NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1253, 9 October 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

. One of the.many pieces of business transacted by the Legislative Council during its short sitting of a little over an hour and a half on Thursday afternoon was the complete disposal of the Patents Bill. The 130 clauses of this Bill, and several amendments proposed by the Attorney-General, were swallowed without discussion in Committee. Members of the Legislative' Council might have remembered their action in 1909, when they put the Native Land Bill of 441 clauses through Committee without saying a word. On that occasion they wero told by the Attorney-General, in effect, that they need not attempt to scrutinise the Bill. They obeved him, and they did not notice that it contained that clever little clause that rendered the Mokau land deal possible. Of course tho great majority of them did not know or care anything about tho Bill, but even if they had they probably would never have suspected the purport of the interesting little clause referred to, for the Attorney-General had been eloquent to the point of emotion upon the impossibility of alienating large blocks. The Bill was the ending of the days of "human greed, perfidy and chicanery" (Hansard Vol. 148, p. 1272). Never more would there be "titles to land which had been obtained by means which can only shortly bo called by the term 'dishonourable'." "The most important branch of the Bill—that of alienation" (page 1276) was dealt with in terms that would have reassured anybody. "The large estates to-day, many of them, owed their extensiveness to the fact that in the past there was no limitation upon tho area of Maori land that could be acquired", (ibid). And so on, and so on, and so on. Clause after clause was briefly explained (pp. 1276-7), but the little clause that really mattered, the little clause that wiped out all the other clauses, was not mentioned. The Council, dazed but feeling vaguely safe if it felt at all, let the whole thing pass through Committee without comment. Wc do hope that their resignation of their functions in respect of the Patents Bill will not lead to trouble.

The cable message intimating that negotiations have been opened anew by the Commonwealth Government regarding a reciprocal trade arrangement with Now Zealand is, we fear, not likely to lead to any practical results. There are very few items in the list of products of either country that aro not produced by the other, and save in time of drought or disease, or possibly in tho case of a prolongecl strike or lock-out, the possibilities of increasing the interchange of trade on any appreciable scale are remote. As a, matter of fact, so recently as Friday last L the Minister for Mines, Mn. it. M'Kbnzie, declared himself in favour of preventing the importation of coal into New Zealand—practically the, only coal imported is from Newcastle, New South Wales. There appears to be an idea, that to prohibit the importation of Newcastle coal by means of a heavy tariff would benefit New Zealand. Nothing could bo further from the truth. If coal

and sold cheaper than _ the local article every householder in the community who has the opportunity of purchasing the cheaper article benefits. Of course it will be said that local industry should be encouraged. This is sound enough up to a certain point. There are industries which should receive encouragement by means of a protective tariff; but the coal industry is not one of these. For one thing it is an industry that should now be in a position to hold its own with outside competition without the necessity for tariff protection. But apart from that i't is essentially an industry in connection with which it is unwise to ncnalise the public. If the imported article can be brought here and sold cheaper than the local production the public should bo given the benefit. _ The coal cannot run away, and is not likely to deteriorate, and is always there available for the timo when it will pay to mine it and place it on the market. As a matter of fact it is not likely that imported coal will ever make any serious inroads on the New Zealand market. The latest statistics show that during 1910 some 232,000 tons of coal, valued at £230,000, were imported into New Zealand, while the Dominion's export of coal totalled 277,000 tons, valued at £259,000. It is worth noting in connection with the question of a reciprocal trade arrangement with the Commonwealth that in 1910 the total imports from Australia amounted to £2,060,763, of which imports to the value of £1,201,754 were admitted duty free. Our exports to Australia balanced the imports therefrom.

The war news at time of writing is so far as actual hostilities arc concerned lacking in interest. The Turks are not in a position to offer any resistance worthy the name in any of the sea-ports of Tripoli and were bound to retire in face of bombardment from the Italian fleet. Should the Italians attempt to follow the Turkish forces inland there may be a different story to tell. In the meantime most interest will bo concentrated on the battle of wits which is proceeding in the diplomatic circles of Europe. As we have pointed out previously Germany has been particularly active in her role as mediator between the belligerents, but so far has not met with any material success. No doubt she is handicapped somewhat by her tics to Italy which are hardly likely to afford assurance to the Turks that she can act in a quite disinterested way. The bitterness of feeling at Berlin towards Great Britain at the present juncture rather seems to point to the fact that Britain has in some manner interfered with the plans of German statecraft. 'Whether it is that British influence with the Young Turks or with Italy is proving greater than that of Germany the luture i alone can show, but it must be obvious that Great Britain could not afford to stand idly by and watch the development of a situation which may have very serious consequences on her interests in Egypt as well as on the whole European situation. Unless there is some malign influence at work urging on one or other of the belligerent nations the probabilities point to an early end : ing of the struggle on terms which will give Italy what she wants with as little affront to the Turks as is possible in tHe circumstances.

The House of Eepresentatives did a very -heavy wcok s work last week and the Acting-Prime Minister, Sir James Carroll, must be given credit for. having driven members at a hard pace with a minimum of friction. No doubt he was assisted by the fact that members recognised that it was quite hopeless to obtain any intelligent .idea of the affairs of some of the Departments owing to the. absence of the Ministers who have had charge of them. The indisposition of Sir Joseph Ward, for instance, necessitated the Estimates relating to the Departments of Lands and Defence falling to the charge of his colleagues who knew next to nothing _ about them, and who could promiso little as to the future. Then the resignation of Mr.. Fowlds created a similar situation in respect of the Departments which have been under his control, such as Education and Hospitals and Charitable Aid. In these circumstances the Ministers temporarily in charge could only repeat the scraps of information regarding, the Departments obtained from tho permanent officials_ present. No doubt the situation was unavoidable, but it was not a particularly satisfactory one, either to the House or to the country, where large sums running into millions of pounds were concerned. With the elections drawing near members cannot be expected to continue in Wellington for more than a fortnight or three weeks longer, and it would seem therefore that the end of the session rush will bo rather worse than usual, this year. It is a little curious, in view of the shorthanded state of the Ministry, that Sir John Findlay and the Hon. T. Mackenzie can. find time to_ go rushing off on week-end electioneering trips. Their anxiety concerning the seats they have chosen is of course quite natural, but it seems a little strange that Ministers who are paid fairly large salaries in return for their services should at such a time desert their public posts to further; their own interests.