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Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1923, Page 2

Or the oversea Prime Ministers, only .Air Bruce, of Australia, has outspokenly urged the institution of reciprocal fiscal preference by the Mother Country. Out own Prime Minister (Mr Ala-scv) though lie is tin earnest advocate of Imperial preference, has at all times made it clear that there tire important alternatives to the extension of preferential duties by the United Kingdom. The Canadian Prime Minister (Air. Mackenzie King) regards British fiscal policy as purely n matter for the British Government and Parliament. Very much the same view is taken by Guteral Smuts. Tlte Dominions are putting no such combined pressure upon 'be present British Government to undertake a bold extension of fiscal preference ns the “Daily Express” suggests. On the contrary, it is self-evident that the Conferences now sitting will best serve the Empire by concentrating on alternative methods of fostering mutual trade and forwarding development and settlement. It is open to the British Government, without raising any crucial issue in domestic politics, to cooperate effectively with the Dominions Gy regulating intcr-Imperial shipping and the marketing of produce in Great Britain and in many other ways. Tt is a,s much in the interests of British consumers as of producers and other people in the Dominions that shipping charges and marketing conditions should be maintained on a fair and equitable basis. Much is to be hoped also from a methodical survey r.t Imperial resources and from the direct encouragement, in light of the information thus gleaned, of trade, investment and an effective redistribution <T British population within the Empiie. The last thing to bo desired is that steady progress in strengthening and developing the Empire should be hindered as it would bo if Imperial policy became the sport of party politics Ti either Great Britain or tlte Dominions.

Writing of the munition works i:i England at the time of the war, ana appreciating the morale of the Motherland during that trying period, an Australian writer says that the story of the munition makers is one of the epics in the woman’s saga. We ate too near still, perhaps, to realise just how wonderful a thing it was that hundreds of thousands of women turned from their daily avocations to undertake, end to do superlatively well, work which had always been regarded as man’s special prerogative. Before the war there were in Great Britain three national munition factories for supplying the whole of th e country’s armaments. When the war ended there were nearly 6090 factories producing munitions, and over two million workers, over two-thirds of whom wer o women Within four years nearly a million women had become highly skilled munition makers. A number of them, it i= true, had l>een in factory life before, but as a rule, only in the production of textilse. clothing, food and so on. Engineering work of any kind was considered quite unsuitable for women, with a few rare exceptions. When the need for an increased production of munitions first became apparent, a few far sighted manufacturers foresaw that it might be possible, in time, to engage women in the engineering works, on simple repetition professes. Nobody was hold enough to predict that before many months* women would Ik 1 engaged on practically every process in the manufacture of armaments. From every class of ihe community they came. There were daughters of dukes and drapers, generals and greengrocers. There were school teachers, dressmakers, housemaids, and shop assistants. There were women who had never tied their own shoe laces and women who had worked -hard since early childhood. In short, these hundreds of thousands of women had been engaged in every imaginable occupation except munition making, and In a few

short months they were expert munition makers, and engaged in every branch of the industry. They turned altd threaded the shells, filled thorn with explosives, made the fuses—a delicate and complicated operation: they made the bullets and the cartridges, a more monotonous work. In the making of aircraft they undertook practically every process; they made the propellers, hammered on the linen of the wings, welded the metal joints by -ho oxyacetylene process, helped in the manufacture of the magneto, and finally assembled the parts of the me,chine. AA’omeii were particularly successful in the fine and delicate work of making optical instruments, an industry which had to he practically re-lxtrn in England. as before the war it had l>een in the hands of Austria and Germany. The need of optical instruments was one of utmost seriousness, r or they were the eves of every branch of the war service. AVotnen set to work to learn the technique, and in a slmrt time wer e performing the most delicate and technical processes with as mil ill facility as if they had served years of apprenticeship. Even in the heavy work of the shipyards women proved equally efficient, and worked with the gioatestskill and zeal.