Above all else, he said, the war had brought out the great value of motor vehicles of all kinds, and also of bicycles.
In a few years the motor would be supreme as the means of fast communication. Now was the time for the Government to arrange an effective motor tax, to be expended on the construction and upkeep of good roads.
The money obtained from the tax should be capitalised by means of a loan, and a special Government Roads Department should be constituted to control the arterial lines of communication throughout the dominion.
• Sir, - I wish to draw the attention of the Public Health Department to a matter which I think, in justice to the travelling public, should be immediately taken up. I write of the personal experience of myself and a friend.
We had occasion to stop the night in what they call an hotel, not 1000 miles from Central Otago, and, being tired, we immediately retired. After travelling the length of two musty passages, which must have taken us into the vicinity of the dog kennels, we were shown our respective rooms.
On awakening in the morning I was surprised to find I had the sight of only one eye, and, on trying to dress, found that my neck was swollen with what appeared like small white blisters. On inquiry we found that these particular rooms were infested with bugs.
In writing this letter it is with the hope that this matter will be taken up, and that it will be the means of saving some other belated travellers from suffering the agony that has been our lot these last few days. Should the department desire any further information it will be gladly given. - I am, etc., Bug-Bear.
• A smart man with a glass eye very nearly got past the Defence authorities the other day. In every other way an eligible candidate, he was sent up for medical examination, and came into the hands of the sight-testers.
''Put your hand over your left eye and read this,'' said the examiner, exhibiting a placard at a distance. The would-be recruit put his hand to his sight-less eye, and read glibly with the sound member.
''Cover your right eye and read it,'' the examiner then ordered, repeating the performance.
The man coolly lifted his right hand and placed it, not over his right eye, but again over the artificial optic, and read the chart again.
So coolly was the thing done that the examiner had nearly passed him when he noticed that the same eye had been covered twice.
A third trial was given, care being taken to ensure that the sound eye was covered this time, and, the vitreous optic, whatever its appearance might have been, proved quite unequal to the task of reading. So a keen recruit was lost to the colours.
- ODT, 7.1.1915.
