The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1912. THE GATHERING CLOUDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 117, 3 October 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1912. THE GATHERING CLOUDS.

'•'The Situation in the Balkans" a cachet pretty familiar to newspaper •readers- by this time—is daily, almost hourly, becoming more "alarming, -and, may at any time culminate in an outbreak of war. Warlike preparations are, as a matter of fact, being conducted with feverish haste. The Balkan State, Servia, Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro, and even Greece, are mobilising their forces, whilst Turkey, their traditional foe, is concentrating her troops and threatening the frontier* . There was a time when the Balkan States were not strong enough to stand up against the powerful forces of Turkey, but the position has changed entirely during the past few years. The autonomous States, anxious to wipe out old scores, have of late years been busily preparing for the trial of strength with their old adversary, and probably now fee] able to do what Gladstone wished, "turn the Turks bag and baggage out of Europe," and by so doing liberate their relations, the Albanians and Macedonians, from Turkish thraldom. The Balkan States see their old foe assailed on land and sea by the Italians, and dissension among the politicians in Constantinople, and probably feel that the psychological moment has arrived for them to strike. Turkey has given them plenty of reason, to be sure. She has promised reforms and redress of the many grievances of the Bulgarians and Albanians, but has never really attempted to give effect to them. The truth of the matter is that the Turk knows no other way of ruling than by the sword. He knows nothing about administration, and does not want to. As one writer put it recently, "the Turk is an anachronism in Europe. He is an Asiatic, not European, and, as such, a stubborn opponent of Western progress. Except under superior pressure he will never lift a finger to redress a grievance or punish a crime. Callous by nature, and fatalistic by creed, neither good nor bad news affects his spirit or influences his action." During the past few weeks, Turkey has been massing troops at different points along the frontiers and assuming a menacing attitude generally towards the Balkan States, and has now added fuel to the flames by detaining ammunition, etc., consigned to Servia.

The people of this and the neighboring [ States are clamoring for the Wood of the Turk, and it is difficult to see how they can be restrained. The Great Powers, we are told, are working for the -maintenance of peace, but the trouble is that whenever the Powers confer about the Balkans they almost invariably end by making matters worse. If the effect were to banish the Turk from Europe to settle the trouble associated for so long a period with the Balkans, war, with all its attendant horrors, might not prove too b'g a price to pay

THE WASTE OF WEALTH. In a thoughtful article on "'The Waste of Wealth," the Mercantile Gazette says: "There is an enormous waste in this country because the chemistry of butter' arid cheese is not known. One has merely to study and analyse the figures and returns given by the dairying companies to realise this. According to some figures published in the last issue of the Dairyman, the Little Akaloa Cheeese Factory paid 10y 2 d for butter-fat during the past season, while the Oaonui factory, which is a very much bigger concern, paid only 13d, a difference of 3y 2 d, which represents waste at some point. The butter factories show a difference of 2%d. There is waste on the'farm as well as in the factory. We suffer a great loss, every year owing to the system of branding bides. There is waste through neglect or carelessness in the breeding or feeding of stock, the slaughter of calves in the dairying districts, though not quite so prominent a feature of the industry now, was a terrible waste, and the present high price of beef is partly due to this. There is the waste of time and money at the ealeyards and stock pens. Industrial discord is responsible for much waste. Probably nine-tenths of the world's work is more or less slummed. A colossal waste is proceeding everywhere, which can and should be obviated. If stopped, it would provide capital with a fund, so greatly in excess of its present ordinary Vusiaes3 profits -that it could afford to give the lion's share of those profits to labor, and not feel inconvenienced. Whe-_ ther or not profit-sharing represents a practical solution of the present unsatisfactory situation, the future must decide, but we cannot ignore industrial unrest as a factor in preventing national progress." Our contemporary refers to a paper read before the Royal Society, of Queensland in which the president pointed out that by sending away unscoured wool Queensland in 1910 lost 6000 tons of potash. The wool contains 14 per cent, of lanoline, and the State threw away this product in 1910, to the' value of £1,000,000. In the same year the State produced 7,370,400 gallons of 'molasses, nearly all wasted, although the product contained nearly 3,000,000 gallons of alcohol. There is a prodigal waste in the mines. He stated that one mining company alone permits 800 tons of sulphuric acid per day to be wasted. The same authority states that onethird .of the coal supply is left in the seams -through faulty methods.