NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 775, 26 March 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

A complimentary reference by his Excellency, the Governor to Mb. 0. A. 0. Hardy, M.P. for Sehvyn, has inspired the Ministerial. organ in Christchurch to say some pleasant things about tho popular Opposi-, tion Whip. In the course., of its articlo" our contemporary makes a statement that has a rather interesting significance. "We sometimes, have a suspicion," it says, "that Me. Haedy is; at heart a good deal more of a Liberal than.the exigencies of party warfare will allow him to admit." Now,.if Me. Haedy is reluctant, to admit himself a: Liberal, his reason is, we imagine, hardly what our contemporary supposes it to be. Me. Hardy is a Liberal, just as Me. Massey is'a Liberal, and most of tho other members of the Parliamentary Reform party as well. There are on.the Ministerial benches men who are really Liberals at heart, but the bulk of them are certainly not Liberals at all. Those of them that have convictions are Radicals who at every point , are opposed to the doctrines of the founders of Liberalism and their successors. But-long habit has ac-. customed the' public, to understand; by the word Liberal" men of the political colour of, say, Me. Laurenson; and.wo can.easily understand that Mr. Haedy ' does not care to adopt a designation that has been degraded to a significance not merely different from,. but on most points utterly opposed to, the significance which it originally bore. ,Mr. Hardy is a Liberal, but he iis most decidedly not a "Liberal" of the Ministerial type. Our Christchurch contemporary's "suspicion" that Me., Hardt is_ a. Liberal merely means that it is unable to repress its surprise that Me. Hardy is not tho "Tory" that our Ministerial friends so ridiculously declare everyone to bo who is. not a State Socialist. . How many of our "Liberals," who are all for the nationalisation of • land and of almost everything else, are aware that Me. Asquith. is expressly opposed to the nationalisation of the land or the railways, and notoriously opposed, like_ Mr. Gladstone, to ,the nationalisation of" any industry at all J

It is being asserted in some quarters that the Karori Borough Council has no warrant for indignation or oven disappointment at its failure to, obtain. an advance from: the Board set up under the State-Guar-anteed Advances Act. The Prime Minister, we are told, could not have been ,so reckless as to hold out the large promises imputed to him by the Mayor of Karori. , But wo do riot think that anyone can doubt that the Government did its best to encourage the belief that it would provide unlimited sums which could be had for the mere asking. During the Prime Minister's ab-. sence in London last year it was rumoured—and the rumour _ was assisted by some broad hints by Messes. Millar and R. M'Kenzie— that one result of the Prime Ministee's journey would be the provision of exceptional means and facilities for local borrowing. It is entirely the Government's' own fault that the Karori Borough Council believes that it, has been unfairly treated. The national debt and the debts of local bodies are already enormous, amounting as they do to well on to a hundred millions sterling, and it is necessary that such advances as may' be made Bball in every case have tho defence l of, special merit. The Board advanced over £600,000. at its .first meeting. Wo'should like to know the details of this huge sum. Will the Government furnish" those details, and at the same time explain exactly on what grounds each advance was made 1 .

That statistics need not always bo dull is amply demonstrated in the annual report of the Chamber of Commerco, which teems with figures of a most interesting kind. Of the £18,953,661 worth of exports from New Zealand for tho year ended September 30 last, no less a sum than £15,268,174 was furnished by the products of the soil (wool, skins, meat, butter, cheese, tallow, gum, ! homp, timber; and grain). The meat exported from the North Island weighed 1,526,044cwt., and from the South Island 979,400cwt.; the wool export amounted to 115,872,09; lbs. from this island and 71,747,08-1 from tho South Island; more than twice as much cheese was produced in this island than in the South (241,4i0cwt. to 1V4,260cwt.) and.over ten ae mupji butter .(264,785

cwfc. to 24,172cwt. The report contains some Very striking figures relating to the trade of the four chief ports for the triennium 1906-9, which are eloquent enough in the following table to make comment unnecessary: Customs Exports. Imports. Revenue. £ £ £■■■.■■ Wellington 10,058,252 13,738,033 2,343,424 Auckland 3,679,550 13,116,541 2,121,872 Lyttelton . 7,498,848 7,627,007 1,322,217 Dunedin 4,201,705 7,001,192 1,260,905 The correct figures relating to shipping for the year ended. December 31, 1908, are: Wellington, 2,908,956 tons; Auckland, 1,594,425 tons; Lyttelton, 2,079,539 tons; Dunedin, 1,011,430 tons. We are glad to note that the Council of the Chamber enters a strong protest against the Railway Department's restriction of the suburban area to ten'miles from an urban centre. The hinterland of AVellington affords a case against the Department's rule strong enough to convince any reasonable railway administrator of the folly of making 'a strict rule. There is not very much contentions matter in the report, and while this is no r doubt a good thing in some respects, yet the Chamber of Commerce' can with advantage take up a strong stand a good deal oftener than, it does. It should not be afraid of expressing its opinions with force and sharpness. '■••..';■'.''