NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2422, 30 March 1915, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The district electors' roll closes this evening, and all who wish to sec the affairs of the City administered on sound lines should make sure that their names are on it. The elections next month are of .more than usual importance. For the Mayoralty there will probably be an animated contest betwepn Mr. Luke and Mr. Fletcher, who aspires simultaneously to make his debut in the Mayoral chair and in the House of Representatives. The field for City Council is not fully in sight yet, but toe Labour-Socialists, inspired by their advance at tho Parliamentary polls last year can be trusted to work energetically for their ticket. The electors will also have their choices to make for Hospital and Charitable Aid Board and Harbour Board representation. On both of these bodies new blood should be beneficial. The procedure of the Hospital Board in its proposed'purchase of a dairy farm to cost about £9000 has been peculiar, and calls for explanation. The Harbour Board's finances have revealed a tendency to soar steadily on the expenditure side for several years past, and the public might very well have a word to s;iy as to the Board's proposal to construct a superfluous waterworks of its own at a cost of £60,000, to be shouldored by the ratepayers. The issues on the different bodies are such as call for attention, and all citizens qualified to vote would do well to ascertain definitely that they are enrolled.

Those noisy people who have been so busily engaged in fault-finding with the Government over the' question of steamers to carry our produce will not derive much satisfaction from the export returns for January and February. Despite the difficulties which arose as the result of the demand for troopships, the diversion of steamers from their customary trade and delays at Home ports, tho efforts of the Pruie Minister to maintain an adequate service would seem to havo met with a good deal of success. The export returns for January and February tell the story. -They show that in these two critical months enough ships were available to carry away 920,000 cwts. of frozen meat and dairy produce, as against the 917,313 cwfc. shipped in the same two months of 1914. The total value of the exports for the two months was over seven millions sterling, or more than £800,000 above tho total in January and February of the previous year. A portion of this increase, it is true, was represented by increases in value, but the increases in quantity in most cases were substantial.-

It is not without difficulty that the Minister ot Internal Affairs has succeeded.in impressing tho Hospital Board with the need for a proper observance of democratic principles. The Board is a spending uody, and is in the pleasant position of having its bills footed by the various municipal and county authorities of the_ district. To these bodies it is obliged to submit its estimates of expenditure each. year. If during the year the Board wishes to undertake new works costing more than £250 it most first obtain tho consent of the Minister. Since June of last year the Board has had before it a proposal to purchase a dairy farm. A great deal may be said in principle in favour of this step. So far the public has been furnished with no explanation why it has been necessary to conduct the whole of the discussion on the project behind closed doors. The expenditure involved is, we believe, in the neighbourhood of £9000—even of this no authoritative statement is available.. The Board's idea apparently was to buy the farm and then leave the local bodies to object or not as they ohose when tho transaction was complete. Everything up.to the final application for the Minister's consent-was taken in camera. Mr. Bell, however, had not forgotten the old maxim that he who pays the piper is entitled to call the tune, and very properly insisted on the Board submitting the. details of its scheme to the contributing authorities for their approval. This decision \v-as_ accepted yesterday, though not with a very good graec. It is to be hoped that 110 more mystery will be made about the transaction.

A dearth of original thought begins to manifest itself in the resolutions of protest against the rise in prices. The Petone Branch of the Society of Engineers tells us, for instance, that, ''unscrupulous exploiters" arc "manipulating" the prices of foodstuffs. We doubt very much whether the authors of this resolution had before their minds so much as one solitary "unscrupulous exploiter" when they adopted it. Is it not the argument tending to become: There has been a rise in prices, err/o, there is unscrupulous exploitation '1 A resolution in such terms begs the whole question. Tho rise is an undoubted and universal fact, to which testimony can be borne in this and every other country. The point in dispute is tho justification for the local increases. Tho Petone engineers wisely leave this alone, and call upon the Government immediately to assume control of the wheat, flour, and meat supplies of the country, to limit maximum prices on "all commodities" and to grow by State enterprise' enough wheat for our own needs and for export to Europe. No course of action could be simpler. The thing is as good as done, except for those small souls who will persist in worrying about such things as working details and cause and effect.