We are aware that the quota, not being based upon a population basis, makes a somewhat disproportionate demand upon Otago, but we cannot, in view of the certainty that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of young men in Otago who are qualified for military service, acknowledge that this excuses the existence of a shortage in the number of recruits from this district.
It is not an unreasonable, though it is a regrettable, conclusion that these young men, who may be counted by the scores in the streets of Dunedin on any Saturday or Sunday evening, have no adequate sense of the responsibility that rests upon them as individuals.
It is impossible to believe that they do not realise that the Empire stands at the present time in need of the services of as many of them as, being physically fit, have no domestic ties that prevent them from enlisting.
• Dunedin is said to be the worst city of the four in New Zealand from the showman's point of view, but promoters of picture theatres appear to have plenty of confidence in the willingness of the public to patronise the ''movies''.
It is understood that two new theatres are projected - one in the Exchange Court and the other in the Stock Exchange buildings.
When these two are opened there will be eight theatres in Dunedin in which pictures will be shown daily, and the vaudeville entertainment will make a ninth regular place of amusement.
One is apt to think that Dunedin will then be fully exploited, and that fresh enterprise in this direction should cease for a time.
Yet is is not so very long since the advent of the first picture theatre to give entertainments every night was viewed with suspicion, and the opinion was freely expressed that it could never pay.
The amazing increase in the popularity of the pictures is shown by subsequent developments.
• An outbreak of scarlet fever is causing some anxiety amongst residents of the Roslyn and Kaikorai districts at present.
It appears that during the past week a child attending the Kaikorai School was noticed by its parents to be suffering from some form of illness, and the assistance of a homeopath was invoked.
A faulty diagnosis followed, and the child was shortly sent back to school only to develop in the course of a few days obvious signs of having contracted scarlet fever and not abdominal influenza, as stated by the homeopath.
In a few days other children were infected, the neighbourhood became alarmed, and the school building had to be fumigated and many of the books burned.
We are informed that the school was closed yesterday, and will not be reopened till Wednesday.
• When the General Committee's report came up for discussion at the meeting of the City Council last evening, Cr Begg drew attention to the nuisance caused in the North-East Valley on Sunday mornings by motorists riding through the township with the cut-outs of their machines open.
This practice, the speaker said, did not show much consideration to the worshippers in the churches.
He asked if the General Committee could not take some steps to abate the nuisance.
The Mayor said the nuisance was not confined to the borough of North-East Valley, nor to Sundays. - ODT, 1.4.1915.
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