CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 284, 31 March 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE LOAN MONEY. We understand that more than one offer will be made to the New Plymouth: Council by financial institutions to take up the £07,000 loans recently authorised. The oilers will come before the Council in due course. [ THE PIONEERS. His Worship the .Mayor (Mr. (i. \V. j Browne) desires, through the Press, to i express his grateful thanks to those j ladies who kindly assisted in dispensing refreshments to the pioneers at the; Park last week. "I only hope," said Mr. Browne, to a News representative, ' - we will be favoured with better weather next year, and that we will be able to; organise some sort of sports, preferably' aquatic sports, near the place oil the beach where the old settlers landed. There should be no difficulty in arranging this. Whether I am in power in the 'Council or not, the movement to do honor to the Veterans will always have my support. The success of the whole proceedings, in the day time as well as in the evening, lias given me great pleasure, as it must have done the pioneers, whom we can not honor too much." THE WAIREKA COLORS. "Old Veteran" writes:—''At the banquet given to the Veterans on Thursday evening reference was made to the Waireka colors presented by the ladies of New Plymouth to the Militia and Volunteers after the Battle of Waireka. The speaker voiced the feelings of Veterans when lie expressed the hope that the, flags would be visible at the next meeting of those (or all that are left of them) who fought at Waireka. It is understood that the company having charge of the colors are not only willing to let the Veterans have them whenever required, but will also furnish a color guard with them. Keen disappointment was expressed last year when it was expected that the colors would head the march from Devon street to the Brougham street Hall and be placed there for inspection by those to v. hom they were presented and others of a younger generation who have never seen them."

Til E MOXKY MARKET. The Xew Zealand Trade Review savs: '•The supply of money is still far from plentiful, and there is not much indication of easier times coming for the present. The volume of our exports is keeping up well, and prices are satisfactory generally, but our imports show little sign of any reduction. We are getting near the end of tin; quarter, and the ret i rns will be looked for with interest for a definite showing as to the position. The remarks of the president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on the balance of trade have aroused a considerable amount of discussion on this subject recently. We will not enter on any criticism here, as we understand that that gentleman's statements were not reported quite correctly, but there are one or two facts we would emphasise that must be taken into consideration when dealing with this subject. Firstly, it must be remembered that, our exports and imports are not merely our income and expenditure, as our loans come in the form of goods, and are so excluded in imports; also a proportion of our imports are capital expenditure required /or opening up fresh country, which will ultimately increase our exports. As to what our actual outside obligations arc it is very hard to gauge these. The interest on our national debt and on loans to local bodies amounts to nearly but over 24 millions of these loans were raised in the Dominion, so that the interest under these two headings, which has to be sent out of the country, would not amount to more than £2,900,000. Outside capital invested in various enterprises here is an uncertain quantity, and is estimated by some authorities to be reaping neavlv a million in interest or dividends, so that our total outside interest obligations are probably from to 4 millions. Unless our exports provide enough to meet this interest as well as paying for our imports, the effect will be felt in a tightening of the local money market, but it does not necessarily all'ect our national stability. Prior to 1883. practically every year showed an excess of imports, but since then there has only been an excess of imports on one or two occasions. and the average excess of exports for the past 2(> years has been roughly 2'/o millions per annum. While it is desirable that our exports should pay for our imports and interest obligations, that is not absolutely necessary in a young country like this that requires capital to open up tlie land. However, we still

consider there is room for some restriei ion of our imports, especially as regards luxuries, and every elfort should be put forth to iiierciise our exports. 7 ' A CHEERFUL STORY. Australia and Now Zealand are "diseased communities,'' the disease being Socialism, n slow poison which has destroyed enterprise, thrift and confidence. This, at any rate, is how a Chicago writer puts it. Hear this cheerful critic and then go away and hide your head in shame: "Take all L have written about' the sleepy, ,intii|iiated aspect of everything of everything in Australia and i quadruple it. and you can begin to imagine Xew Zealand. The sleepy, backward old towns of New Zealand, with their poor hotels, are to the New Zea'hmders wonders of brightness, and they figure on the time when they will be rich enough to go and live in Australia. . . . Nobody is planting orchards or building up fine farms. Except for a small tract just south of Auckland, probably a freehold settlement, everything throughout the country has a hopeless, abandoned look: yon fepl that it is incurable. The New Zealand farmer .when lie gets old or breaks down must turn .life! leasehold back to the State, step out without anything, and wait until he gets to he sixty-five years old to get his dollar and a-half per week as a pauper." The same writer says:—'"The children of New Zealand are tought the blessings of pauperism as they are taught religion." He also mentions a New Zealand express train which travelled at the rate of twelve miles an hour and ''humped about like a stage coach over a corduroy road." A few days before bis journey a train had stuck in a tunnel between Wellington and Napier, and "when it was extricated it was found that several people had been smothered to death."

SPAIN v. AMERICA. One of tlic American magazines been telling. ago, in monthly instalments, how Admiral Dewey beat the Spaniards in Manila Bay. The stovv seems scarcely worth a now dress now that the glamor of victory has disappeared and the facts stand plain. The Spanish captains never had a chance, and thev knew that their defeat was inevitable, simply because they had to take poorly-equipped, ill-manned, badlyarmed ships against the modern craft of the United States. Admiral Dewey found the Spaniards' Eastern fleet at anchor in Manila Bay, and he destroyed it easily. He had four men slightly wounded and no ship damaged, while the Spanish casualties totalled about 400. The battle was simply an artillery exercise for the American gunners. The condition of the Spanish navv at that lime is revealed in the published despatches of Admiral Cervera. "I will try to sail to-morrow," he wrote when he was ordered to go to Cuba. "I go to the sacrifice, but I cannot understand the deci-jon of the navy general officers." lie made his sacrifice outside Santiago harbor, where big fleet was destroyed at a cost to the Americans of one man killed and one wounded. The really notable fact of the naval portion of the Spanish-American war was that no Spanish ship hauled down its flag, although the odds were always overwhelming.