King Country Chronicle Saturday, Dec. 10, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 319, 10 December 1910, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Saturday, Dec. 10, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The important waterways conference held at Hamilton on Wednesday has put the various projects a solid Btep forward. The idea is to cut two canals, one from Auckland to the Manakau, and the other from the Manukau to the Waikato river. These, once cut, with the necessary deepening of the Waikato at certain points also done, will give a water connection literally from this reirote King Country to the capital city of the province. Water carriage is cheap and can never be interrupted. It provides a slow, but economical way for despatching heavy freights and for receiving stores, and in any country except perhaps conservative Britain, would have been developed years ago. We are in hearty symI pathy with the project. Mr Marsj land criticised the proposals by asking j what was the use of cheap water i freights if the heavy road freights had J still to be paid. The obvious reply ia | that in so far as water freights reduce | the total paid, they benefit settlers, ! and as the cost of the construction of j the canals will, according to the resolutions passed by the conference, be borne by the Auckland Harbour Board, Raglan settlers need not fear that they will be taxed for problematical benefits. Work is going on every year for clearing our rivers from the willow curse, and though we shall not for some time, get through water communication from Te Kuiti, there is little doubt that within five years' time it will be possible to bring cargoes up in flat bottomed boats even as far as to this centre. When it only needs a 4-inch draught the problem of using shallow, but otherwise navigable rivers, disappears.

A case heard in the Magistrate's Court the other day raised the difficult question of what constitutes a working man's requirements in household wants. Here was a man earning 8s a day. He is married and has, probably, two or three children. He finds it impossible to get a house to

are higher here than wns and competition for is Some critics argue that the cost of living is cheaper todsy than twenty years ago, but few housewives will be willing to agree. Certain specific articles of food, like tea and sugar, may be cheaper, but meat is dearer, and in Te Kuiti vegetables and fruit are nut only high in price, but difficult to regularly procure at that. We hear a good deal of contemptuous criticism of the Chinese gardeners, but apparently European enterprise is not sufficiently active to really compete. Perhaps our requirements all round have increased in these latter days, but whatever the cause, an apparent difficulty to make ends meet is no scarcer now than twenty years ago.