NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2404, 9 March 1915, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The immigration question has been receiving some attention in Australia recently. At the annual meeting of the Millions Club held in Sydney a few days ago, Dr. Arthur, M.L.A., stated that if ever immigration was necessary in Australia it was at the present time. They were,, he said, spending an enormous amount of unproductive money now, and the Commonwealth war debt would probably be between £50,000,000 and £100,000,000. "Wo must," he added, "have more people here to bear,the burden of taxation that will be necessary." The New South Wales -Director of Immigration mentioned that a shipload of women were coming out from England to take up domestic service, and that there was a scheme on foot under' which a certain number of boys would be brought out every year. The Director stated that the Government had offered to transplant some of the distressed Belgians to Australia, but the Belgian Government had refused to sanction the departure of any of its own people across the seas. No doubt the Belgian authorities realise that every able-bodied man of good character is'a valuable asset to the State, and when the war is over there will be plenty of work for every Belgian in rebuilding the battered towns and cultivating the devastated rural districts. Belgium is looking to her own people to reestablish her industries and to 6et her national life going again. , She cannot spare them for the development of Australia or any other part of the British Empire. When peace is restored the population problem is sure to demand very _ serious _ attention, and not only in Belgium I and Australia.

On on© phase of the wheat question more light is needed. A great many people have lately been asking themselves why it is that the millers have been permitted to mix the Canadian'wheat with New Zealand wheat, and thus make the Government regulation as to the price of flour a dead-letter. It will be remembered that the Government imported the Canadian wheat at a cost of 6s. 3d. per bushel and sold it to the millers_ at ss. od.—a lobs to, the State of sixpence per bushel—with the understanding tnat the flour was to be sold at £14 10s. If by. mixing a certain amount of New Zealand wheat with the Canadian the millers could evade the obligation to sell at £14 10s., and successfully demand £17 10s., they stood to make a substantial profit. It may be impossible to make a satisfactory flour from Canadian wheat, but it is the first time we have heard it. Taking the first reference book that comes to hand, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, we find, for example, that Canadian wheat is described as possessing "excellent milling qualities" which enable the millers to turn out flour "uniform in quality and of high grade as to keeping qualities." The writer adds:—

Canadian flour has a high reputation in European markets. It is known as flour from which bakers can make the best quality of bread, and also the largest quantity per barrel, the quantity of albu, menoid being greater m Canadian flour than in the beat brands of European. Owing to its possession of this character- 1 istic of what millers term "strongth," i.e., the relative capacity of flour to niako large loaves of good quality, Canadian flour is largely in demand for blending with the flouT of the softer English wheats.

A Dunedin miller told a reporter on Friclay that the Canadian wheat is softer than the local wheat, and in order to make a mellow flour a mixture is necessary. It is difficult for a layman to reconcile the miller's statement with the extract we have quoted. .

The gulf which separates the University of New Zealand from the people of New Zealand may not be a very wide one, but it might be narrowed. We live in a country where politics is in the very air, arid a substantial percentage of the adult male population can reasonably aspire to service on some public body. The budding politician s _ ideas on economics and political science are often of the haziest order, but unless he is prepared to take a full course for a diploma, in most cases quite out of the question, the University has little to offer him. Mr. Meredith Atkinson's suggestion for the establishment of tutorial classes is one that will appeal to all who desire to see clear thinking in public affairs. At present the spare-time student is more or less compelled to rely on solitary reading for his advancement, and too often his selection of books is far from wise. The tutorial class will offer him the opportunity of personal contact with a man well veiled in his subject, and tlio stimulus of general discussion at the end of the lecture, a featuro of the classes as conducted elsewhere. It is a curiosity of our way of doing things that we should demand the btrictcst education of our doctors, lawyers, and what not, but our politicians we are content to leave to cducate themselves at tho

public expense by the carrying out of wrong-headed schemes, and the imtmit of some, imaginary milleauiuta at tte ond of a vainbQ.w-