WELLINGTON ECHOES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 63, 23 June 1910, Page 7

WELLINGTON ECHOES.

(From Our Special Correspondent). Wellington, Juae 2#. Auckland has gone Liberal without a second ballot, to the consternation of the Prohibitionists and the disappointment of a .section of Labor, to say nothing of the chagrin of Mr. Tommy Taylor. The latter seems to have missed, not only the victory, but also the point of the story in which he so rashly got himself mixed uip. When the fight was over he actually attributed the defeat 01 tlie second Laibor man to Ms delay in signing the pledges of the Prohibitionist Party. But the moral is that the second Labor man—who did not save his deposit —was the nominee of the Labor faction —small and negligible—which refused to condole with the King oa his father's death. This faction has been unpleasantly awakened to a sense of its unworthy insignificance by Jia defeat of its unconsidered trifle o; a champion. Mr.-Taylor, whose own loyalty at one moment of his career was not painfully protuberant, cannot be expected to see this. He . naturally, therefore, casts about for a reason which shall miss the mark of his own past. But the election has put him down in the morass of defeat there to flounder. In his heart he probably will realise shortly that it is not wise to interfere in the elections of your neighbors. The idea, moreover, that Labor can come out on the independent tack is for the present exploded. Clearly, there are enough Labor men in the Auckland constituency to remember that Labor ought to to the Liberal Party, without whose aid they could never have got the advantages they now possess. * * # * The Opposition has not much cause to feel satisfied, for its candidate failed to save his stakes. But this looks worse than it is really. The candidate rras virtually disowned, for he was labelled '•'unofficial," and he'has followed up the ignominy of his defeat by declaring himself the'votary of a prohibitionist faitli which even the Prohibitionists must denounce as worse than stupid and more than silly.' He declares that he merely intended to affirm the principle that no brewers ought to be allowed to enter Parliament. As if anybody could be allowed, to affirm such a proposition m the midst of so many issues. The main thing is that the brewer won all along the line with hinds down, and is expected to ran fairly straight with the Government. He has said as much publicly. It is an open secret that the Government influence helped him indispensably. What more can yon want?

Where are the Knyvettites? Where the maniacs of the Government House? Where the furniture idiots? Where the weak-minded of 'Frisco and Vancouver? There is not a solitary echo to remind us of the existence of these self-suffi-cient folk who posed as the arbitors of the Auckland electorate. We may s«« very readily that in the coming lights in Parliament they will all go into action with blank. Is it too much to hoipe that the reign of the ■busybody is over for good in the northern city ?

There,is a Labor echo from the wrong tree, up which every dog of the press has been fbar'k/hig '(lately. : Even the' Ministerial journal has been letting fly in that direction in sorrow more than in anger. In this tree there is no crop of Unionists dissatisfied with the Arbitration 'Act and sitting on their cancelled registrations. There are a few, certainly, as there are idiots everywhere. But with one (Blackball miners) exception, the unions who have cancel ie.l are all unimportant enough to be neglected utterly. Those in the swim tell me that for every unionist individual who has departed out of the circle of arbitration at least a dozen have come in. When the report of the Labor Department is out the truth in this regard will be measured accurately of course. At present the conjecture which is becoming fast the secret of the comedy is that the vast majority of Labor asks nothing better than the system of arbitration as improved a couple of years ago by Parliament.

In this connection there is an echo from the mighty Bank of New Zealand. It has come through the mouth of Mr. Martin Kennedy, large employer of labor and successful capitalist. Speaking on the side of the employer, he declared to the assembled shareholders of the Bank at the last general meeting that he was perfectly satisfied with the arbitration system, preferring it vastly to strikes. He declared sensibly that the employer under this system knows where he is every time. His remarks were provoked by something that fell from the president. This something the president was evidently afraid to formulate. Curiously enough, every newspaper but one that has touched the subject, seems also very much afraid to formulate. The president, therefore, is made to lie under a mass of insinuation. What everyone means is that the .president has certainly warned the Government that if their policy is to continue as announced it will wreck the' country by driving capital out of it.

