WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 November 1917, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

HEALTHY CAMPS

THE BUTTER PURCHASE

(Our Special Correspondent)

Wellington, Nov 9

The announcement that the camps are to be closed during the Christmas holidays for cleansing and disinfection draws attention to the marked improvement that has been effected in the sickness statistics of the troops. The New Zealand training camps are probably the most healthy in the world at present time, and the credit for that fact must be given to SurgeonGeneral Henderson, who was brought to this country to take charge of the military medical staff at a time when the sickness rate among the soldiers was unpleasantly high. General Henderson has clone his work very thoroughly. He - was not content with the isolation and the effective treatment of the sick soldiers. He set himself to trace cases of sickness to their source and to prevent infection by removing its cause. He arranged for the examination of recruits when they entered camp in order to detect “carriers,” he established inhalation chambers and insisted on disinfection in every direction. His reward is the reduced sickness rate.

SCARCE!,Y PAIR. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, if he has been correctly reported in a brief cablegram published by the New Zealand newspapers, has been scarcely fair in his suggestion that producers of butter in this country are being treated unfairly in comparison with the Irish farmers. The conditions of sale are not comparable at all. The Irish dairy farmer can put his butter on the English market without the least difficulty and without salting it or freezing it. He commands the highest market price as a matter of course.

The New Zealand farmer must have cold storage ashore andafloat, he must allow 'for heavy shipping and insurance charges, and he is entirely dependent upon his buyer, that is, the British Government, for shipping facilities. There is no doubt that the Imperial authorities could have made a much better bargain tor themselves if they had chosen to deal with New Zealand in a coldly commercial spirit. They command the means of transport.

A SETBACK. To-day’s bad news from Russia (still unconfirmed at the time of writing) did not come altogether as a surprise to members of the Government who had been prepared byadvices from London for the triumph, temporary or permanent, of the pro-German influences in Petrograd. Possibly Mr Massey will have some statement to make on the subject presently. It may be said confidently, in any case, that the defection of Russia is not going to spell disheartenment to the Allies. What it does mean is that all hopes of an easy and early peace must be set aside.

“ Any man of military age who imagines that the war will end before he is called upon to bear arms is making a mistake,” said a member of the Government in conversation recently. “We will send our fit Second Division men, and then if reinforcements are still needed we will lower the military age to eighteen and extend it to fifty-five or sixty.

The one thing that New Zealand cannot do is to quit. We have got to ‘ stick it * until victor}’ comes. The support of the United States is an assurance that we cannot lose if we make it a fight to a finish.” FOOD PRICES.

The Government Statistician has carried up to September last his comparison of the percentage of increases in the prices of essential foodstuffs in the main centres of New Zealand. Wellington again makes it makes a bad showing. The percentage increases in the prices of groceries, dairy produce and meat since the outbreak of war have been 30 84 in Wellington, 29.27 in Christchurch, 28.69 hi Dunedin and 24.86 in Auckland. Palmerston North manages to show the biggest percentage for the whole Dominion, owing to a 50 per cent rise in meat prices and and 40 per cent advance in dairy produce. Blenheim, with a total increase of 19-40 per cent for the three groups, and Nelson, with 19-97 P er cent, are at the other end of the list. Those figures are deceptive in some respects. It is obvious, for example, that Palmerston North occupies its apparently unfavorable position, not because it is the most expensive town in New Zealand in which to live, but because it held a particularly good position before the war. It has suffered from a levelling up of prices.