NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1712, 1 April 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

A correspondent directs our attention to a statement published in the Wanganui Herald .comparing the cost of the flotation of the four and a half million! loan raised by the Mackenzie Government, with the three million loan recently raised by the Massey Government. He states that he knows the Herald's figures to be incorrect, but he has riot the details to reply. The assertions to which he takes exception display either the most colossal ignorance on the part of the Wanganui journal or it is wilfully misrepresenting the position. _ According to it Mr. Myers raised this'loan for his Government at 31 per cent; and received £99 for every £100 borrowed. . This loan was for two years. On the other hand Mr, Allen, on behalf of the Massey Government, raised three millions at 4 per oent, for 40 years,' receiving £98 for every £100 borrowed. This is correct enough, but the Herald, goes on to analyse'the two transactions, and ignoring the cost of the raising of the Mackenzie loan in 1912, pretends to believe that the country only paid 3i per cent for that loan and that the renewal could be made on still more satisfactory terms 1 'As a matter of fact everyone who has given any attention to the .subject knows perfectly well that the Mackenzie Government's 3i per cent loan actually cost the country, according to an official memorandum from the Secretary of the Treasury, £5 2s. od. per oent. Mr. Myers, the then Minister of Finance, himself claims, that it cost £4 18s. 9jd. per cent, which is a little less than the official figures, but nearly lj per cent more than is claimed by the Herald. The loan recently raised by the Massey Government, allowing for the cost of flotation and all charges, works out at £4 ss. 6d. per cent. The anti-lleform journal at Wanganui may have been ignorant of the facts, but it is a little curious that in the one case it shpuld—to serve its purpose—completely ignore the cost of the raising of the 1912 loan, while in the case of the 1911! loan it emphasised the cost. The policy of the press opponents of the. Government just now appears to bebne of wilful and deliberate distortion and misrepresentation.

Amongst the "Labour" leaders there are no doubt men who • have some understanding of the working of tho public nind. Theso miißt feel an annoyance equal to our own surprise at the belief of many of their comrades that the public can be impressed by stupid catch-cries and baseless assertions (a belief, by the way,_ which seems to be shared by the stupider sort of Oppositionist). Yesterday, for example, one of the shearers' delegates v'lio waited on Mr. Massey • tried to "drag in Waihi," unmindful of the fact that to drag in Waihi is about the most foolish thing a Labour agitator can do. The public knows all about Waihi, and has on that subject a strong opinion which ' the LabourSocialists will not like. This particular shearers' delegate declared that "Mauris were being used by employers fur tbo suppression of La-

bour organisations tts they lmd bean used iU, Wailii and Huntly." The ideil was, as it was at Wailii, to represent the Maori as a low-class native, to be reprobated by white "workers." The I'ltliiu Minister called the shearer to order in excellent style. He said that "that subject" had better be left alone, and the dialogue proceeded : Mr. M'Rae: 1 must bring it iji, sir Mr. Alassey: If you insist L Limply say that the statement is incorrect . . ~ Mr. M'Kae: Maoris were used as arbitratiomsts. Mr. Masse? s Has not a Maori a right to join a union if lie wants to? Mr. Al'Kae: Certainly lie has a right. Mr. Massey: You would cot object to a Maori joining a Shearers' 17111011? And the delegate, thus corncred, had no option save to say that they would not object. Me. Masses leaves the public to ask for itself why these militant "Labour" men refer so pointedly to Maoris. We all know, of course, that the Federationists have some muddled idea about "the colour line," and have merely hoped to stir up race prejudice. But when pressed, as they were pressed by the i'eijie Minister they lack the courage to stand by their innuendo against the Maori as a Maori.

The squabbling, for such it must be styled,' which took pl.ice at the ■meeting of tho City Council convened yesterday to discuss the question of the entertainment of tho officers and crew of the warship New Zealand did little credit to either Mayor or Councillors. The shadow of the coming election appeared to be clouding the views of some of those who participated in the discussion, and one might reasonably assume that they, were more conoerned with vote-catching than with the best means of making the stay of our coming visitors as please,nt as possible'. Councillor Atkinson summed up_ the position very well when he pointed out that if citizens had not bestirrod themselves long before the Council appeared on the scene the probabilities are that nothing would have been done at all. It' is a great pity that even on an exceptional occasion such as that involved in the coming visit of the we.rship' the Radical-Socialist element cannot rise superior to its narrow and petty prejudices. There is no question of party and no question of 'class in welcoming to the' city a section of the Imperial naval 1 defence forces, and it is unworthy of the Council that such paltry disputation should bo allowed to intrude iii a matter of the kind under review.