CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 61, 30 July 1912, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

NEW ZEALAND IRON. The proposals that have been placed before the -Prime Minister for the development of the Parapara. iron deposits are not explained in detail in the telegram that we publish (says the Lyttelton Times), and it is too early to form a definite opinion regarding their merits. But it may be said at once that the terms. offered to the Government by a London syndicate, which is supported, it is understood,'by some New Zealand investors, are not at first sight particularly attractive. The State appears to be asked to give a great deal for a very small return. The syndicate wants a concession-for a, long term of years and a promise of an annual'subsidy of £32.500. It will then establish iron and steels works at a cost of £050,000 and agree to hand the property to the State at the end of- forty years free of charge, or after twenty years "under certain conditions." The subsidy represents a return of no less than 5 per cent, on the amount of capital proposed to be invested, und this initial expenditure is large enough to suggest that a preliminary profit is to be secured by the promoters or some other parties. Presumably there would be another profit on the sale of the products of the furnaces, rolling mills and forges. As we have said already,' the information that has been made public is incomplete and the first impression of the syndicate's offer may lie an erroneous one. ■ But we hope that Mr. Massey will investigate the subject very fully before he asks Parliament to sanction a scheme for subsidising -the private exploitation of the Dominion's mineral re- , sources. The Parapara iron ores are an asset of enormous potential value, and it is quite possible that the Dominion could develop them profitably by means of State enterprise. In any case, a proposal to pay a private concern an annual subsidy of £32,500 for twenty or forty years demands the very closest examination.

WOOL TRADE WITH THE EAST. | Dalgety's Review for 1911-12 contains an interesting article on the "Growing trade I with' the East," in the course' of which! appears the following:—"The wool demand for Japan and the East is a growing one, and is of the utmost importance to Australia on;ac'count of the great possibilities of trade in that'.direction,, as Japan can never become a wool-growing country. There are plenty of hills and mountains with only 15 per cent, of the land under cultivation. Lut it is not possible as a grazing country, for it is' (Tensely covered with bamboo grass, which cannot be eradicated. Ah admission made by the Japanese Minister for Agvi-, culture and Commerce is to the effect that the Government lias made every endeavor to improve the flocks, but without any tangible results. New blood ha.s been introduced from England and other countries, thfe object being to meet the local demand by creating a better local supply. It was also thought that a system of sheep culture similar to that practised in England could be introduced, but the decision arrived at after five years' experimentation is that Japanese wool users will have to depend lipon-Aus-tralia to provide them with the raw material. Geographically, Australasia is very advantageously situated as a base of supplies, and the Japanese have already shown that it is in these markets that they must secure their supplies." Now that the requirements of Japan and China." in ' the matter'of woollen goods have increased, and promise to increase, to a greater extent, it behoves wool growers of Australasia to make great endeavors to secure the trade which they are geographically so well situated to obtain. On the Home and American markets the Argentine has the advantage over Australasia of being situated much nearer the markets, but with the, Far East -there is no intervening woolgrowing country, and, Australasia will have an open field. The introduction of Western ideas into China has caused the higher officials to discard pigtails and silken robes and to'adopt Western modes of dress. The example set by the ofli--cials will no doubt be followed by the majority of the people, with the result that a huge demand will grow up in the East for woollen materials, and if those interested in Australasia. are alive to their own interests they will be prepared to meet that demand. The fruit is hanging within easy reach, and all thev have to do is to put out their hand and grasp it. '

PROFIT-SHARING. Business and the satisfaction of mutual agreement between employers and employed go liitnd in hand under some of the schemes of co-partnership and profitsharing, described by Mr. Cooke Taylor in the present issue of the Contemporary Review. The writer, a member of a distinguished firm of woollen manufacturers, speaks with knowledge derived from 30 years' study.of the subject and 20 years' actual practice. He has .found the system, commenced in 1892 by his company, "a benefit to all concerned." Some of the figures supplied are interesting and suggestive. ''Suppose our capital were .(J 1(50.000. that during the year we had paid in salaries and wages COO.fIOO, and thiil workers who had earned onelliirfl of that were entitled to double bonus. "We should add £30,000 to the .CftO.OOO actually paid, thus making a total labor item of £120,000. Suppose our divisible profits were £20.000, we should fir.it declare an interim dividend "> per cent., (that is £8000) on the capital, leaving £21,000 to be further divided between capital and wages at V/> per ceil I. The workers specially qualified, who earned one-tbird of the £OO,OOO actually paid in wages, would get double bonus, that is, at the rate of 15 per cent., while the bonus on the remaining COO,OOO wages paid-would be at the rate of I\U per cent," The South Metropolitan O.as ' Company and the late Sir George Livescv were amongst the first, as long ago, indeed, as 1880, to start such a Hieme. . Since then other firms have found modifications of the plan to work

admirably. That caphiins ol industry should thus share profits with their]' workpeople, Mr. Cooke Tuylor writ«s, is! not so Utopian as it seems; it is infinitely better for both than mutual hostility and industrial warfare.