NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1747, 12 May 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Minister for Customs, who returned from Australia last week, seems to have covered a good deal of ground in his confcrcnccs with representatives of the Commonwealth Government, and the information gained and imparted must bo of reciprocal value. Whether there will he any immediate and direct results of a practical kind, however, is less certain. Past experience has shown the difficulty of arranging a tariff treaty between the Commonwealth and New Zealand of a satisfactory nature to both countries, owing to the similarity of the products each have for export. Still, the time was in some respects very opportune for an attempt of the kind. Australia at the moment is apparently very anxious to come to a closer understanding with the Dominion on defence matters, and, in consequence, might be more disposed than at another time to concedc something in the way of tariff remissions. Should, public feeling develop in favour of the suggestion that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand should unite in providing for the naval defence of the Pacific, it might reasonably be expccted that out of such union would gradually be evolved closer trade, relations under reciprocal tariff treaties mutually beneficial. The Mother Country, of course, \\;ould participate in such advantages—she already has preferential treatment in all three of the countries named. However, that is for the future. In the meantime, 'Mii. Fisiieu savs he has his proposed tariff, treaty signed by the Commonwealth Government, and ready for the consideration of both the New Zealand and Commonwealth Parliaments. The disclosure of its terms will be awaited with a good deal of curiosity.

Mr. Lloyd-George appears to have spent a somewhat uncomfortable time under examination by members of the Parliamentary Committee set up to inquire, amongst other . things, into the circuinstauccs surrounding the purchase, by members of the British Government, in their private capacities; of shares in the American Marconi Company. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was one of the Ministers who bad purchased the shares, was very particular in emphasising that he had bought them as an ordinary business investment. Ho- repudiated with the utmost vigour any suggestion that he ever had or ever would gamble in shares or anything else. Questioned as to what he termed an investment., he said it was the buying of shares or any other security for the purposes of receiving dividends—a permanent investment. A speculation was defined "as buying in order to sell again"—a thing he said he had never done in his'life. The fact of his little "deal'' in American Marconi shares, read _ in conjunction with these professions of rectitude, read somewhat curiously. It seems that towards the end of April, 1912, he purchased 1000 shares at £2 each, and three or four days later had sold some 800 odd of them at, an average of £e, 6s. Bd. a share, netting ;> profit, of £7-10 and still holding the balance of his thai;es. A very nice profit, most people will (hink, for a three days' "investment." On this "investment'' Mr. Lloyd-George war, examined at great length, but with far from satisfactory results, as the following extracts from the evidence will show: — llr. Fubor: JCoiv, in making your choice of on investment, all yon kept your eye on was the dividend. May -1' examine the first transaction by that" test, ami see lm\v it works out. Oil April 17 vou buv 10011 shares for J!iooo?—Mr. Llovd-Geofo-Yes. On April in and liny Sir Hufus Isaacs sells a certain share of your holding in the common uuili'i'lnking—.')">7 shares in all; and on April 'JO you sell 500 shares. Sii that as regards S.">7 shares out of Die 1000 that you held in the common undevliikinj;, pniclically speaking, within three davs vou hail jjnt- out of all but ltl 5 — ••U'cilV' If viiu bought for all investment, with y<nr eye on the dividend, why did you at the end ■;? I lure days from Die time vou iii Mill' the investment, rid of S."i7 cut of 1000 share*"—"l should have Ihiuixht it would be perfectly obvious to yo'i." li is not.- ''Well. I will Icll you. Stipjeisiiif: you bought slum's in a railway i.ompauy for imeMiiienl. Something happens thai puts I hem up temporarily, anil your broker says, 'If 1 were you I should ■-I'll,' thai daes not mean dial: yon did not buy them originally as an invotmelit." Mis. I''aiu:ii suggested thai if Mi:. I.i.oYD-tlliouoK had gone in for the shares as an investment, surely his answer to lii.S broker in such circumstances would have been that lie had gone ill for the shares to keep,

not to soil three days after their purchase; but the Chancellor of the Exchequer regarded this as a ridiculous proposition. He was then questioned as to whether any money had passed inthe purchase of the shares, and admitted that it had not. It was subsequent to this transaction, which netted him a profit of £7*19 in three days, that Mr. Lloyd-George taking advantage of the fall in price bought a further parcel of shares in the same company, but this time with less fortunate results.

It will be noted from our cablegrams this morning that the British Government appears to be still opposed Co any extension to the overseas Dominions of a more intimate association with Home statesmen in Imperial matters. The question of converting the Imperial Conferences into an Imperial Advisory Council has now been raised in the House of Common.s, and Ml!. H,u:coi*nr, Secretary of Stale for the Colonics, in reply, has expressed the view that (lie present arrangement of admitting the overseas representatives to consultations with the Defence Committee, is satisfactory—and presumably sufficient for the time being. What Mi:. Harcouht says of the rejection by the Imperial Conference of 1911 of the Advisory Council proposal is .not quite correct; but a proposal which, on the faca of it, was quite out of question, was rejected. It will probably be recalled, that Sir Joseph Ward, who was responsible for it, started out with a motion in favour of an Imperial Council of State, ancl wound up, after an extraordinary jumble of terms, with a proposal to establish a Parliament of Empire. Every member of the Conference, with the exception of Sin Joseph Ward, expressed themselves as strongly opposed to the idea, and eventually Silt Joseph withdrew his motion. The question of. an Advisory Council, so far as we remember, was never really discussed, the debate being diverted from the actual motion nefore. the council to Sir Joseph Ward's variation of it. As a matter of fact, there is every probability that a proposal for the setting up of an Advisory Council, though it might not have been carried at the time, would have met with some support, and the idea would have thus been advanced a stage.