WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

TRADE WITH GERMANY

j WOOL AND PATRIOTISM. j (Our Special Correspondent). I WELLINGTON, December 1. j The resolutions adopted at a meeting .of the Dominion Executive of the i Farmers’ Union yesterday show trade again, in the language of Richard Cob--1 den, as the healeiv'of national dissen- : tions. Two or three years ago anyone . who had talked of New Zealand supplyi trig raw material to German manufacturers within the next decade, would have been denounced as a traitor to

his country and as an ingrate to the gallant dead who had given their lives for the freedom of the Empire. But here we have a. fairly representative of the helpers and sufferers in the war, practically demanding that the Government shall make arrangements with proper financial guarantees, for the supply of coarse wools to the German mills. There is no need to deplore the incident—it was inevitable from the first—but it means the be.ginnSng of the renunciation of the cheaper kind of patriotism.

THE! WOOL-GROWERS DIFFICULTIES.

It would be unfair to the wool-grow-ers to assume that their readiness to resume trading relations with Germany is due to the difficulties confronting them in disposing of. this year’s clip through the ordinary channels. It is obvious, however, that the finance of the “holding-over” scheme is not working out quite so satisfactorily as the Prime Minister hoped it would. Unless new markets can be found able to consume a good deal more wool than Germany is likely to take, and unless South America and South Africa can be induced to co-operate on a common basis in carrying out the scheme, the growers may find themselves in no better position twelve months hence than they are now. Meanwhile, the Government is suggesting an advance of only 60 per cent at London parity on wool in store and the banks are displaying no disposition to compete for the business. At the moment; the wool-growers lot is undoubtedly a hard one.

THE GAMBLING - SPIRIT. The Minister of Internal Affairs is displaying most admirable zeal in bis efforts to check the growth of the gnmbling spirit within the Dominion. His latest move is to stop boys under fourteen and girls tinder sixteen selling raffle and art-union tickets and the people of Wellington, at any rate, will wisli him success in this minor campaign. The itinerant art union ticket, seller, whose age varies from six years to eighty, is a positive nuisance in the capital city, and if the community can be relieved from part of this irritating tax upon its pocket and its patience, it will be duly grateful. But Mr Anderson will require much more active assistance from the police in this mat ter than his colleague the Minister of Justice has received in the administration of the new clauses of the Gaming Act if his good intentions are to be made effective

the complacement constable The failure of the police armed with the legislation of last session to seriously interrupt the operations of the bookmakers is becoming at once a jest and a scandal. Some steps appear to have been taken in Christchurh and Dunedin to stop illicit betting on the old scale but here, under the very noses of the Minister who put the new law through Parliament and the Minister who is entrusted with its administration, it is going on just as merrily and almost as openly as ever. The most disquieting feature of this astounding state of affairs is the evidence it bears of either the indifference or the incapacity of the; police. No one else seems to be in ig-1 norance of what is going on, but the complacent constable round the corner, has reported to his c hfef that never' a bookmaker can be discovered.