NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 27, 27 October 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

The throwing away of a human life is always a tragic thing, and the suicide of Mr. M'Swiney in Brixton Prison ib surrounded with circumstances which make it especially so. Young and able, he should have had a useful and distinguished career before him had he not been unwisely led to take up an attitude of impossible defiance to the Government. The hunger-strike was. first brought under notice during the course of the suffragette campaign, when some over-cleve; people adopted it as a means of putting the authorities in' a dilemma. If we starve ourselves, they argued, tile' Government will either have to take the chance of our dying—which .they would not like to face—or else release us and be made to look impotent and ridiculous. Numbers of suffragette prisoners wer« released, as they anticipated. The successful result of this ruse led to its adoption by Irish .prisoners. The 6uffragettt nuisance was a comparatively trivial thing in which a few people were en. gaged. The Irish campaign of murdei and violence is quite another matter, and if the Government continued to release Irish prisoners because they threatened to commit suicide it would be left with 110 optiou but to withdraw entirely from Ireland. A number of Irish hungerstrikers were released, but it became obvious that it was impossible to continue this clemency. The Government made its intention to take a firm ftand in the matter quite clear, ,and the hunger, strikers know that if they persist In refusing food they are taking their own lives. Their action differs only in method from that of the suicide who deliberately hangs or shoots himself.

Householders who have been without coal for domestic purposes for months past will find au explanation of tlieii troubles in the statement of the 6oal Mine Owners' Association published this morning. From this it appears that in tho seven months from March 1 to the end of September there was a total shortage of production of coal of 59,333 tons. Of this 34,788 tons was lost through mines not being worked during strikes, disputes, and 6top-work meetings, and goslow methods of working accounted, foi tho remaining shortage of 4515 tons. The longest stop was for seventeen days and the ground of complaint was that the Railway Department charged concession ticket rates for the men who travelled to work by irail instead of giving the slightly lower subufban ticket ratet which prevail only in certain suburban' districts. 'Some ,£2200 was sacrificed in wages in an effort to obtain a reduced faro of 2s. 3d. per head per week. On another day miners refused to go to work because a train was late. Millerton mine was idle for two days'because the men declared that certain horses had "greasy heel." At Rotowaro there was a stoppage of a day because the truckers were supplied with oil instead of greaeo. On theso trivial grounds •,the public is. deprived of an essential commodity, and a class of highly-paid workers is exploiting the necessities of their fellows.

Italy is back to war Tations, and a cable message tells us that there are now four meatless days a week for Italians. Is there not an opening here for stored New Zealand 1 mutton? On tho fourth meatless day even telescoped mutton three years in the freezer should appeal to the Italian public as appetising and desirable. A meat famine ill Italy and New Zealand vainly seeking: to get rid of accumulations of stored -meat illustrate the extraordinary breakdown of the machinery of commerce left as a legacy from the war.

» # # » Liverpool is one of the largest railway centres in Britain, and it is a' healthy sign to find tho Liverpool railwaymen recognising the Bolshevist recipe for progress for the fraud it'is. In a message to headquarters the executive of their organisation puts tho case with point and directness. "These damnable strikes," they say, "do not help, but hinder. • . . We demand tho immediate resignation of the extremists." The policy of the Bolshevists is to destroy tho capitalist system. It is a case of burning down a liouso to roast a pig. Any fool oan destroy, but construction is anpther matter. Of course, tho Bolshevists say the ground must be cleared before you can get on with tho new programme. In Russia havoc has beeu made with pretty well everything in the way of civilisation built up since the days of Peter the Great, but the principal features of life under Bolshevist rule are" forced labour under martial law and starvation. Tho post-war unrest and dislocation have brought the British workingman to tho edge of the precipice, but now that ho is there he eeems, as iu Liverpool, to ho of opinion that there aro more rational and pleasiuiter tilings to do than to liu.rl oneself and one's wife and family into the abyss in order to test the soundness of the theories of the cranks of the community.

The inability of thousands of wouldbe emigrants to secure passages to New Zealand and tho extreme shortage of labour for public works and other purposes suggest that it should bo worth (ho Government's while to make some special and exceptional effort to obtain the necessary shipping accommodation. It should not be a difficult thing to sort out the classes of workers among those offering whose services are most urgent-

ly required and place tliem on a preference list for transport. Shipping is, of course, scarce and difficult to secure, but a bold effort would certainly bo justified io relieve the situation. There are plenty of other countries much, nearer .Britaiii than we are with room for immigrants, and unless we bestir ourselves thousands of desirable newcomers now 011 our waiting list and badly needed hore will gradually drift away to other parts.

A party of officers and men of the A.I.F. returned recently to the Commrnwealtli after spending nearly a year in California studying various branches of agriculture. Much of their attention was given to irrigation farming and to the cultivation of rice, hemp, cotton, and otter crops for which Australia is believed to 'offer exceptionally favourable conditions. Some of them, however, were particularly interested ill dehydration - described briefly as the modern method of drying meats, fish, fruit, and vegetables by a scientific process, as opposed to th; ; very ancient and crude system of sun-drying. According to one member of the party, Lieutenant Booth, "the udoption of this system means that from now on the Australian fruitgrower can look forward to 'glutless' seasons,_ as <Ichydration provides a channel through which every particle of fruit grown tin be preserved at a' very low cost, and transported to the markets of this world. Dehydration plants," he added, "are new a feature of every agricultural and fruitgrowing area in America, and the great packers of food products there are spending immense sums on tlyee installations." A commencement is to be made shortly with the manufacture and installation of dehydrators in the principal fruit tnd vegetable growing centres of the Commonwealth. The dehydration system might lend itself advantageously to adoption in 6ome parts pf New Zealand, and its possibilities ought to be well worth investigating-.

After paying out five millions in gratuities fop overseas service, the Governm.mt is being bombarded to provide monetary consolation for soldiers who did not go to thfe war. The Home Service .1 >aguo is becoming indignant at the al nee of a cash bonus for its members, and at 'Monday night's meeting a march on Parliament was talked of, presumably in emulation of the disorderly proceedings of last year. The chairman wisely discountenanced this proposal. The prospect of tho Home Service league overawing Parliament is remote, and a "marohi on Parliament" that proved a fiasco would be the end of its campaign. There aife some homo service soldiers vlu> were keen to serve overseas, and failing to pass tho standards set served on cheerfully in useful if inglorious work in New Zealand. There are others whose departure from theso shores was never contemplated. An indiscriminate distribution of cash gratuities for home service would only lead to further claims and complications. Men who really volunteered for service overseas and who can prove substantial loss and hardship in consequence of their home service may have some claim to sympathy. But what of the unpaid and willing workers who lielpsd at home all through the war in voluntary and semi-voluntary organisations?.' Who is to recompense their loss?