The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January ii, 1912 NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1092, 11 January 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January ii, 1912 NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Mr E. G. Jeeucoe, the erstwhile New Zealand barrister and solicitor, has arrived in England and is again in the limelight. If he hasn’t won lame he has gained much notoriety, both in this and the old country. E. G. J. is ambitious, fearless and aggresive and would ultimately come out on top if he were not so indiscreet. The Eondon Standard publishes an interview with him in which he is made to say that all his political views have been falsified by the working of Socialistic reforms. Individual thrift and enterprise is substantially annihilated. New Zealand is almost on the brink of

ruin. The Arbitration Act is spurious and has resulted iu the creation of a host of well-paid officials who live by harassing trade and industry. He concludes by stating that a similar mad Socialistic wave has overtaken Australia.

Sir George Reid, Commonwealth High Commissioner, writing to the Standard, says that Mr E. G. Jellicoe’s attack on labour is wholly unjustified. He quotes Mr Fisher’s statement in the Federal House of Representatives, on October 26th, on the prosperity of the Commonwealth, “It is sufficient answer to Mr Jellicoe’s allegations that the I,about party brings financial and industrial ruin,” says Sir George, “when those politically opposed to Eabour are compelled to acknowledge that the Eabour party’s character is one of intelligence aud public spirit.” Sir George adds that some people are so accustomed to see a capitalist combine fight in its own interests that they are unable to recognise a similar development on the part of the workers. Sir Wm. Hall-Jones, New Zealand High Commissioner, also writing to the Standard, says New Zealand exports are grater per head than those of any other country. The Arbitration Court has saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in settling disputes. Much of the labour legislation has substantially improved the workers’ conditions, and no humane man could object to the factory laws. New Zealand labour conditions, he contends, are the best in the world. Lady Stout, in a letter, combats Mr Jellicoe, and taunts him with having been rejected as a political aspirant.

Anyone who has taken the trouble to follow up the record of investments on the totalisator at the race meetings held during the recent holiday season must have been intensely amused if he had previously noted the assertions made concerning New Zealand’s financial position, says the Carterton News. We can only say that for a country of which it is asserted that it is “debt-ridden” and “debt-driven” our Dominion is the mosr contradictory State in Australasia. The fact is that our country is the richest and most prosperous in the Southern Hemisphere, and it would be interesting —if one could only get the figures —to learn how much was spent, per capita, from, say, the middle of December to date. We take leave to say the aggregate would be enormous, and the per capita result astonishing. And yet there is complaint, and well founded complaint, of the scarcity of money in ordinary business channels. Is there any connection between the withdrawal of some hundreds of thousands of pounds from the usual channels of trade for the supply of the maw of the totalisator ? This is a question that might profitably engage the attention of the Chambers of Commerce, especially in view of the visit to this Dominion of men charged with the discovery of whether the machine is or is not a desirable adjunct to the Sport of Kings.

Thk following is the Dominion’s revenue lor the nine months ended December 31st last, with figures for the corresponding period of 1910 lor comparison. The total increase is ,£598,884, each separate item contributing : Customs, 1911, £2,403,256, 19x0, £2.231,002 ; stamps (Stamp Department), £708,968, £563,103 ; stamps (Post and Telegraph), £634,858, £604,547 ; Postal and Telegraph cash receipts, £188,557, £170,351 ; laud and income taxes, £636,314, £63 2 ,454 I beer dut i’> £ 88 > 21 3, £85,677 ; railways,. £2.624,545, £2,436,780 ; registration and other fees, £65,042, £5D375 ; marine, £34,921, £32,877 ; miscellaneous, £207,743, £191,167 ; territorial, £154,450, £149,250 ; totals, £7,747,467, £7,H 8 ,583-