King George delivered an oration including this message to the bereaved:
"For the past few days I have been making a solemn pilgrimage in honour of the people who died for all free men.
"I should like to send a message to all who lost those dear to them in the Great War. In this the Queen joins amid surroundings so wonderfully typical of that single-hearted assembly nations and races forming our Empire.
"For here, in their last quarters, lie the sons of every portion of that Empire across, as it were, the threshold Mother Island which they guarded, that freedom might be saved in the uttermost ends of the earth.
"A generation of our manhood offered itself without question, almost without need, in answer to the summons. We may say that the whole circuit of the girdled with the graves of our dead."
The King’s visit to Etaples cemetery, where there are 10,000 British graves, was marked by a touching incident.
A letter from an English woman was handed to him in which the writer begged Queen Mary to place a few forget-me-nots on the grave of her son.
King George, in the absence of the Queen, reverently bore the flowers to the graveside, knelt down and placed them at the foot of the tomb.
Speed limits set too low
I understand that one of our local bodies is exercised in mind on the question of a reasonable speed limit.
The body is very wisely conferring with the Otago Motor Club on the matter, and an agreement should be easily arrived at.
Every decent motorist is anxious, because their lives are endangered by the road hog.
One or two local bodies have unfortunately erred through lack of experience, and it will be remembered that the magistrate at Timaru held that the bylaw specified so low a speed as to compel him to declare it unreasonable.
In the same connection I cull the following from the Auckland Herald: "The indiscriminate prohibition of motor traffic at more than 15 miles per hour on all roads under the jurisdiction of the Manukau County Council and the Mount Roskill Road Board was held to be unreasonable by Mr W.R. McKean SM at the Onehunga Police Court. This, of course, does not mean that these roads can be turned into amateur race tracks."
Sexual health question
In regard to a letter to the Otago Hospital Board from the North Canterbury board, as to the appointment of a commission to enquire into the prevalence of venereal disease and means of combating it, the medical staff and superintendent have reported to the Committee of the Otago Hospital board as follows:
"In the opinion of the honorary medical staff, the prevalence of venereal diseases, and the best means of combating these is a matter of public health, to be dealt with by the Department of Public Health, which advise the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association and all hospital boards, both as to the incidence of these diseases, and the department's plan of campaign to combat the evil.
"This could be advantageously discussed at the forthcoming conference in July.’’
— ODT, 15. 5.1922
