WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 200, 22 September 1916, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

AN OLD STORY,

STATISTICS AND PRICES. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 20. The reports of the little breeze at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Farmers ’ Co-operative Association on Saturday over the managements rather unfortunate investments in wheat have revived recollections of an animated controversy that was going on in the House of Representatives a couple of years ago. The directors of the Association laid their troubles at the door of the Government whichhad begun by issuing misleading statistics, and ended by prohibiting exportation till it was too late for them to get out of their bad bargain. Of course, it was the Government Statistician, not the Government, that was to blame for the first blunder, but the Government cannot escape responsibility for having kept up the delusion that there was a shortage of wheat in the country. Mr Thomas Buxton, who was then member for Temuka, and probably the best informed authority on the subject in the House, stated in the most explicit way on two or three occasions that there would be a surplus of 300,000 or 400,000 bushels. But the Prime Minister pooh-poohed the - idea of a business man knowing more about the matter than the Government Statistician did, and proceeded to back up his own judgment by buying a million bushels of Canadian wheat at the inflated price; Making Amends. That Mr Massey was actuated by the very best motives in doing what he did no one has over seriously doubted, but that be committed a very grave error of judgment iu specualisiug on a shortage is obvious to everyone in the light of what has happened since. He may count himself lucky that he did not have to pay more dearly for his mistake. Had the Allies succeeded to making their way through the Dardanelles and releasisg the stocks of Russian wheat lying along the shores of the Black Sea, his little “flutter” in Canadian options would have cost the country , something is the neighbourhood of £IOO,OOO or £150,000. What it did cost probably the public never will know. But if the Government takes the lessons of this unpleasant experience to heart the money will not have been entirely wasted. It has made one long step towards a better state of affairs by sotting up a board of trade to advise it on such matters. If it would clothe this body with the same authority as is possessed by the Commodities Committee in New South Wales, the country would not be very long in recovering the half million or so it lost over the wheat muddle. The Government requires only to attack this problem with some of the courage displayed by the statesmen of older countries to make the public much more tolerant than it is at presest of its minor sins of commission and omission. Discharged Soldiers, The progress statement for the period ended on September Ist, just issued by the Minister in charge of the Discharged Soldiers’ Information Departmest, is not quite so satisfactory as the friends of the men who have done their “little bit’.’ at the front could wish. The total number of men. on the register of the department at the beginning of the present month was 5505. Of this total 1683 had returned to their former employment or to military duty, 1007, had been placed in employment, 1014 had signified they needed so assistance, 379 had left the country or failed to respond to the enquiries of-the department, and 133 had “drawn sections of land,’’ while the cases of 1287 were under consideration or not ready for action. That the return is not more satisfactory is certainly du to no fault on the part of Mr Herdman, who lias been most assiduous and tactful in looking after the interests of the men. Its most disappointing feature is the small number of returned soldiers placed on the land, fewer than 3 per cent, of the total, and the position ought to be receiving the very earnest consideration of the Government. Plainly it is not offering sufficient inducements to thc-men to become primary producers, and if it continues to neglect its duty in tins respect it "ill encounter very -grave difficulties when they begin to return In their thousands seeking employment after the war. The Trench Way. As bearing on this subect in a more or less direct way a letter addressed by Sergeant Isitt, the elder son of the member for Christchurch North, to a friend in Wellington, is of special interest. Sergeant Isitt has been in the trenches “somewhere in France’ for several months, and between strenuous ■bouts of lighting be has been allowed on one or two occasions to make afternoon excursions into the country lying behind the lines. “These people are the most genuinely hospitable ami courteous -folk I have ever known. Thoir “Bonjour, Sergeant” as yen meet thorn on the road or pass them work!ag in their little plots of ground .vomer and old'men—sounds like • a welcome and cheery , prayer for y.mv welfare, and not a bit like a conventional salutation. How they Mv I Vn-t tell. But they seem always

working, always cheerful, and always ready to share what they have with an Englishman. There are no slums in the towns like we have even in New Zealand, and every cottager about the country has his piece of land, perhaps only a few square yards, and from this ho appears to get all he wants to eat and drink and to give away. If this is the close settlement you have been talking abouv you are on the right track. It would do our politicians a vast amount of good to travel through France and see how a bravo pcasantrv can bear itself in such an awful tine as tins. The people’s love for their country and the use they make of it are simply splendid.” Probably Sergeant Isitt has not delved so deeply as his father into social and economic problems, but like many another New Ztalander he is keeping his eyes open while fighting the battles of the Empire and fitting himself for the tasks which lie before the younger generation here.