NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2413, 19 March 1915, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

A few weeks ago came the appeal, of the Belgian Commission for a monthly contribution of £75,000 a month from Australasia. In New Zealand prompt steps have beten taken to ensure the dispatch of our quota of this sum, which Me. Allen tells us this morning will go forward on April 1 to the High Commissioner, and will include a- generous subvention from the State in addition to the amounts received from private persons. Subject to _ the consent of the Imperial authorities, the Commission will thus be able to rely with certainty on receiving the aid it sought from us. Assurances that the food distributed by the Commission is reaching the Belgians themselves and does not fill the stomachs of their Oppressors, have frequently been §iven in cable messages, and any lingering doubts on this score will be set at rest by a, perusal of an article we reprint this morning from the London Times. The steps taken to ensure the proper distribution of the foodstuffs are shown to be most thorough, and it is satisfactory to know that up to the date on which the article was written, about five weeks ago, there was no famine in Belgium. The methods adopted by the Commission are such as to inspire confidence in it a.s a business-like botJy. The'■ Mayoralty during the past two years has been anything but a sinecure. Mr. Luke has had upon his shoulders the burden of extra work imposed both by the strike and the war, and he has proved himself active and zoalous in the City's interests. It was only to be expecfeJ that he would be invited to content the office for a further term, and his decision yesterday to do so will give satisfaction to a large body of the citizens. It is early days yet in >he municipal elections, but of the candidates so far on the horizon Luke is decidedly the most entitled to public support. His record has been one of conscientious work, aud at .a time when firmness and discretion were needed he showed hiniso'f not to bo lacking in those qualities; Since the war Me. Luke has devoted much, time and labour to the causa of the various patriotic movements, and he has the threads of these at his finger tips. Unless , some unexpected development should occur in the meantime, the bulk of the electors on polling day will probably be found well contented that he should contniue in the Mayoral chair . In its current issue the Maoriland Worker devotes two-thirds of a column to side-stepping a simple issue raised in Tee Dominion last week. The. Worker is the official organ of the United Federation of Labour, and tfie Social Democratic Party, and in our previous comment attention was directed to the 'act that it was systematically printing much anti-war matter. An extract was quoted from the weekly jottings of a regular contributor which, if it had any meaning at all, could only mean that the men of the West Coast who had enlisted in the Expeditionary Forces were making themselves the "tools of the loafing class." To our query whether this view of the citizens' duty can be taKen as the view of the bodies controlling the Worker, our contemporary remains silent. We are pleased to'notc, however, that its pages this week are comparatively freo from a very questionable class of matter, and it is to bo hoped that the improvement in this respect will be maintained. There is_ ao room for the rail-sitter in a crisis such as this which democratic civilisation is passing through to-day. The farmers of Canterbury who are dissatisfied with their returns under the Government's meat purchase scheme, have the remedy in their own hands. ' The Government is buying the meat at the ship's side, and there is no quarrel with the price at which it is purchasing. The complaint of the Canterbury farmers is that they have not free access to the freezing works, as most of the space available has been booked ahead by the'export buyers, with whom the 'farmer is thus forced to deal as intermediary. The buyers, it is complained, are making toj hip a profit for themselves, and not giving the farmers their fair share t ,f the Government price. The original demand in Canterbury was that the Government should commandeer the spaco and buy the meat direct from the farmers on the hooks, thus eliminating the middleman. It is r;ow pointed out by the North Canterbury executive of the Farmers' Union that the same end oa.n be attained by the farmers refusing to sell to theexport buyers at less than a fair basis on the Government rale, which in the case of prime lamb if worked out by the executive at l'om.

6Jd. to 6jd. per lb. If the farmers stand firm the buyers will either have to give the figure demanded or they will fail to keep their contracts, in.which latter case the farmers will bo able to freeze on their own account and sell direct to the State. The circumstances certainly appear to call for the exerciso of a little intelligent self-help on tho part of graziers rather than what would virtually be the commandeering of freezing works in addition to the purchasing of meat.