At the same time the numbers of country visitors are still considerably below expectations, and the arrangements made by the Housing Committee continue to cope quite adequately with the requirements. Certainly, no one need be deterred from visiting Dunedin for fear that suitable accommodation will not be available. It is considered possible by some that a certain number of country people may have been deterred from visiting the city because they do not care, in the meantime at anyrate, to take such risks as may be involved in joining the Carnival Week crowds, but perhaps if the health reports continue to be as favourable as they have been they may yet make the journey. Two further factors, which are operating to keep the country people at home are the rapidly ripening harvests of hay and cereals in many districts, and the fact that the milking season is now at its greatest height. Nevertheless, there is a great crowd of people in the town, and, with a continuance of the fine weather which was experienced on Saturday, Carnival Week should prove highly successful, and should be established as a permanent fixture.
Kea predation highlighted
The yearly toll exacted by the kea throughout Canterbury is estimated to be close on 20,000 sheep. An instance of the difficulty of dealing with the kea pest was narrated by a prominent member of the Canterbury Sheepowners’ Union. Recently he shot a "killer," and in the vicinity there were several sheep lying that had been killed by keas. Owing to the bush providing plentiful cover, he found it necessary to wait in hiding till this particular bird came down to start his nightly operations. The kea began on a mob of sheep on a spur of about a quarter of a mile from his hiding place. When he had worked his way towards the bird and had shot it, he found that the kea had succeeded in attacking the sheep's kidney. Last November his head shepherd killed three keas while each was in the act of eating sheep. During the past season he estimated that he lost 2000 as the result of the kea’s fondness for the fat in the vicinity of the kidneys.
Education for all
The Hon. J A. Hanan, in the course of his speech, proposing the toast of the University of Otago at the University dinner on Friday night, said that it was a national institution, unhampered by restrictions of class or creed. Our democratic State system of education from the primary school to the University opened a straight way from the threshold of every abode, however humble, in the country or in the town to the high places of usefulness, influence, and honour. It was in the interests of the State that the promising boys and girls of the poorer classes should be given the chance of all education could give. Talent should not remain undeveloped or ability lost to the nation for want of educational opportunity. He hoped to see a growing public recognition of the fact that the future of the world belongs to the people which is most rich in education and mental efficiency, and which is most strong in moral power, and which, therefore, sees and strives towards the noblest possibilities in life. — (Applause.)
— ODT, 8.2.1920.
