NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1916, Page 8

NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL

MILK IN WELLINGTON". (From Our Own Corespondent.) Wellington, Apr] 5; 'Persons living ih some f.avor.ed portions of the country find"' it : liav;l to realise fully, the unpleasant character of Wellington's milk supply, A great deal has been said and written on this subject lately. One of the doctors vstated the other day tliat the only safe course for parents was to give their children no milk, at all, and householders tell dre.vlful tales of the thin, evil-smelling fluid that is left at their doors at hours. Very often the milk lun.iSej \v!ie>i an attempt is made to scald it immediately after delivery, and the vendor meets complaints with a tired elrir.' of his shoulders. He sells what he buys from the dairymen, he states, and apunrently thinks people shoiild t be grateful to get any milk at all. Xci'r.-lv six ,vcar s ago Parliament passed a ton Milk Supply Act, emmvv'.'rir.g thV City Council to deal with this question, but successive Councils iia\v postponed action, on the ground that tiie ?eal trouble arose outside the c ity, on tlw dairy farms and the trains. >,o\v at last a . proposal for the establishment of a clearing-house, where all mi''< entering the city will he received, trvtvl, and' passed oh to the vendors, is r,akin« definite form. The Railway Dep'ithvn nt suggests that the erection of this building should be undertaken in connection with the new railway station, which Wellington is to rec?ivc at somo date in ilie future. But th i citizens ha r.> iiisi aU'p.it made up their 'minds that they want clean and pure milk at .ine?. • ESCAPADES OF lUIA. A settler who knows the Urewfa Country well told your correspondent that he hoped the escapades :>f Rua ai|d their tragic climax would nerve the. Government to insist upon the roading and settlement of this huge block , of Native land. "The Maoris have rights, and I fully agree that those rights should be protected,'' he Said. "But settlement of the land within the present law, by the Maoris themselves or by Europeans, will not involve any violation of these rights, and it obviously is in the interests of nobody that a great area of. land, much of it fertile, should produce nothing better than superstition and fanaticism. Nothing good : s coming out o f the Urewcra. The Maoris are not moving progress there, and they would derive very great benefit if the land were opened up. I would suggest the construction of some main roads and a vigorous policy of individualising titles, with all the safeguards against speculation and spoliation that the 'Government considers necessary " RECRUITS AT TRENTHAM. If there is one place in New Zealand where the demand for recruits is. keen it is at' Trentham Camp. "Public opinion" in Trentham is unanimously in favor of the immediate enlistment of every able-bodied man of military age in the country, in order that the drafts of recruits may be called up for training in full strength as they are required for the next six months, a year, two years or any period that may be required. The young fellow who goes to have a look at the camp without wearing on his arm a badge of some kind may not have to face hard words, but he will be thickskinned indeed if lie doc-s not feel that he is being scrutinised rather scornfully by a . thousand or two of alert,, sunburned men who are "getting into it." If a ballot were taken in the camps on the question of conscription, the "ayes' 1 would have an overwhelming majority, but that does not mean that the men already in .uniform want to, see conscript drafts marching into their quarters. They .would to see the shirker forced to- do his bit.'SJjut -they would expect him to bo kept apart from enlisted men, and their belief is that all the fellows' really 'worth having ought to come along as volunteers. It is a pity that every young man who has not yet registered cannot be turned into Trentham camp for an aftirnoon, to see for himself what is going on there and to hear groups of soldiers remarking with ,an air of complete detachment, "There'', lots of khaki in the store yet." The statement never appears to be addressed to anybody in particulai, but sometimes it reaches the mark.