White Island a target
Today, for the first time in Dunedin, the battery will hold a "shoot" with six-inch howitzers. The firing will begin from Lawyers Head at 1.30pm and the objective will be White Island.
George Aitken grilled in UK
Under the heading of "Rugby Insult," Mr Cecil Wray, writing to the press as representative of the New Zealand Rugby Union, protested against the manner in which the amateur status of New Zealand players is questioned in England. He declares it is calculated to cause great resentment in New Zealand. He says that Aitken (the Rhodes scholar), soon after his arrival, was assailed by press criticism expressing suspicion regarding his amateur status, and also because he was a colonial he was put through a special form of inquisition as to whether or not he had played the Northern Union game. Mr Wray considers it is a poor compliment to the New Zealand Union that one of its finest players should be so treated. He adds that Aitken himself was deeply humiliated by the atmosphere of openly expressed mistrust.
South v North chestnut aired
The old question "Is the north favoured at the expense of the south?" cropped up at the dinner of the Associated Chambers of Commerce last night. The subject, which provoked a good deal of amusement, was introduced in the course of some spirited remarks by the chairman (Mr H. W. Jones). Mr Jones said that he was not a native of Otago, but he was now a citizen of Dunedin. He was proud of the city, too, and he had unbounded faith in its future. ("Hear, hear.") "Take the great Central Otago," he remarked, "and one could not have anything but faith from the thought. Drive through it, and see a waste on one side of the road and on the other a green field and you will realise what irrigation and time will do. And always remember, as businessmen, that if we take care of the country the country will take care of us." (Applause.) He hoped that when the visiting delegates returned to the north they would have a good word to say for Otago and Dunedin. ("We shall.") People from this end were too wont to decry this part when they went north, and he often wondered whether Parliament was a Parliament of New Zealand or of the North Island. (Laughter and applause.) They all respected Mr Massey, but they could not help feeling that the Government had more of the North Island’s interests at heart than of the interests of the south. The south would help the north willingly, and the north should help the south, and thus help New Zealand. (Applause.) He appealed to southerners in the north to hold their peace if they could not say anything good about their home. The Hon Downie Stewart, in the course of his remarks, touched briefly on the subject in regard to the criticism of the Government. He simply said: "There are five south members in the Cabinet, and if we can’t pull our weight it is our fault." (Laughter.) — ODT, 3.11.1922
