NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 203, 22 May 1919, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Most people, no d'oubt, think that fhe Government did the right thing in restricting tho price of butter on the local market. The justice of the means taken to secure this result is another question, and one that deserves more consideration than it has yet been given. Tho leading facts were recapitulated by a deputation representing butter producers which interviewed Ministers on Tuesday. The position is, briefly, that a levy is made on export butter so as to place its owners on the same footing as those who sell butter on tho local market at the fixed wholesale price of Is. sd. per pound. Thus a tax is levied on the industry as a whole. Sincc no similar tax is imposed on any other Dominion industry (except for a partial restriction on the export' of hides in conncction with the production of standardised boots) butter -producers naturally are restive under tho imposition J The deputation on Tuesday- askecl that the tax should be lifted, and that the equalisation fund should lie drawn from the Consolidated Fund. The attitude of the Ministers to whom this request, was submitted suggests that no such relief will be' granted, but it can hardly be said that their refusal was justified. It was pointed out on behalf of the deputation that butter producers were the poorest of dairy farmers, many of them located in the backblocks, working very hard, and making very little. On the other hand rich, and poor alike benefit from the artificial restriction of the pricc of butter. _ Obviously , there .is no equity 'in such an arrangement. Desirable, as it is to keep down the cost of living, it is utterly unjust to single out one section of the community for penal treatment: The Acting-Prime Minister and the President of the Board of Trade failed absolutely to meet this point, and yet obviously it is tho one on which judgment ought to turn. Sir-James Allen raised the peculiar argument that the burden borne by the butter .producers wns self-imposed. Apparently he made no. attempt to deal with tho explanation—that the arrangement was forc°d upon butter producers by the Prime Minister's declaration that the wholesale price of butter on the local market would not be allowed to advance beyond is. sd. per pound. In anv ease, the Acting-Prime Minister's contention is manifestly without force unless he tho right of butter producers to discard the burden to which they take strong and reasonable exception.

It is now almost certain that the bold attempt by Mr. H. Hawker and Lieutenant-Commander .Mackenzie Grieve to fly the Atlantic has ended in tragedy. Practically tho only hope remaining, is the slight one that Hawker and his companion may have been picked up by some slow-travelling, vessel not equipped with wireless. The Sopwith biplane in which the flight was made offered at best a precarious means of keening afloat in the event of a forced descent, and in view of the conditions of tho journey over an expanse of two thousand miles of ocean it is only too plain that the chances that a gallant adventure has terminated fatally predominate heavily. Heartfelt regret at such an unhappy ending for the brave airmen is deepened by the evidence supplied in recent cablegrams that no such arrangements were made for naval assistance and co-operation as in the case of the American seaplanes which attempted the .crossing by way of the Azores. . The failure to establish a chain of ships along the line of routo and so give Hawker and his companion at least a chanci of rescue in the event of their getting into difficulties is explained to-day by the Admiralty. The boats, it seemed, could not be spared, and the Admiralty hnd not in consequence encouraged or taken any part in the arrangements for the flight. In the circumstances it is surprising that no question was raised of prohibiting the flight altogether, on the grouncl that it entailed excessive risks. ' Hawker and Grieve, there is every reason to fear,'went to their deaths in attempting an aerial achievement which would have been unprecedented ol itd kind. It is at least arguable whether, any further attempt to_ fly the Atlantic ought to be- permitted under the same conditions.^