The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, MAY 16, 1927. A ONE-SIDED BARGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 May 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, MAY 16, 1927. A ONE-SIDED BARGAIN

THERE is nothing like a good lunch (unless it be a better dinner) to brighten the vision of business men and politicians After that last thimbleful of mellow Benedictine they not only see a wonderful expansion of trade, but are ready and eager to assail parliaments and break down tariff barriers to promote reciprocal commerce with neighbours or distant strangers. On their return to ledgers and legislation, however, the old law of profit again takes possession of their hearts. And such, it may be presumed, was the mood of the luncheon conference of leading Victorian business men and the Hon. A. D. McLeod, New Zealand's Minister of Lands, in Melbourne last Saturday when reciprocal trade difflculti.es were discussed in tiie spirit of friendship. It is perhaps too much to hope that the results of the friendly discussion will readjust more equitably the present disadvantages of this country in its trade with Australia.

So far, the existing tariff arrangements for the promotion of reciprocal trade have made business between both countries rather a one-sided bargain for Australia. As Mr. McLeod reminded his hosts in Melbourne, Australia has taken the elder brother’s share of their mercantile business. The advantage to the Commonwealth in trade with New Zealand since 1911 is the difference between £64,000,000 and £37,000,000. And in that period New Zealand’s exports to Australia have diminished from a little more than 11 per cent, of her total export trade to a fraction over 4 per cent. It is fair to note that the position probably would have been much more disadvantageous to New Zealand had not the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, as Minister of Customs, gone over to Australia a few years ago and, with an admirable shrewdness that is still respected in Australian political circles, negotiated an appreciable reciprocal tariff scale. It cannot he pretended that the trade between the neighbouring countries is really satisfactory, and if there be any chance at all to secure an improvement, responsible administrators and representative business men on each side of the Tasman Sea should hasten to make the most of the opportunity. But as each country maintains a protective tariff wall, it will prove extremely difficult in practice to establish a more evenly balanced trade reciprocity. One of Melbourne’s leading business men has suggested that New Zealand should not send butter to Australia when it was not needed, and that Australia should refrain from sending flour to this country 'at certain times. This suggestion represents a counsel of perfection. As long as merchants understand marketing conditions and are alert to profitable business, each market will be exploited to thorough advantage. The law of supply and demand always will be stronger in the end than experimental legislation. Export embargoes can be very mischievous in practice, though innocent in theory.

THE RAID ON SOVIET HOUSE

FE raid by London police on Soviet House—the headquarters of Arco.s, Ltd., agents for the Russian Government, and of the Russian Trade Delegation—should do something to ease the impatience of the public mind in regard to the inactivity of the authorities in dealing with the impudent propaganda of a foreign State antagonistic to British institutions. It has long been believed that Soviet House has been a centre of intrigue for the disruption of Britain’s internal peace, and how great an influence this has had on the industrial distraction which has so gravely injured the country has yet to be estimated. Soviet emissaries certainly played an impudently open part in the general strike and in the coal strike, and in view of the malice plainly displayed against Britain by Russia in foreign affairs, and particularly in China, where Soviet agents have incited Chinese mobs to boycott, pillage and murder, there is small cause for wonder that the patience of authorities even so notably tolerant as the British has reached its limit. The “Daily Mail” declares there is every possible justification for the raid, and it quite excusably adds that the country will welcome the Government’s vigour, especially if it means the turning out of the Moscow plotters, bag and baggage. The seizure of documents will doubtless throw considerable light on .Soviet activities in Britain, and it will do the country rich service if it reveals the names of those traitors of British blood among the extremists who were in the pay of Moscow, and if it shows how Russian money has been used to stir up industrial strife. No other country in the world would be as tolerant of foreign intrigue in its midst as has been Britain, and it is to be hoped that this raid will provide evidence that will fully justify the authorities in demonstrating that British hospitality cannot be too long and too impudently abused—and that a final and fitting punishment awaits traitors who succumb to the infiuenees of foreign gold.

WOMEN AND EDUCATION

THE women teachers of New Zealand are making what must be considered a very reasonable claim in asking that some at least of the inspectors of schools should be women. A lead in this direction has already been given by the appointment of Miss Hetherington to a position on the inspectorate of secondary schools, but so far the primary schools are completely under the administration of men. Considering that fully half the pupils of the schools are girls the services of capable and sympathetic women, as inspectors and in other official capacities, should be a distinct national advantage. The other questions relating to overcrowded classes and understaffing—applying especially in cities—which have been brought forward at. the annual meeting of the New Zealand Women Teachers’ Association have a general application and do not affect women teachers exclusively. They form in fact a problem of Dominion-wide concern and one which has to be solved in the interests not only of the teachers but of all the children in the country.