly described some of the “houses” in which people are living in Auckland as “a disgrace to civilisation.” Many of these “disgraceful hovels,” said Mr. Howitt, were the property of wealthy people. That is so; but some wealthy people are hot very particular as to where their revenues come from. Two or three years ago it was admitted by the municipal authorities that dwellings of this description were a blot upon the city; but it was given as an excuse for not condemning them that owing to the housing shortage their unfortunate inmates would have nowhere else to go. Well, the housing shortage has long since been overtaken —there are now dwellings to let in every suburb at rents that have become reasonable —but the slums remain. Of course, to condemn them would be to deprive their wealthy owners of the rents they are drawing while waiting to sell the land at a high profit and thus obtain what Labour politicians term the “unearned increment.” * * • CHILDREN AND FIRE Yet another fatal burning accident to a child! On this occasion children are left alone in a house with a lighted Are, and there are candles handy to play with, and a wee tot of under four years lights the candle at the fire —and lights herself. When will parents learn that young children must never be left, even for a few seconds, near fires or boilingwater? There seems to be no diminution in the number of these tragedies. W'eek after week some unfortunate . infant dies an agonising death as the result of burning or scalding, and in nine cases out of ten it happens through the gross carelessness of parents and guardians, for to leave young children unattended in the vicinity of fires is nothing short of gross carelessness. SMASHING OPPOSITION ' Residents of the Great South Road district who wished to reach the city, or to return from the city, in quicker time than that occupied by the snaillike trams, used to be able to board one of the fast buses on the Otahuhu run. Now the buses will accept ouly "through” passengers, the drivers explaining that they will “get into trouble with the City Council” if they carry passengers who do not travel beyond the tram route, whether the passengers pay the extra 2d penal fare or not. There is nothing in the Omnibus Regulations to prevent these buses carrying passengers to points along the tramway route, providing that the penal fare is paid, and it would be interesting to know precisely in what way the City Council “has the wood on” the buses. It is true the council has intimated that, as the No. 1 Ligensing Authority, it will refuse to licence buses which pick up or deposit passengers along the tram route? This is the common rumour. What has the council to say about it? One wonders in what other country on earth the public would tolerate a monopoly which is legislatively created as a licensing authority to control or smash all opposition.

THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN Strong support for the “White Australia” policy has been given by no less a person than Mr. L. S. Ainery, Secretary of State for the Dominions, who deprecated cheap coloured labour and its low standard of living. Mr. Amery was eulogising the wonderful productivity of the country and the high standards of efficiency, enterprise and development made possible in Queensland, where thousands of Kanakas formerly worked in the canefields. Thp cheap labour advocates used to declare that Queensland could never be developed without coloured workers, but, as Mr. Amery pointed out, the white man had taken up the burden of the deported Kanakas with ease, and had made a wonderful thing of the sugar industry. Of course, with those who declared that white men could not do the work of the canefields and the mill, the wish was father to the thought; for the great obsession of the Queensland investor of those days was that of cheap labour. Everybody knows it now, and Australia is fortunately" free from racial problems and a hybrid population. THE "TOTE" INDEX When times were “hard,” falling totalisator figures were quoted to prove the stringency of the money market, the amount of betting on the machine being regarded as a reliable financial barometer. If this be logical we may take heart of grace. There was a very large increase in the totalisator return at the spring meeting at Ellerslie (although the weather may have accounted In part for this) and there was an increase of over £30,000 at the Christchurch racing carnival, as compared with the figures for last year. Apparently there is more money about, and if trading returns show increases corresponding with those of the “tote,” there should be satisfaction all round.