NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2406, 11 March 1915, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Those New Zealandcrs who are airing their grievances about the increase in the cost of living sinco August last would do well to remember that the complaint is not a purely local one. Australia is suffering similarly, and her efforts in food regulation have not been conspicuously more successful thaif our own. In England when tho last mail left prices were about 20 per cent, above tho level ruling before the war. The point for us is that wo are bearing loss of the burden of war than almost any other portion of the Empire, while our ability to bear is ; greater proportionately than that of most of the Kings Dominions. Mr. Philip Snowden, tho English Labour 'M.P., who visited New Zealand last year, in recording his impressions in the Christian Commonwealth, tells us a few home truths. There is no doubt that our trouble, as it h"as been wittily -put, is not so much the higher cost of living but the cost of higher living. That was a matter on which the Cost of Living Commission had a good deal to say. Me. Snowden points tho same moral.

Tho workman in New Zealand, he tells us, who would be contcnt with just the standard of living he hacl in the Homeland would have a far larger margin on his wages. And this remark applies equally to all classes. There _is hardly _ a grown man Or woman in the Dominion who ih looking over their personal expenditures, individually small and little felt, but amounting in the aggregate to a, sum sufficient to cover many times over all that there is any prospect at present of the country being called upon to bear in connection with the war. Our business to-day is not to grumble about our war burdens, but to ask ourselves whether our present efforts are really commensurate with our ability.

The touching welcome which tho people of Alsacc gave to the French President on his recent visit shows that, in spite of forty years' enforced separation, the hearts of the people arc still with Franco. Indeed, the correspondent of the London Times declares that the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine are more anti-German than ever. And yet from the racial point of view Alsace is much more German than.French, and the German element prevail in a considerable part of Lorraine. "The strange thing is,'.' writes Me. H. W. Nevinson, "that France in both provinces has overcome the bond of race. It is the highest tribute to her charm and generosity." Alsace was seized .by France in 1681, and it remained under French rule for about two centuries. Lorraine was French territory from 1766 to 1871, but had" been under French influence ever sinco tho middle of the sixteenth century. When tho fayo provinces fell into the hands of Germany in 1871 they wci'e passionately French in sentimeilt, and they have never boon, reconciled to the German yoke. It has always galled them.

Foe some time past the relations between China and Japan have been somewhat strained. Gorman agents have been very active at Poking, and Ae Chinese Government was, inclined to throw obstacles in tho way of the Japanese during the siege of Tsingtao. A few weeks ago Japan maao demands upon China regarding questions of foreign policy, railway control, and mining rights. It was subsequently stated that some of these claims had been oonceded, and that it was hoped Japan would defer consideration of the other points raised until the conclusion of the war. This course does not appear to have met with thfe appi'oval of the Japanese Government, for it is indicated in a cablegram which we publish this morning that Japan intends to employ force unless her demands ai'e accepted by _ Mar.ch 12. The Chinese President is said to be willing to expedite a settlement of the points to which. China can agree. There have been Japan is desirous of changing tha political status of China, her ainr being to restore the old dynasty, and to place on the Throne a monarch who will act as her puppet. The Japanese Government denies having any such intention, and suggests that stories emanating; from Peking should be received with caution owing to the prevalence of German influence in that quarter.

Me. Massey is evidently taking time by. the forelock in assuring an ample supply of wheat, and it is satisfactory to learn that at need another million bushels will be imported by the State.' The _ Stato regulation of food supplies is not the easiest task in the world, and the main feature about the various efforts throughout the world' in the present crisis has been their Ineffectiveness. In Germany, where preparations for the task had been made years in advance, the policy with respect to particular articles appears from the English commercial papers to have been subject to as Inuch change and fluctuation as elsewhere. Captious critics of the action taken by our Government abound, but in most cases their views are coloured by strong party bias. Although the attempt to arbitrarily fix the price of wheat had to be abandoned in consequence of movements in the outside market and our necessity to import, it cannot be denied that the efforts to prevent scarcity and extortion ha/e been reasonably successful. New South Wales, with its vast stores of wheat on the spot, and 'its Government seizure of all wheat, is in the end little better off than we are in Ne v Zealand. The chief lesson to be learnt from our experience to date is that it is unwise to dispose of State imports at less than cost price, in the hope of benefiting the consumer. _ And this is a mistake which the millers will no doubt find will not be made twico.

The objection raised by Councillor Skegg, of Karori, to the interment in the city cemetery of Arthur Rottmann, hanged for murder will appeal to many good people. In principle it is ( thoroughly unsound If it is painful to think of one's relatives being buried in proximity to a murderer, it must also be painful to contemplate the fact of burial near a person convicted of scandalous crimes. In a public cemetery the only test of admission can be that of belonging to our common human clay. To decree otherwise is in effect to ask the Corporation officials to anticipate the Day of Judgment.