THE Kaipara Advertiser AND WAITEMARA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 19, 1913. THE TRAGEDY OF THE POLE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 19 February 1913, Page 2

THE Kaipara Advertiser AND WAITEMARA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 19, 1913. THE TRAGEDY OF THE POLE.

NOTHING can detract from the splendid example given to mankind by the heroic conduct of the men who died after they had succeeded in great work under the eyes of the whole world. On the other hand the tragedy has opened the minds of the men to thfe acuteness of the Polar danger. Science With the aid of experience has calculated the preparations for every stage of these journeys, only to let us realise in the end that there is no dependence to be placed on any calculations. Fuel is the one great need, and scurvy the one thing dreaded. Science and experience were supposed to have demonstrated that there was no longer any fear of the one breaking down, or any danger of the other returning. But the fuel did break down, fatally, and in the presence of Scott's admission of inability to account for the same there is a controversy among the experts which actually lends itself to the supposition,that the experts have not yet arrived at the knowable in respect of alcoholic fuel in the polar countries. As to scurvy with which Captain Cook successfully coped in the eighteenth century, we are now in the twentieth faced with the admission that nothing can really be depended upon for warding off, that scourge. Into the personal questions that have risen it is not right to enter for we must assume that brave men who have come back were all loyal to the brave men who have remained. Better to concentrate attention on the noble message of the dead commander which while speaking for the dependents of the breadwinners gone, displays a fortitude, a devotion to duty and a resignation the greater for its unconscious acceptance of fate as all in the day's work, all of which make a combination at once touching and ennobling. Because these men have died giving such magnificent example of what should be the ordinary virtues of the citizen under the worst possible conditions, their nearest, and dearest should not be forgotten. Whether it be right to bring their remains back for honour sepulcre or not, one thing is certain. The N.Z. Commissioner's suggestion to send the | Hinemoa for them is about crazy as it can well be. The boat is old, weak, never designed for the strains of ice works, of insufficient power. She would never get through the ice packs to the Antarctic shore, to say nothing of her ever returning to these parts. Mr Mackenzie must have taken leave of his senses. Either that or is totally unfit to represent this or any other country, because he loses his head and talks mischievous ignorant nonsense, on great (,occasions. Whichever it may be the High Commissioner has made his country look ridicu" lous.

THE LOAN. PEOPLE in the know are congratulating the Finance on the great " coup " he has made in getting off a three and a quarter million loan at £98 at long date — from thirty to fifty years currency of the bonds —in the face of an unfavourable market and a hostile press. For .this Mr Allen is to be congratulated. It comes to this that he has taken good advice with good results. Comparing the results (so far as it is visible yet) with that of the five million loan floated in 1911, about which there was so much criticism and denunciation there is nothing to boast about. That five million loan was issued, giving investors alternative of accepting bonds for four years or for thirty. The latter were to be inscribed.stock, inducements were offered —concessions —to get the choice eventually to fall on the longerdated debenture. These were for the chief parts successful so that the net cash obtained in. the end was about £94 10s and the net interest for the thirty years was brought up from three and a half the face interest to £3 15s 6d. Now^the concessions in the case of the present loan are 275, which reduce the net cash from £98 to £96 13s, bringing the interest up to £4 2s Od for every hundred pound of the seven. The later loan then entails an increase

