NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 176, 21 April 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Tn urging the College Governors to abandon tho site chosen for tho new. Girls’ College, the Old Boys’ Association made out a case that deserved' an answer. The considerations they advanced, however, are all of a kind that ought to have been present to the minds of the College Governors when the site was originally selected. The public is therefore at a loss to know whether the points raided were all previously overlooked, or whether the change of front is due not to the arguments of the Old Boys’ Association, but to the mere fact of its disapproval. The old boys have done a great deal for Wellington College, and their views should have weight on all that affects it. At the same time, there is serious danger, as Mr. Forsyth hae pointed out, that a change of plans at this late stage will result in the indefinite delay of the whole undertaking. The onus is now on the Board of Governors to discover a more suitable

site forthwith. The college reserve-abuts on the Town Bolt, and a possible way out might be to exchange a portion of it for a piece of the Town Belt in some other locality, and erect the new Girls’ College there. Increased, accommodation for the girls is urgently needed, and whatever is done ought to bo done at once, and no time lost in pushing on with tho work.

In demanding that the northern portion of Now South Wales be made into a new State its residents are expressing the conviction that tho development of their area is handicapped by the predominance of Sydney. It is a very old grievance. Haring failed in their efforts to induce the New South Wales Parliament to listen to the plea for separation, they havo joined forces with similar movements in Queensland and West Australia. At present no State can be subdivided without its own consent, and it is desired to obtain an amendment to the Constitution to enable the Commonwealth Parliament to subdivide States as it chooses. It is urged that New South Wales benefited when in bygone years Victoria and Queensland broke away from her, and that her territory i» »tiH to ° great. Tho proposed

northern State area comprises 180,000 square miles, with a population of 300,000. while in the remaining «outhern area of 130,000 square miles there are 1,700,000 people, of whom over 800,000 are in Sydney. One of the chief complaints of the north has been, that not only is nearly all public money expended to the advantage of the south, but all railways are built leading to Sydney. On tho northern coast are eight excellent .coastal harbours, and one, Port Stephens, unsurpassed in Australia for ocean liners. Sydney will never permit the development Of these under existing conditions, and io-day goods from the northern hinterland have to go down to Sydney and up again to reach the north coast. The new State agitation is persistent and persevering, but it has a long uphill fight ah call of it.

It is a wicked world, and although Mr. Hughes complains that he has been cruelly wronged by the Bendigo hoax, Australia will find it difficult to express its sympathy with becoming gravity. Mr. Hughes’s supporters—or a section of them—last year marked their admiration of his services by presenting him with the handsome sum of £25,000. Some of the newspapers were unkind enough to raise the question whether it was a proper thing for a Minister of tho Crown to accept a gift of this sort. It was recalled that Sir Henry Parkes had firmly declined a similar gift of money, declaring that he could not reconcile acceptance with any sense of propriety and obligation; as the occupant of a high political office. In December last reports were current that action was to be taken to test the legality of the gift under tho clause in the Constitution which imposes a penalty of £lOO for every day on which a member sits in Parliament after having taken any fee or honorarium for services rendered to the Commonwealth. Mr. Hughes has many enemies, but nothing has since been heard of this projected lawsuit. Having accepted the £25,000, and ignored the criticism, he now finds that the Mayor of Bendigo, hoaxed by some practical joker, has in all seriousness drawn up plans for the disposal of £15,000 of the money on deserving objects in Bendigo, and announced its allocation through tho Press. It is at this stage that the public discovers Mr. Hughes has a very delicate sense of propriety indeed, and regards.with extremest' horror the idea that he should be suspected of a desire to undermine the political integrity of Bendigo by giving money to its schools and charities.

In an interesting survey of British banking operations during 1920 as they bore uixm and reflected trade conditions, tho “Scotsman” observes that a fairly clear answer to the question whether the banks are restricting the supply of credit is to be obtained from an examination of the balance-sheet figures of the four biggest London banks. These banks are Barclays, Lloyds, the London County, Westminster, and Paris, and the London Joint City and Midland, and their combined deposits represent approximately two-thirds of the aggregate bank deposits of the United Kingdom. The aggregate amount of deposits in the four institutions rose during 1920 by £54,000,000, or a little over 4 per cent.. Of this increase, £28,000,000 was recorded in the first and £26,000,000 in the second halfyear. Loans and advances by the four big banks rose during 1920 by exactly the same amount as deposits, but the net increase on the year of £54,000,000 in loans and advances was made up of a rise of £108,000,000 in the first half of the year, and a decline of £54,0(10,000 in tho second half. At an immediate view the figures might suggest that the banks found the state of affaire in the middle of 1920 (when loans and advances showed an increase of 108 millions against an increase in deposits of only 28 millions) so little to their liking that they at once imposed drastic restrictions on credit. The bankers themeelves offer a different explanation. For instance, Mr. Reginald M'Kenna, speaking as chairman of tho London Joint City and Midland Bank at its annual meeting, said that advances had declined “not because our bank has restricted credit, but because the fall of prices and stagnation of trade have lessened the call for accommodation.” Mr. M’Kenna added that it was the policy of the bank to sell investments even at a loss in order to meet legitimate demands for credit.

With only nine non-Lallour candidates nominated for the fourteen vacant seats on the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board it is obvious that at least five of the fourteen Labour candidates must be elected. If’ the, electors are not careful they may even find a Labour majority strongly entrenched on this important spending body. As the law stands the board spends as it lists and calls on the City Council and adjoining local bodies to foot the bill. Hospital costs have soared to an enormous ’extent of late years, and tho city cannot afford to have a board in office that will take the bit between its teeth and disburse money right and left. Fortunately, the nine nonLabour candidates are citizens of some weight in the community, most of them have had a long experience in the work of hospital administration, and on the grounds of their character and knowledge of the work en-

tailed they should make a strong appeal to the favour of every intelligent elector. It is important that those who wish to avoid another jump upwards in hospital and charitable aid rates should concentrate on these nine candidates.