NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 139, 8 March 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Some curiosity is evinced by a correspondent respecting the surplus wool profits which many farmers have agreed to donate to a fund for the dependants of sailors of the British Navy and mercantile marine who have been wounded- or lost their lives in defence of the Empire. It has been suggested that many of those who agreed to subscribe their surplus profits to this very worthy cause did not realise when doing so how largo these profits might be, and that they might, in the light of the fuller information now_ available, desire to reconsider their action. Whether or not there is any very general desire of this nature we do not pretend to know. But Mr. E. Newman, M.P., the chief promoter of the scheme, has already intimated that whenever a division of the surplus wool profits is made by the British Government the trustees of the Sailors' Surplus Wool Fund will call the subscribers together to decide what is to be done. It would seem that rather exaggerated ideas are held in some quarters as to what the surplus, lvool profits will amount to. For the sake of. the wool-growers it may be hoped that these high expectations will bo realised; but in the meantime it would be unwise to take this for granted. It will be time enough for those who have agreed to contribute to the sailors' fund to talk about amending their original undertaking when the;f know for certain what is actually coming to them from the surplus wool profits.

The decision of the Government that the New Zealand Expeditionary Force shall cease to exist as from April 28 marks the end of the most glorious chapter in the history of New Zealand. The Expeditionary Force is being disbanded because the task to which it was this Dominion's contribution has been successfully completed, and when the New Zealand Expeditionary Force becomes no more than a memory it will be the memory of a task well _ and truly done. Our pride in it is pride not only in the physical valour and cnduranco shown, but in the cheerful spirit of self-sacrifice with which our soldiers gave and risked their lives for their country, and pride also in the selfsacrifice of the mothers, wives, and sweethearts who bade them go. The spirit of service _ lies dormant in most of ns until it meets the challenge of a supreme occasion. .Today the world is suffering a reaction from its war effort. It is a sick and cynical world, and it will only be made a better one if we hold fast to that same spiiit that lod our soldiers to the trenches in Gallipoli and Flanders. Sixteen thousand of them were called upon to die for their country. The rest of us have to live for it.

The tangle in the bread situation is one which should not be difficult of adjustment. The point at issue is whether the margin between the prices for flour and for bread leave a profit for the bakers. Nobody desire.? to sec the master bakers carrying on their businesses at a loss. The process of converting flour into bread is not a complicated one, and an estimation of its cost, with a fair allowance for the necessary overhead charges, should not occupy competent investigators for long. The Board of Trade has gone into the matter, Mr. Massey is prepared to go into it again with the master bakers, and it should soon be clearly demonstrated whether or not, there- has been underestimation of cost. In the meantime those of the master bakers who are talking of stopping baking bread show a strange sense of responsibility. In making bread they are performing an essential service to tho commun•ity, and for them suddenly to shut up their bakeshops would be as indefensible as for the nurses to leave their patients and walk nut of tlie hospitals on strike for more pay. Every industry has its duty to.the public, and for the master bakers to talk of abandoning theirs as a preliminary stop to a further investigation of bread prices is not a cheering indication of a return to industrial sanity in this country.

The appointments to the local profiteering tribunals arc notable chiefly for the inclusion of a Labour representative in cach case. This is a sound step, and the appointment of Mr. M. J. Reardon to. the Wellington tribunal will command very general approval in. Labour circles and outside them. Me. Reardon possesses qualities of acumen and judgment, combined with sufficient pugnacity to make him a useful member of an anti-profiteer-ing board. The boards having been set up, it with the public to cnine' forward with whatever charges of profiteering they may have to lay. The public are very acutely aware the prevailing high prices, but evidence of the reasonableness or , unreasonableness of the prices is poneraUv of thp pwntiest nature. The tribunals will be well advised to issue a statement as to what kind of evidence they are prepared to accept and exactly what degree of publicity attaches to the process of lodging complaints.

A more equitable distribution of petrol supplies should be assured by the committees now set up by the Governmenit to control the distribution. The matter is one to which The Dominion recently directed attention. We have no objection to motoring for pleasure by those who can afford it, but most of our readers will join with us in hoping that the Petrol Committee will speedily ensure that if there is to be a shortage it will not lie the dairy farmers with their milking machines, and the other : .ndustrial users, whose supplies are cut off. Still better 'work, of course, will be to take whatever steps may be possible to obviate a shortage for anybody.