WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 218, 25 October 1916, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

AN APPEAL TO CAESAR. THE PRIME MINISTER’S PREDICAMENT. (Special Correspondent) WELLINGTON, Oct 23. The Farmers’ Union has landed Mr. Massey into a somewhat embarrassingposition. As the representative of the butter producers it cabled to him protesting against what it called “the export tax of three farthings per pounc on butter-fat imposed by Order-in-Council without the sanction of Parliament,” and he has replied stating that he has communicated with his col leagues remaining in the Dominion about the matter. Just what the Prime Minister can do to relieve the dairymen from the injustice under which they believe themselves to oe labouring not even the officials of the Farmers’ Union pretend to know. Though still a Minister of the Crown and head of the Government, he holds for the time being no portfolio, and

enjoys no administrative authority. Even if he desired to do so he certainly could not vote the decision of the Cabinet in this or in any other mat ter, and if he could he scarcely would risk bringing about a ministerial crisis at such a time as the present. It is known that when he left New Zealand a couple of months cr so ago. he was not favourable to the policy that has since been adopted by IPs colleagues; but the situation has materially changed in the interval, and the expressed views of the absent Ministers were very carefully considered by the Cabinet before it refused to allow the export of butter without an adequate guarantee that the local price would be kept at a reasonable rate. THE PRICE OF MEAT. The announcement that Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward have reached a settlement with the Home authorities in regard to the price to be paid by the Imperial Government for New Zea land meat has been followed by the intimation that the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. W. D. S. MacDonald. willL shortly confer with the represents-' tives of; tlie- meat producing industry with a view to adjusting local prices, y Whether the conference is to discuss, merely prices for export or also pric-.fi. es.fi for retail supplies is not quite dear, but having attacked' the butter c question in the interests of the locam consumer the Minister, if he wishes to. be consistent, hardly can decline dealing with the meat question in the same way. That, at any rate, is the view expressed by the average man in the street, who, as he puts it himself, has a good many tickets on Mr. MacDonald at the present time. Meat prices are not nearly so uniform y throughout the Dominion as the prices of most other commodities are. but speaking generally the prices for heme consumption are substantially higher than those for export, and from this fact people are arguing that the butcher stands in even greater need of restraint than does the butter man. The fact that the members of the Board of Trade are to attend the conference between the Ministers and the representatives of meat is accepter: by the consumers as an assurance that their interests will not be neglected. THE NATION’S TEETH. A report supplied to the newspapers by Lieutenant-Colonel Hunter, Director of Dental Services, while reassuring as to the attention being given to the men going to the front, makes it plain enough that the teeth of the mass of the people are in a deplorable condition. During the four months beginning with June and ending with September the dental staffs in the camps supplied 24,045 fillings, made 9,830 extractions, and fitted 2,100 dentures, which are, it may be presumed, artificial teeth. The Tenth Reinforcements had 4,501 fillings and 2,131 extractions, the Eleventh, 3,568 and 1,257, the Thirteenth 2,533 and 639, and the Fourteenth 3,102 and 1,015. These figures do not'represent nearly the whole of the work needed, as many men were treated outside the camps and many more, simply for lack of time and opportunity, were sent away without all the attention they required. The most startlingstatement in the report is to the effect that out. of about 18,000 men examined in the Featherston camp only fourteen have been found to have perfect sets of natural teeth. Out of this happy baker’s dozen five were born and raised in Scotland, three in Ireland, three in New Zealand, one in St. Helena, one in England, and one in Canada. Amateur workers in this wide field for reform will be discouraged on reading that “most” of the muchhlessed fourteen “have very rarely cleaned their teeth.” Careless schoolboys will treasure the fact as a standing retort to reproving mothers.