NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 840, 11 June 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

• A return just issued by the British Post -Office demonstrates in a striking manner the growing use of wireless telegraphy. The period covered is only for the last nine months of 1909, but during that .time the 'number of messages exchanged between the shores of the United Kingdom and. mercantile ships -by the Marconi, system, .was 34,500. The. bulk of these were received or transmitted at Crookhavcn; which accounts for 18,600. There were at the close of the year 32 shipowners holding licenses to use the system, and these licenses covered 116 vessels. Apart from ship installations, there are 260 licensed stations in the United Kingdom, but the great majority of these, 241, are for experimental purposes only. The revenue derived by the Post Office from the wireless telegraphic services was £2235, of which £ll2t) came from coast station charges, and . £1115 from'inland telegraphic-charges; it •has to be borne in mind, however, that the Government has only held the Marconi stations since September 29 and Lloyd's' stations sincc November 1. The , New' Zealand Government is now inviting tenders for the installation of wireless telegraphy stations in the Dominion, and it should not be very long be : fore practically the whole of the islands of the Pacific.are linked up by this means.

The honours of the. first round in the encounter between the Government and the Natives at the Waahi conference certainly rest with the Natives. ' The ' Prime Minister's speech was a vel'y proper one -for the occasion. Ho'told the Natives that conditions had changcd—that their lands must be opened up, and that the Natives mnlst take the full responsibilities of citizenship. Legislation now enabled the Natives to sell or lease the. whole of their lands, and he said to Maiiuta, Maori King, "Come forward without delay, don't lay back. Come forward and help in this matter in the interests of all." Maiiuta did not respond to this .particular appeal, though he promised the Native Minister a Warm time in discussing terms. His first lieutenant, Mr. HENjatE Kaihau, M.P., howover, carried the war into the enemy's camp: "We have giyen you our land," he said; "you have the banks, give us some money. . ~ . Now who is causing delay? . ."

Mr. Kaiiiau's question has been asked on a great many occasions, but we doubt if it has ever been more effectively put. It was addressed; face to face, to the author of the Government's Native land policy; to the great stumbling-block for so many years past to the opening up of the Native lands of the country, to the Native Minister, the Hon. J- Carroll. The taihoa policy seems' to bo in real danger at last.

Some idea, of, the tremendous forccs at work for the development of Canada may be gained from the procedure of one of the great railway companies of that Dominion. This company, which has been given the nickname of r "Providence Incorporated," owns a great deal of land and wants many thousands of farmers to occupy the land, ft is not satisfied with the'ordinary class of oniijirftnt. who ■ lands with a few

pounds in his pocket—it wants the very best class of farmers, the men who can make the land yield the big-' gest returns—and it makes the conditions so tempting that it secures them. Its agents abroad at first found difficulty in inducing successful fanners in Europe to leave their well-tilled farms and go backblocks of Canada even under tempting conditions of settlement, so a new plan was tried. Instead of selling raw land to new settlers, the railway company first builds the house and the barns, breaks the land, plants the first crop, puts all the necessary tools on tile farm, and hands the whole thing over to the newcomer ready made. "The new settler," as one writer puts it, "comes from a finished farm to. a finished farm." He can get results from his farm at once. This plan was adopted two years ago, and as a result it is claimed that the cream of the industrial farmers of Central Europe and of the Western States of America is drifting into Canada by train-loads. A scientific farming expert is travelling through selected areas of Europe to-day lecturing on irrigation ' farming in Alberta. He draws large audiences of the best of the farming experts of the old countries, and the attractive promises he makes under guarantee of the "Providence Incorporated" cannot be resisted. It is claimed that last year 80,000 of the best farmers in the United States .went into Canada,, carrying with them a sum estimated at possibly £20,000,000. The settlers on the new ready-made 1 farms require something like £-100 to start with, the figure it is stated "being put high to be sure of getting the best." And what, is New Zealand dojng to open up and develop its waste lands 'I

The very strenuous life led- by the High Commissioner for Australia, Sir George Heid, has served to keep the Commonwealth very much in the eye of the British public for some months past. If publicity of this kind is of any . use to a young country requiring population of the right stamp and capital for the development of its resources, and we suppose it has some effect in these directions, then, the appointment of Sir George Heid must have quite realised the of his sponsors. In this conncction it_ is interesting to note that the Christchurch weekly, The Spectator, owned and conducted by Mr. G. W. Russell, M.P., one of the Government following, lias revived the story that the Hon. W. Hall-Jones is desirous of relinquishing the post of High Commissioner for the Dominion. We referred to this subject recently and suggested that it-was not improbable that Mr. Hall-Jones, owing .to the state of his health, would not be unwilling to be relieved of his office. The Spectator, in discussing the. matter, states that Dr. Findlay's name is being mentioned as the probable successor of Mr. Hall-Jones, but jocularly comments on the possibility of Sir Joseph Ward, going to London to enter the lists against the redoubtable represfin.tative of the Commonwealth. It seems reasonably certain that Mr. Hall-Jones would not be unwilling to retire into private life; but to do so at juncture might prove somewhat inconvenient to.the Government. We may hpar something more about the matter later in the year. /