of interest every year of seven and three pence per cent equal to over £11.000 a year, which at the end of the period of thiity years with compound amount to an extra four or five hundred thousands pounds, It appears then that allowing for the state of the market which was much worse for the last than for the first of the two loans, it must appear that the Ward Government also took the best advice with the best results. Only political bias would be unfair enough to declare that either of these operations was better than the other. They both seem to have equally the merit of good business direction in a place so ticklish as the money market of London. The public of course are anxious to compare this last issue with its immediate predecessor—the loan negotiated in 1912 by the McKenzie Government during the Treasurership of Mr Myers. That loan was offered at 99 —underwritten in fact —for two years with inducements to exchange before expiry of the term for long dated paper. The criticism the arrangements met with was largely theoretical and we m,ust say empirical because expressed in the absence of the full information required for clear thinking on the matter. That information is not yet to hand, and we must wait for it before making fair comparison. If the best should turn out to have happened and the investors have accepted the inducements to take long dated paper, that of course will not detract from the merit of Mr Allen's, success in getting long dated paper accepted at the price above quoted. Especially considering the state of the market— a war raging in Europe, uncertainty as to its spread, Chinese demands on the market to the tune of sixty millions, and an exceptional crop of renewals for Colonial accomodation. The whole stdry is instructive as showing that politicians 'should be careful not to make party capital out of the difficulties of the money market. The main moral in fact is that if the Allen transaction is to be criticised as the Ward five millions was, it must be condemed as a great deal worse. But in common fairness to men endeavouring to do the best they can for their country, there should be no criticism except what is sympathetic to the utmost possible extent.

THE GKEA.T LABOUR DEPUTATits deputation from the late Labour Conference which waited on the Prime Minister, recently made it very evident that the Conference detests the " Re form " government and will do its best to have it banished from office at first voting opportunity. That may be, as it may be. Nobody need trouble, if that were all, to gointo the matter with anything more than n?ere curiosity. But with the Conference's i reason, about which the deputation j seems to have been equally frank, it is a different thing. The spokesmen all found fault with the Government for its conduct at Waihi. Now " lest we forget," we will take a look back over the ground. Doing so, we see that Waihi after the strike of tho men against the existence of the Engineers' union was a prey to disorder. The persecution and the abuse, the insults, and the perpetual annoyance were not only unendurable by the supporters of the Arbitration Court, but contrary to the law. Vetitions of the most urgent character were accordingly made to the Government and when the state of things was fully established to the satisfaction of reasonable men the Government increased the police force at Waihi and after that we all know what happened. The offence then of the Government, in the eyes of the Labour deputation is that it maintained the law and the ordinary rights of citizenship against arbitrary violence, which was not the less unendurable because it stopped short of blows. The Government did its duty without fear, without favour and without severity. It did the duty which every citizen has a right to, expect at its hands—at hands of every Government, An attack oh the Government for its conduct is ecjuivas lent to a rally of all the Dominion out side the ranks of labour to the side of the Government. Labour being the minority of the electors of the tho iutertsts was unwise to make the attack. Having made it, however, it must take the consequences. Should •itj)orsevere in' this conduct to the next'general election it will-be defeat- ' ed at the polls and the majority of the '' Kefonn " Government will be the heaviest on record. This is a country peopled by men who respect law and order. \ ■ AT a poll taken on September 21, 1911, and carried by a majority of over 2 to 1, the Town OUR Board were authorWATER ised-'by the ratepaySUPPLY. ers to borrow £10,000 for a Drainage and Water Supply for the town. The drainage work was commenced some time back, the first pipe being laid by Premier Mackenzie on June 14, 1912, since when that part has proceeded slowly. The water supply, with, the exception of ordering the pipes a month or so ago, and acquiring the land where the water is to be had, has has practically laid dormant. No provision is yet made to get the

material on the ground to build the dam, and two summers have come and gone and the people who voted for the loan have had to buy and cart water and pay the water rate. Who is to blame ? The Board, the Engineer, or who. We were given to understand that the water would be laid all over the town within eighteen months, yet here it is almost the end of February, 1913, and even the pipe track route to the catchment area is not yet fixed. If it was going to take 18 months from the first, 18 months from date will make it September 1914, that means that we have to g.et through another summer dry, and if the ssheme is pushed on at the present " rapid " pace, our town in all probability will have a water supply " some day." We hope at the next meeting of the Board to have some definite information as to when the work will be taken up with the purpose of carrying it through.