NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 165, 8 April 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Palea has become the political hub of tho Dominion for the time being. Alarmed no doubt by the success of the Reform candidate in the recent Bay of Plenty contest, both the Liberal and Labour Parties are making strenuous efforts to capture Patoa. Messrs. Holland, Fraser, and company are present in strength working seven days a week on behalf of their candidate and their six-hour day five-day week ideals. Mr. Wilford is endeavouring to keep up the Liberal end with the assistance of Six members of Parliament. The Liberal following had a caucus strength of nine at a recent meaning, so Patoa will apparently have the opportunity of inspecting most of Mr. Wilford’s following during tho cam-, paign. The Wilfordites have a knaok of becoming fewer in number each time they foregather, and for all wo know the representation in Patea may be the oncegreat Liberal Party entire in arts latest stage of disintegration. Mr. Massoy has gone up to acquaint the electors with the Government’s policy and intentions, and if Patea does not go to ‘the poll in a, well-informed state on the political situation it will not bo for lack of opportunity. Reports ,to hand indicate that Mr, Dixon, the Reform candidate, has been making excellent headway, and should carry the day if Ills supporters continue their work on his behalf with the same enthusiasm they have shown up to the present. » * * * ,

By bringing the pumps to a standstill and allowing the mines to become flooded the miners in Britain believe they have a weapon by whidb the owners and the nation can be bludgeoned into sub--mission. It thus becomes not a case of “Give us a fair thing,” but "Give us what we demand or go without coal for months to come.” It is a dangerous game to play because the miners themselves will be the worst sufferers should the pits become badly flooded. In some cases the flooded pits would probably never be reopened, and with most the unwatering would occupy from three to four or six months. Many of the mines are kept clear of water by electrically-oper-ated pumps at the bottom of the pit, and once these became submerged and out of action pumping out from the Surface would be a long and expensive task. In the past no move was made to call out the engine-room and pumping staffs during a strike, except in rare instances, and it was not until the Yorkshire dispute of 1919 that this method of atte'mpt,ing to browbeat the owners was adopted. What 'it means may be gathered from the fact that one colliery near Wakefield would 1» swamped in 48 hours after the pumps were stopped, while at another near Sheffield 20,000 gallons a minute have- to be lifted. In addition to the removal of the water, extensive repairs to the timbering, roadways, etc., Will be necessary after submergence. In stopping the pumps the miners are cutting off their nose to spite their face. It is an ugly temper, and a bad feature of it is the brutally callous decision in some cases to leave the pit ponies to drown in the slowly rising waters.

Of all the extraordinary ways of having the capital of the Commonwealth shifted from Victoria to New South Wales the' most extraordinary is that proposed by Dr. Earle Rage, leader of the Country Party in the Federal Parliament. Dr. Pago, as might bo expected, hails from New South Wales. He has given notice to move that the Secretary of State for the Colonies be asked to advise the Governor-General to summon the next session of Parliament at Canberra. Why the unfortunate Secretary of State for the Colonies should be dragged into this twenty-year-old feud between Sydney and Melbourne it is difficult to imagine. Melbourne has carried off the honours so far. New South Wales refused to accept the Federal Constitution until it was amended to provide that the capital should be in New South Wales, and Victoria would not agree to this without the proviso than tho capital must not be within one hundred miles of Sydney, and that Parliament should sit in Melbourne until it met at the seat of Government. That was all twenty yeans and more ago, and the Federal Parliament still sits in Melbourne. The Melbourne newspapers, with a fine air of impartiality, denounce the "bush capital” ae an extravagant and insupportable waste of money. Sydney, in the national interest, girds at the parochial Melbourne view of Australian affairs which it alleges now permeates Federal politics. So far just under a million sterling has been spent at Canberra, including -£254,545 an a water supply, enjoyed at present by 1605 inhabitants. Operations for some considerable time past have been confined to maintenance work, and the situation is accepted with complacence everywhere except in Sydney.

Many curious advertisements still appear in the agony column of the London "Times.” Numbers of them, according to a late partner of Lord Northcliffe’s who has been letting out the secrets of Printing House Square, are concocted in the "Times” office for tho purpose of getting people to read She small advertisement columns of the paper. .However that may be, some one lias apparently been at the expense of inquiring by advertisement whether it is true that the privileges enjoyed by a Freeman of the City of London include the right to be hanged by a silken rope. Not many Freemen of London in these days are likely to desire to avail themeelves of this privilege should it exist. According to the Manchester "Guardian” there are no special niceties to bo observed in arranging for the hanging of a Freeman of London, and equally baseless is the idea hold by some writers who have referred to the matter that I peers have the right to a silken rope on | the scaffold. It has been alleged Earl I Ferrers was so hanged in 1760, when executed for murder, but careful search has established tho Met that an oidinary hemp halter was used. It is. true that llho Earl’s friends arranged that bo should not swing from u cart like a more plobian. A special contrivance was erected for the occasion, but it did not iwork well and the Earl underwent a

gradual strangulation. The hangman's “drop” of to-day was the invention of Deqcon. Brodie, an Edinburgh town councillor, who as it happened was eventually hanged “by means of li'-.s own invention. So it seems that if Freemen of London do not hang by silken ropes, town councillors of Edinburgh have been known to be dispatched in a highly com. potent manner.