NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 23, 21 October 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

A. Trafalgar Day celebration, with the British Commander-in-Chief at the greatest naval battle since Trafalgar in their midst, should be a reminder to New Zealanders how closely their future is linked with the sea. It was an. officer of the Royal Navy who led the first expedition that did more than sight these coasts, and another naval officer was the colony’s first Governor. It is 116 years since Trafalgar, and it will bo fifty years next year since Lord Jellicoe entered the Navy. As our Governor-General wo have seen him carrying out his duties with the thoroughness, efficiency, and unfailing good humour which Britishers have come to look upon as characteristic of the Navy. Placed as we are out in the South Pacific Ocean, with twelve hundred miles of water between us and the nearest neighbouring land mass, and half the circumference of the earth dividing us from, th© principal market for our produce, our future depends on the security of the sea ways. If fair words will keep the seas open for those who have lawful business upon them, then fair words are good things to deal in. If behind fair words there is needed also the power to deal with those who may pay no heed to words, we cannot leave entirely toothers the burden of providing that naval power. At the moment we await the upshot of the Washington Conference, but when it is over we will have seriously to consider exactly where we intend to stand in relation to the Navy.

To provide interest at 4 per cent, on their capital cost the railways need to produce a surplus of over 681,660,000 a year. In the five and a half months for which we publish returns to-day it will be found that there has been a loss on working of =£54,271. In the same period of last year there was a profit of <1462,022. This is a state of affairs that—taken with the 25 per cent, decrease shown to-day in the value of the exports for the quarter—points to the necessity for corresponding moiements on the other side of the national account. In Parliament yesterday, Mr. Witty suggested that members should set an example of economy by reducing their salaries. Mr. M'Combs, speaking later, resisted the idea, and contended that he was earning every penny he received. There is no doubt that a reduction in Parliamentary allowances will affect some members much more than others. At the same time members of Parliament are receiving 68500 a year for duties for which their whole time is required for only six months of the year. Mr. .M'Combs’s theory of hardship presumably is based on the supposition that members are to receive enough to ensure that they can idle around for six months in the year. Such an idea will not he well received by the public at this juncture. Retrenchment is an urgent need from which there is no escape, and while a saving on members’ salaries might not amount to very much, it is a bad day for, the country if its P” WIC lne " }' ick , spirit to set an example and io make some sacrifice themselves with a good grace. ~

For years past the reorganisation of waterside work in the ports of the Dominion has been talked about by the Government, harbour boards, shipowners, and the waterside workers themeelves, without fmy approach b-< >3 made to a satisfactory solution of the problem. The resolution passed y._teidav bv the conference of the Haiboiirs Association, after it had heaid deputation of watersiders, suggests that there is a danger of th., period of talk without action being further c. tended. The proposal that harbour boards should be empowered to employ, control, and manage all waterside labour i s free from the objectionable features of the scheme under which the shipowners and watersiders proposed some time ago to abolish a monopolistic control of por( operations, but it s vious from the voting that it does not command anything like genera approval even of the harbour boards themselves. It is a matter of common agreement that the casual lataur force, particularly m the principal ports, is much too numerous aml-that a reduction in the number of whaife&mkers would be in the interests of tMmen themselves, besides makino- for better economy and efficiency in’eargo working. It is in regard to the method of change that opinions are divided, but a satisfactory compromise is quite possible if the several parties show a reasonably accommodating spirit. A sound step towards promoting such n. compromise would be taken if the Government invited Parliament to pass legislation providing that waterside working conditions and wages must be determined at all times by the Arbitration Court. In this way the interests of the public would be duly safeguarded, and at Hie same time a means would be provided of fairly adjusting the somewhat complex interests involved. With general conditions determined by the Arbitration Court, there could Lc no objection to the creation in each port of an employment bureau, controlled jointly by representatives of the harbour board, the watersiders, and the. shipowners. No one would lose by referring wage rates and general working conditions to the control of the Arbitration Court, and with these contentious issues out of the way, the parties would have less difficulty in systematising Employment with advatutagb to workers, employers, and the public. * * * *

A comparison with the files of the leading London. 1 journals shows that on the whole a fair average selection of the news of tlie day is made by the Press Association for the New Zealand daily Press. During the late Imperial Conference the service appeared, however, almost to have been transformed into a publicity bureau for Mr. W. M. Hughes. Occasionally on other occasions an undesirable element of colour has been allowed to creep into the news from time to time. One such instance was the following message from Washington which we published yesterday:— Efforts to obtain (ho abrogation of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance will be made at the Washington Conference, the American Government being . utterly opposed to a military compact between Britain and Japan. It even

considers the alliance a. menace. This message wrAild be. unexceptionablo if the authority wore given for it. Without disclosure of that authority it is impossible to judge of its value. The cable association, we believe, has no direct correspondent of its own at Washington, nnd Its news from that quaitei must have been derived from an out side, source.' The statement, as a vapouring of the American Yellow Prose, would have small significance; but if it appear-

ed in some reliable American journal,or from a responsible British correspondent in Washington, it would be another matter. As it stands it is distinctly not a message of which the Press Association can be proud, and it is most de.sirabln that statements on matters of such importance as are dealt with in this case should bo above suspicion. If iho American Government should be really taking up a dictatorial attitude towards British foreign affairs the news ought to be available from something other than an anonymous and unknowable source.