The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24. CURRENT COMMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8036, 24 January 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24. CURRENT COMMENT.

In a current number of the journals in the colony much has been said regarding the recent announcement, of a rise in the price of boots. The manager of one of the largest firms in the South Island stated that the rise was world-wide. Foe a long time past hides have been steadily going up, and are now quoted at a higher figure than they have been for the last, fifty years. In consequence manufacturers have had to cry a halt, at the old prices, and in sympathy with the Commonwealth of Australia, America, and Great Britain, NewZealand manufacturers had been compelled to announce a general advance of from 7| to 10 per cent. The export of hides from New Zealand to Australia and America was seriously interfering with the output of manufactured boots in the colony, while the prices for hides offered by out siders had to he met by equal prices being paid here. The manager in question expressed the opinion that, at the outset, the increase would have an adverse effect on the sale of colonial boots, and manufacturers were, he said, quite alive to the fact that the cheaper the article could be placed on the market the more satisfactory was the business done, hence Ino advance had been made until absolutely imperative Ultimately,however, he thought things would settle down, and the colonial firms would , get back whatever trade might ba lost on the first introduction of the new scale of prices.

Agatxst a nation on strike, says a writer, any and every Government is powerless, But how long is a nation, how Ion" especially is the Russian nation, the poorest of them all, able to remain on strike? What resources have they with which to maintain a pressure that bears hard on everyone, but hardest of all on themselves i A people always overtaxed, always within measurable distance of famine, does not, possess the material background necessary for the maintenance of a prolonged economic war. Such a. war can only plunge if deeper into destitution : it cannot; lie waged indefinitely. ]l. is a temporary expedient, only, the employment of which, for ;i single fortnight, would inevitably lead to violence and anarchy. Until parties, indeed, to tho Russian struggle are in possession of weapons which they rightly hesitate to uso to their full potency. The autocracy cannot preserve itself by force of arms; the people cannot conduct a general strike along lines of passive resistance without injuring themselvers more than their rulers, We look upon the events of the past, therefore, as amounting to no more than an incident in a lengthy conflict. They do not by any means end the question. They add their weight to that process of attrition which is gradually wearing down the autocratic system, but that is all. They are a step, but no more than a step, onwards to the goal, which it may take years and generations to reach.

It was decided by the National Committee for the Relief of Jews in Russia., at a meeting held at New York on December sth, to raise at least £500,000. When the committee met, Mr Straus said : " I had hoped that, this meeting would end our task, but it will not, although over 1.000,000 dollars have been collected for our co-religionists, no offering that could be made is sufficient, nor can be sufficient, Jacob 11. Schniff reported that he had forwarded 1,000,000 dollars by cable to Lord Rothschild in London. Since tho reported completion of the first, 1,000,000 dollars, the committee has received 35,000 dollars. Mr Schniff will te able to send an additional 50,000 dollars. Secretary Sulzberger, in his report of the collection of 1,000,000 dollars, said of that amount 11:10,883 dollars was the New York contribution, representing about 55,000 contributors. Of this, GG,OOO dollars 'came from non-Jewish sources. I n fact, about 20 per cent, of the grand total was given by Christians. Chicago was second on the list, with 84,6''B dollars ; Philadelphia third, with 60,608 dollars; and Boston, fourth, with 20,025 dollars