Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21. 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9079, 21 February 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21. 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

AUCKLAND Trades and Labour Council has at last brought forward a suggestion which we have long expected to come from some of the geniuses who prefer talk to work. As a remedy for the high cost of living it is gravely proposed that Government should regulate the export of meat, butter, etc. When butter, wool and frozen meat are bringing high prices in the Loudon market the prices of butter and meat naturallyrrise in New Zealand, aud it is obvious that the simplest method of lowering prices in tins country would bo chock or entirely 7 prevent the export of butter and meat. By this means the old days when butter sold at !kl or 4d per pound and meat at Id per pound might quickly bo brought back. Hitherto no one has ventured to make such an absurd proposal as

that our exports should berestricted, because everyone who has given the matter a ' thought has realised that but for our exports there would be. no money to pay the workers who are represented on such bodies aa the Auckland Trades and Labour Council. Wages have risen all over the country simply because the products Of our farms have of late> been selling at high prices, 1 but in face of a fall in the London markets Unions, Conciliation Boards and Arbitration Court all combined would iail to prevent a general fall in the level of wages. The proposal to restrict exports by any method, however ingenious, would at onoe lessen the output of the land, ruin everyone connected with the agricultural and pastoral industries and probably send the members of the Trades’ Councils to beg in the streets. It is in short a proposal to kill the goose that lays the golden «SS«-

THB scheme for old age fonaiee* proposed by the French Minister far Labour has ranch t« resommend I*. The older coma tries -whore finance is not so reckless as In Hew Zealand realise that it is impossible for the taxpayers to provide fmnds for universal pensions unless seme contributionsare made by these, who will enjoy them and it is also considered that encouragement sbonld be given to those who desire themselves to provide for their eld age. Franca with a population of forty millions can, according to the estimate of the Minister, provide £4,000,000 annually for pensions and he has outlined a scheme of contributions to increase the funds available. Workmen are to contribute 2 per cent their wages or roughly 5d a week on each £1 of wages and employers to add a similar sum which, with the Government subsidy would provide the amount required. It is clear that New Zealand will notjlong be able to bear the burden of the present scheme of|pensions, which, with a population equal to that of France, would cost more than £18,000,000 per annum, and it is deairahlo that out Government should inaugurate a pension scheme of a similar nature to that proposed by the French Minister.

MB KEIR HARDIE continues to throw new light on the problems of the countries he visits. As he re* ceived a somewhat too warm reception to hold a public meeting in Johannesburg he had to be content with issuing a pamphlet and addressing a private meeting. According to the cabled report his solution for the labour difficulties in the Transvaal is that white and black men should receive the same pay. We are not told whether the pay of whites is to-be reduced to the level of that given to blacks or whether native workers are to be paid at the present rate of wages for white labour. From”our knowledge of the usual tactics of labour leaders we imagine that the second alternative is the correct one. Mr Keir Hardie is not a fool, he la only an enthusiast, who in his desire for what he considers Justice to the black brother would drive every white man out of South Africa and hand India over to native rule.

WHEN there are so many advocates of compulsory military service for the Empire it is of interest to note the opinion expressed by General Sir John French, who in a recent speech said that his experience of soldiers had taught him that you could do infinitely more with volunteers than with conscripts. He had seen soldiers at work at home and in foreign countries, and he had come to the conclusion that one volunteer was worth two conscripts. That stood to reason. A man who did a thing prompted by his sense of duty and love of country would display a far higher spirit in his work than the man who was ordered out by law and made to do it. The sort and amount of spirit which animated an army was far more important than anything else.