NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2209, 23 July 1914, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

New Zealand is a sea-girt country, but as Mb. • AVilson remarked in his address '■ to ■ the Farmers' Union Conference, she has few sailors. Mr. Wilson was dealing at the. time With the ■ naval_ question, and he pointed out that in Britain the Navy was recruited largely from the fishing villages around tho coasts.. In New Zealand such men as we have are for the most part Italians,_ and the native-born shows no inclination at all to tako up the work. _ In The Dominion recently, some instances were given of the excellent returns, that' arc being obtained by the more enterprising of the fishermen, who seem to have been earning considerably more for themselves than the_ ordinary rate of wages to be obtained in town and country. There can be no doubt that the development of the sea fisheries would be of value not only in itself, but as affording a training ground on' which a valuable naval reserve could be built up.

'Although it deals in part with tho devastation of large areas of land which might easily have been preserved in good condition, and profitably settled, the report of the Commission which has just completed the task of inspecting and classifying the gum reserves in the Auckland provincial district makes upon the whole very encouraging reading. In many respects the report runs counter to commonly accepted ideas. For instance,_ it is shown that the gum-digging' industry, instead of being a dying one, still affords a large scope for profitable enterprise. In the opinion of the Commissioners the proper development of the gum lands under judicious management presents a practicable solution of the unemployed difficulty for many years to' come, and they bring a great array of facts and figures to support their contention that, in the past ,the industry has suffered undeserved negW. ai. Vim bands of the State. It is

interesting to know, for instance, that the average annual value of the gum' exported during the last twenty-three years amounted to £494,120, and that the quantity exported • last year was valued «it no less than £549,106. The future prospects of the industry are indicated in the fact that the Commissioners recommend that the gum reservation should be retained upon an area, of .<i;),910 acres. Under the unsystematic methods followed in the past, gv diggers have been allowed to wander haphazard over the Crown gum lands, leaving in their wake great areas of land spoiled for farming purposes, owing to its being pitted with deep holes, sometimes as many as two hundred to the aero, and by the reckless burning of the bush, and, in some cases, of the humus and surface soil. Meantime, pri-vately-owned lands lying alongside these Crown lands' have not only brought a handsome return to their owners in gum-digging royalties, but have simultaneously been developed and brought into a state fit for farming. Happily there are still very large areas of the Crown- gum lands 'in the Auckland district which have not been spoiled for purposes of settlement, and the principal interest of tho report lies in the fact that it points to the existonce of a great extent of land which can be_ settled in small areas by men ,of limited means. Employment. at gum-digging will bo a valuable aid to the settlers while they are breaking in their holdings, and, their paGh will be further smoothed by the special arrangements which are now in train to grant,them State'financial assistance.

.An incident in the House of Representatives yesterday throw interesting light upon the relations that obtain between the Opposition and the Labour-Socialists. Mb. P. C. Webb, Social-Democratic member for Grey, protested loudly against the operation, of the clause in the Defence Act which directs that men liable- ,for training who refuse to servo may. be deprived of the right to;vote, and suggested that it was being administered by the Government with an eye to party advantage. ■ The _ Hon. James 'Allen pointed out, in the course of a dignified reply, that the Defence Act of 1909, which was passed by the. Ward Party, which the member for prey so consistently,.. sup-' ports, provided simply that defaulters might bo deprived of citizen rights without reservation of any kind. .The Reform Government, after taking office, amended tho Defence Act to provide that the deprivation of civil rights in the case of defaulters should not extend over a period of more than ten years. The actual period of deprivation is at the discretion of a Magistrate, and the Government -has nothing to do with it. In- the "circumstances thero was point in Me. Allen's suggestion that tho member for Grey, in raising the question, was evidently : indifferent to the merits of the case, and was governed wholly by considerations of party politics. Protesting voices were, of course, raised on the Opposition side of the House when the Minister delivered this thrust, and he was accused of bringing Defence down to the level of party politics/ Reviewing the position dispassionately, *it is perfectly clear that Mr. Allen did nothing of the kind. All that he did was to point to the obvious fact that the Social Democrats and the Opposition are united by ties which are absolutely independent of any other considerations than those of unblushing political opportunism.

New Zealand is reaching a stage in its development when it will soon bo advisable to borrow a' sufficient sum of money / to'complete the trunk railways once and for all. The Farmers' Union Conference yesterday discussed a motion urging the completion of the work within five years. A number of delegates seemed afraid of committing themselves to, the proposed time limit, and' the upshot was the carrying of a colourless resolution recommending the oompletion of 'the : trunk lines ''as soon as possible."' Wo do not see any good reason why a five-year limit should not be aimed at. The principal ; trunk lines in hand are the North of Auckland extension, the East Coast railway, the Strat-ford-Main Trunk, connectym,. and in the South Island the gap between the Marlborough and Canterbury lines, and the Otira Tunnel. Apart from the tunnel some,-five hundredmiles of line would have to be built to finish off these works, and tho cost could be put at about five millions odd. There is no question that the sooner ■ the work is completed the better it will be for the' country. It is over forty years since the public works policy was begun, and it is high time that the backbone of the work was broken. In the. first ten years of;railwaybjiulding some twelve hundred miles faere completed, and .in the succeeding thirty years not much more than fifteen hundred miles were added to the total. Tho country got its yfirat twelve hundred mile's at a opst of about nine and a quarter millions sterling, and it cannot be said that tho policy of later years of adding a mile here and a milo there has been ono of brilliant economy.

The only obstacle to tho early completion of the trunk railways is, of course, the difficulty of obtaining sufficient money to do tho work in the time 1 , and at the same time provide for other needed works. The mover of yesterday's . resolution' obviously had his eye on the Marl-borough-Canterbury line. The Government would possibly. not receive much thanks from him if it concentrated its attention exclusively on, say, the East Coast railway until it was completed. A forward move with the trunk lines will mean expenditure on all of them. Much has been hoard of the'rate at which the public indebtedness of New Zealand is growing, but it is necessary to remember in this respect that the bulk of the outside capital introduced'into the Dominion is raised by tho State and. tho local bodies. In the last half of 1913, for instance, the New Zealand Government borrowed 3i millions in London. The Canadian Government, in the same time, raised seven 'millions, but during the six months three Canadian railway companies were on the market with issues amounting to nearly .18 millions sterling, and altogether Canada got over a millions' from London during tho year for her State, railway, and industrial enterprises. It will thus be seen that Canada, in proportion to her population, is receiving infinitely greater financial aid from London than is this 1 Dominion. The amount of British capital poured into Canada during 1913 was, in fact, two and a half times as great as into the whole of Australasia. In the previous year it was three and a. half times as

great. Two South American' States, Brazil and Argentine, are each year receiving from 25 to 35 millions sterling from London for investment. There can be no doubt that the possibilities of New. Zealand and its great natural resources warrant a more rapid rate of development, and there is every reason for making a determined effort to finish off our trunk railways within tho space of a few years. It would be sound economy to hasten on this work,