The Post is the exception that has taken the bull 'by the horns. It has plainly pointed out that the president has had the stupidity to think that because some Canadian people, chiefly magnates, fear the Budget of Lloyd-George, New Zealand must be very careful of advanced legislation. The Post has pointed out" that in comparison with Lloyd-George our system is sunk in advanced legislation beyond the reach of computation, while capital still lives and breathes and lives among us. It goes on to declare that only in one respect is there any reason for any kind of protest, and that this hits been deprived of its force bv the Prime Minister's .promise of amending legislation. * • * * With the exception of this slip the president's speech is voted all round a. capital announcement. Especially is he admired for his reference to the top notch of the dairy system of the country. The vice of our system is that not one-quarter of the butter-fat which there ought to be in well-bred cattle is cot out of the cattle'of the Dominion. "Improve your herds," says the president to the dairy people, ''for if bad times come upon yoii. you will be-absolutely ruined bv the Irish prices you have paid for your lands." It is a 'simple proposition. Are the dairy folk too lazy or too thick in the pate to heed it ? * # # * There is another and a more pleasant nut for the farmers to crack in the echo from the United States, which tells of the success of a shipment of colonial mutton to one of the American cities. Tn spite of the American tariff this consignment has sold at remunerative- rates, and fetched but a couple of cents less than the best local article. Here is writ large the promise of the new world of America to the new world of Australasia. The slump of the meat market in London has found its antidote in the market of the United States. It only remains for us to subsidise

steamers to run to the United States, and there will be no more trouble with the meat side of the sheep farm. The leading factor is that there is not in the iS'tates a mutton sheep to compare with the best of the mutton produced in this country. There is a population, too, which does not care what it pays for its meat so long as it is good. It is able and willing to pay a good price for a giood article. There is the whole philosophy of the meat market. Let us practice that philosophy by sending regular consignments to the States, and thus annexing to ourselves a new and enormous market. It is impossible to forget that the census due in a few weeks has progressed sufficiently far to show a possible ninety-one millions of population for this wonderful country of our cousins'. This opinion 1 hear everywhere.-

The announcement of this new big dominating factor by the Australian press reminds one of the philosophy of the late Max O'Rell. Speaking of some traits of the British people, he said that whenever a (Scotch regiment was covered with honor on the battlefield, the English papers spoke of "an English victory." ' But when there was a murder of a revolting type in a Scotch city, the headline in the English press was "fctttisli murder." In like manner did he declare the treatment of the news from Ireland in the English press. In like manner does the Australian journalist, who is nothing if he is not patriotic. According ,to the newspapers of the Continent, the meat that has been so successful in the States is "Australasian." But the fact has transpired in these very newspapers that the meat was from New Zealand. Now, we who know that the Australian article cannot be seen in the same streets as ours, are amazed.

Moreover, the Yanks are good judges, and independent at that. They will buy at a big price only what they themselves approve. Send theni New Zealand mutton, and they will acknowledge the value of the same. Send them "Australasian," and they will quickly decide on the inferiority of the Australian article to the New Zealand. The great point now is for the trade to unite in a well-organised and sustained ettort to capture this new market that is opening out so fairly. Popular superstition of course points to the ring by which the industry is encircled, implying that the said ring does not care a " continental" what becomes of the trade so long as it gets a small but certain commission. Well, anyhow, the opportunity is at hand for making a new departure of the greatest possible benefit to every meat grower from the North Cape to the Bluff.

Municipally, the echoes are jubilant. The Prime Minister has offered the city authorities thirty-two thousand pounds worth of property for a value of seven thousand five hundred, and the city authorities have accepted with gratitude. Except one councillor —who wanted pause for consulting some mythical people about a right-of-way that nobody wants or is every likely to require. The city is to allow Sydney street to be closed so far as to throw the two Government blocks—those carrying the old and the present Parliament House—into one. In return, the Government is to widen the streets round this site, to acquire for the citv a block at the corner opposite its lower side—Quinton's —and give the city twelve acres of reserve near Lva.ll Bay on condition of its being kept free for the manoeuvres of troops on great occasions. It is an excellent exchange for the city, especially as the communication with the north oi t.»e city is to be .preserved 'by the construction of a right-of-way between Sydney and Hill streets. Now all the talk of values of these lands is nothing, for if they were to be sold the conditions are such that they would not "fetch a shilling between them. It -comes to this really, that the Government offer a reserve to the city which it ought in principle to have, and will have in any case, and the block at Quinton's corner, tor the exchanges which look so complicated. In short, for the price oi Quinton's corner the whole thing is to be arranged. The question for the man-in-the-street is whether Parliament aa representing the Dominion at large will agree to this price being paid. Why not? There's the rub.

Thfi session throws its shadow over us all with the usual mystery and doubt. The usual things arc said and the usual things are thought. But there is nothing unusual. A forecast has been issued of the probable business, and, like all forecasts, it may not be carried out. So Ions; as 'Our standing orders continue idiotic so long will it be impossible to say what is to happen precisely in Parliament.