WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, 30 January 1919, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

INTERNATIONAL RECIPROCITY TRADE WITH FRANCE. WELLINGTON, January 23. The Hon. A. M. Myers, who, as Act-ing-Minister of Finance, Minister of Customs and Minister of Munitions and Supplies, came into closer commercial contact with the members of the French Mission than did any of his colleagues, has been talking in gene? terms of the prospects of reciprocal trade between the Dominion and France. He is in whole-hearted sympathy with the resolutions adopted by the Paris Conference in 1916 which were inspired by a common desire among the Allies for closer economic relations and for the preservation of a spirit of mutual goodwill. He sees a hundred: reasons why this spirit should |be fostered and /encouraged, and a hundred more why dt should be extended in a bountiful measure towards the brave people whose representatives the Dominion has had the privilege of entertaining. While Germany has sacrificed the last shred of any claim she ever may have had upon British friendship, France, with the respect and regard of the whole nation, has earned a right to every trade advantage the Empire may have to offer.

THE LABOUR CAMPAIGN. The National Executive of the New Zealand Labour Party has decided to launch next month an extensive organising and educative campaign for the,, purpose of increasing the strength of the party. These are almost the exac' words in which the Hon. J. T. Paul announces to the world at large that he and other Labour members of Parliament are about to “stump” the country in an attempt to stir the electors into some concern for their own political salvation. Neither of the older parties seems particularly perturbed by the announcement. It is admitted that the intentions of Mr. Paul and > his colleagues are admirable and that their motives are much the same as the motives of other politicians, but it is pointed out that their appeal is addressed, almost exclusively, to audiences of their own way of thinking, which, like the righteous man of the scriptures, need no repentance. With more than an average share of the ability of a not highly gifted Parliament and with a public eager for a new political gospel they utterly fail to turn their opportunity to good account. And so, their friendly critics soliloquize, the march of democracy is delayed.

AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE Even the “Evening Post,” which is not in the habit of belittling the Dominion’s services to the Empire in the war is a little shocked at their being used as an argument for the admission of a second New Zealand delegate to the Peace Conference. “The familiar contrast between the. Empire and the parish pump,’.-’ it says, referring to the matter, “is hardly wide enough to fit the casei, for it is with the affairs not of the Empire but of the world that the Peace Conference is concerned, and it is to a parochial claim based upon parochial considerations that it has been compelled to devote some of its attention.” There is a pretty general feeling here: that if M,. Massey really did say that New Zealand’s efforts in the war were proportionately equal to those of the Mother Country and greater than of any other Dominion, he somewhat overstated the case and presumed too far upon the indulgence of the Imperial authorities. It must bo remembered, however, that the other side of the story has net yet been told.

THE EFFICIENCY BOARD. The Acting-Prime Minister's statement in regard to vho approaching dissolution of the National _ Efficiency Board has not satisfied the critics of the Government. The “Dominion” thinks it only “calculated to deepen the wonder occasioned by the Governmemt’s rejection of the offer made by the members of the board to indefinitely continue their h onorary and very useful activities,” and declares it leaves Ministers “open to the charge of having failed to profit by one of the most elementary lessons of the war period.f’ Other critics are less restrained. The truth of the matter appears to Be that the Government does not feel justified in continuing an arrangement which was made specifically for the war period only and which in spite* of the honorary Services of the members of the hoard involves the country in a considerable annual expenditure. No doubt what is being done was decided upon before the party leaders left the Dominion.