WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 November 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

HEALTHY CAMPS. THE BUTTER PURCHASE. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Nov 9. The announcement that the military camps are to be closed for the Christmas holidays for cleansing and disinfection draws attention to the marked improvement that has been effected in the sickness statistics of the troops. The New Zealand training camps are probably the most healthy in the world at the present time, and the credit for that fact must be given to Surgeon-General Henderson who was brought to this country to take charge of the military medical staff at a time when the sickness rate among the soldiers was unpleasantly high. General Henderson has done his work very thoroughly. He was not content with the isolation and the effective treatment of the sick soldiers. He set himself to trace causes of sickness to their source and to prevent infection by removing its causes. He arranged for the examination of recruits when they" entered camp in order to detect “carriers,” he established inhalation chambers and insisted on disinfection in every direction His reward is the reduced sickness rate. • SCARCELY FAIR. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, if he has been correctly reported in a brief cablegram published" by the New Zealand newspapers, has been scarcely fair in his suggestion that producers of this country are being

treated unfairly "in comparison with the Irish farmers. The conditions of sale are not comparable at all. The Irish dairy farmer can put his .butter on the English market without the least difficulty and without salting it or freezing it. He commands the highest market price as a matter of course. The New Zealand farmer must have cold storage ashore and afloat, and he must allow for heavy shipping and insurance charges, and he is entirely dependent' upon his buyer, that is, the British Government for shipping facilities. There is no doubt that the Imperial authorities could have made a much better bargain for themselves if they had chosen to deal with New Zealand in a coldly commercial spirit. They command the means of transport_ T.he Government Statistician has carried up to September last his comparison cf the percentage of increases in the prices of essential foodstuffs

in the main centres of New Zealand. 1 Wellington again makes a had showing. The percentage of increases in the prices of groceries, dairy produce and meat since the outbreak of war have been 30.84 in in Christchurch, 28.69 in Dunedin and 24.86 in Auckland. Palmerston North manages to show the biggest percentage for t-he whole Dominion, owing to a 50 per cent rise in meat prices and 40 per cent advance in dairy prices. Blenheim, with a total increase of 19,40 per cent for the three groups and Nelson with 19.97 per cent, are at-the other end of the list. These figures are deceptive in some respects. It is obvious, for example, that Palmerston North occupies its apparently unfavourable not because it is the most expensive town in New Zealand in which to live, but because it held a particularly good position before the war. It has suffered from a levelling up of prices.