The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, September 26,1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1001, 26 September 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, September 26,1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Mr. Hindmarsh’s Bill to purify public life by “regulating the press” and “members’ expenses” was talked out of Parliament. During the discussion a rather amusing little interlude occurred

as to ‘Jpow spanking.” Mr Pearce made an interjection, and Mr Hindtnarsh retorted that Mr Pearce did not understand anything but “cow spanking.” Mr Young then defended “cow spankers” as the men who enabled fellows in the cities to hold on to their jobs. Then Mr Buchanan took a hand in happy vein. He said that “the last speaker had misrepresented the position. Other things than cows required spanking, and in some cases the spanking was too long delayed. Had the hon. gentleman in charge of the Bill been subjected to the process at an earlier date, the House would not have had to listen to the speech which he had delivered that afternoon. He was sure that the hon. gentleman in his business entered into transactions with cow spankers as readily as with anyone else. Why, then, should be deprecate cow spanking ?” The Bill was practically laughed out of the House, and the “purity of public life” has to get along as best it can without it.

The General Manager of the New Zealand Government State Fire Insurance Office has issued a circular setting forth the following reasons why the State Office, which is owned by the people, is deserving of whole-hearted support : 1. The advent of the State Fire Office in 1905 was the means of causing a reduction of per cent, on dwellings, offices, and the like, and 10 per cent, on trade risks. These reduced rates still continue, and as a result insurers are receiving on dwellings, offices, and the like, and contents thereof, free insurance for one year out of every three as compared with the position prior to 1905. 2. The saving to the public through the reduction in rates brought about by the State Fire Office in seven and a half years amounts to over one million and a quarter sterling (,£1,250,000). 3. The State Office stands as a guarantee that excessive rates will not be charged in the future. 4. The State Office is owned by the people, and is operated entirely in their interests, and all profits remain the property of the people. 5. The money loaned to you on exceptionally favourable terms is obtained by pledging the credit of the people collectively, and therefore it may reasonably be claimed that the people collectively have the best right to any profits on the fire Insurance on the securities for loans, and these profits can only be secured to the people by insuring in the State Fire Office. 6. Your support will assist to compensate the Department for the loss in premium-income it sustains through the action of many private mortgagees who compel insurances to be placed with certain of the proprietary companies, to the disadvantage of the State Office.

7. The State Office has paid all its expenses out of earnings and has not cost the taxpayers of the Dominion a single penny piece.

In a recent number of the Strand Magazine appeared a unique article showing what could be done with the combined wealth of the six richest men in the world. The author took as the six wealthiest men, John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Astor, Lord Strathcona, Andrew Carnegie and Lord Rothschild, and calculated that between them they owned ,£1,250,000,000, aud he asked whar could they not achieve with this vast sum if they combined forces? He pointed out that if they were aggressive aud inclined to wage war, they could put 1,000,000 men in the field and maintain them for ten years, perhaps for twenty. It they turned their attention to the sea they could with half their capital build a fleet that would be unique, overpowering, irresistible. The biggest fleet in the world —that of Great Britain—could probably be duplicated for £250,000,000. Again, these invicible six could give £25 to every man, woman and child in the British Isles. They could run the United Kingdom for six years and longer, paying the total amount of its expenses, and remit everything to the taxpayer. They could close the Customs house and allow everyone to send letters and telegrams free. They could buy up all the English railroads with their rolling stock and buildings. They could buy all the automobiles in the world and then have enough left over to purchase the Panama and Suez Canals, and after that sufficient to buy up the total value of the British shipping for ten years. And if Carnegie could persuade his five friends to come in with him on a land deal they could buy up Scotland, for, the assessed value of the country s real estate is only £1,162,500,000. They could also wipe off the national debt of New Zealand, even if it was thirteen times greater than it is at the present time. These are a few of the startling thing*-' these six men could do with their combined wealth, if they only possessed the requisite audacity, imagination, and agreement.

The aggregate sum of assessed incomes iu the Dominion is 533,543, of which more than half represents incomes below /10 000. A return presented to the House of Representatives shows net incomes in classes increasing by Summarised it shows that incomes are received as follows ; —Over /WO and under /2000, persons and > farms £i , 133,390, companies £220 «1K , over and /1,029,305 and ; over ■£lo,ooo and under _ ,£25,000, and ,£813,592; over

£25,000 and under £IOO,OOO, nil and £1,514,183 ; over .£IOO,OOO, nil and .£541,802 ; total £2,393,561 and .£4,139,982. As shown by this table no person or firm in New Zealand has an income exceeding unless the share of some individual in a company exceeds that amount.

Detailed statements of the expenditure on the nine experimental farms from their inception are given in a return presented to the House of Representatives afternoon. All the farms are situated in the North Island, six of them being in the Auckland province- During the period 1892-1904 the total expenditure was £[87,734, and from April, 1904, the expenditure on the various farms has been :—Arataki (Hawke’s Bay), £9914.; Bickerstaffe (North Auckland), £10,726 ; Moumahaki (Taranaki), Ruakura (Waikato), £28,230 ; Waerenga (South Auckland), £4475 ; Weraroa (Wellington), £35,071 ; Motuihi (Auckland Harbour), from 1909, £1877 ; Taurauga (Bay of Plenty), from 1906, £5123 10s ; a grand total of £275,393 10s. Apart from the educational value of these farms, which, of course is the primary consideration, it would be interesting to know what the respective earnings have been.