The Town Clerk notified that authority had been granted for the laying of 11 chains of 6-inch pipe along Harrow Street to link up with the existing 6-inch pipes in Hanover and St Andrew Streets.
This when completed, would give the desired additional protection to Messrs Nees and Co’s new block in Hanover street.
John A. Lee’s pacifist remark
Mr Lee maintained that the money being spent on naval defence would be better spent on promoting the happiness and comfort of our people, which after all was the best defence the country could have.
The talk of Mr Lee is just the talk of the people who, in the first decade of the century, kept the Empire from being adequately prepared when the call came in 1914. Yet — the mystery of it! — Mr Lee fought and suffered. Let his services be remembered, along with his present obliquity of vision.
— by ‘Wayfarer’
Increasing traffic accidents
Hardly a day passes that does not bring its contribution to the steadily increasing toll of accidents caused by motor vehicles. The need in the circumstances for action for the protection of the community must be generally recognised. There has been an obvious reluctance by common jurors to convict persons who have been arraigned upon charges of manslaughter arising out of the death of persons that was prima facie due to reckless or negligent driving of motor cars. Mr Justice Reed has expressed the belief that if a charge of causing death by negligently driving a vehicle was substituted for one of manslaughter there would be fewer instances of culpably careless drivers being acquitted. There is a clear need for the discouragement of carelessness among drivers of motor vehicles. One class of offence — that of being under the influence of liquor while in charge of a car — should be visited with suitable punishment, part of which should be the cancellation of the licence to drive. There are, it is to be remembered, careless and thoughtless pedestrians just as there are careless motorists. While in theory the highway belongs to everybody, the regulation of traffic is necessary in order that anybody may be able to use it with comparative safety. The distressing accident in Cargill road, which formed the subject of an inquest on Monday, provided an unfortunate illustration of this danger, and teachers should undoubtedly point the moral of it and of similar cases.
— editorial
Better understanding of whales
The coming expedition to the Antarctic is for the purpose of studying the habits of whales, and the Discovery, the vessel built for Captain Scott’s first expedition, has been bought from the Hudson’s Bay Company.
The question which it is hoped to resolve is whether or not Antarctic whaling is in danger of the fate which has overtaken northern fishing. In a single year as many as ten thousand whales were captured and brought in. The leaders of the industry urge that these whales have enormous regions open to them, therefore the toll now taken in a restricted area cannot seriously affect their numbers. But there is no certainty on this point. The industry may be attacking not merely a small part of a widely distributed fauna, but the main body of the whales in the course of their migration.
— ODT, 22.8.1923 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)
