WELLINGTON NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 285, 11 May 1915, Page 7

WELLINGTON NOTES.

TIIIC iUTTKi! Qc ICSTION. Wellington, May K). Dealers in Imtter do not appear to have made up their minds just what will lie tue el;ect of the 'prohibition of tlu: export of butter, under the arrangement suggested by the fond (.'omniissum. The demand from Australia, at \ery high prices has been an important factor in putting up the price of imtter, but there seems to be a genuine shortage, and even at ruling rates the factories are tending to turn their attention to cheese, winch is bought eagerly by the War Ollice at prices highly profitable to the producers, ferhaps the deciding factor will be the return of several thousand boxes ol butter from London. This butter is to be transferred from the ships which have taken it Home to other vessels which will tiring it hack to the Dominion, ami even when the double freight has been paid the merchants will be able to sell at a substantial reduction on the prices ot today. The Food Commission apparently has contented itself with suggesting a remedy, and iias not attempted to assign tile blame for the exceedingly high charges that have been imposed upon the consumers. Perhaps it was disposed to place all the blame upon the drought and the resulting shortage of butter in Australia, but it would be pleasant to have an assurance that there was no deliberate "exploitation" of the public, \rithin the Dominion.

TilP, PARLIAMENTARY 'BUILDINUS. 'A beginning was made last wuek witli the construction of another ''tube" to connect the temporary Parliamentary buildings with the Parliamentary library block. Between the two buildings are the foundations and the lower walls of the new Parliament House, and the, "tube" will he a structure of wood an<l iron lying along what will eventually be the main lloor of the building begun by the Liberals and continued in a desultory fashion by the present (Government. Parliament is expected to meet at the end of next month, and unless something in tile nature of a political crisis occurs the session is likely to he short. The liovernment's programme, including the revision of the military pensions and the financial measures made necessary by the, war does not seem' to contain much of a contentious nature, and it is obvious that with an exceedingly slender majority at best the Ministers will require to step very cautiously. It is taken for granted that the new Minister to fill the vacancy left by 'Mr. I". M. B. Fisher will be Mr. <!uthrie. the member for Oroua, but the appointment probably will not be announced until the meeting of Parliament.

THE LOSSES AMONG HORSES. The forebodings of people who thought that the losses among tin; horses on the transports despatched from New /-calami to Egypt would 1)0 very heavy have proved groundless. Ee])orts brought hack liv transports which lmve returned, to the Dominion show that the horses endured the voyage extraordinarily well. The average loss was well under throe per cent., in spite of the fact that a considerable portion of the route followed by the fhips lay through the tropics. The record seems to be held by a ship that was in Wellington the other day. This vessel lias taken two batches (if men and horses from the Dominion, and on each occasion the losses among the animals have been at the rate of about one per cent. Compare this with the loss of from ten to fifteen per cent, that has been incurred on occasions in carrying horses comparatively short distances on the other side of the world. Transport officers learned a great deal during the South African war, and although the instruction was expensive at times, it has not been wasted. The horses are housed well and fed well, and, even more important, they are ffiven the daily attention that they need, if tliev f.rr to be kept fit during a voyage of several weeks' duration. The story told aboard one transport, with all apparent solemnity, is that the average would have been even lower if a certain horse had not died of old age on th» way to Egypt. It was a gift horse, so the tale runs, and its age was conservatively estimated by the veterinary officer at twenty-eight years. The strange scenes aboard ship put the patriarch o(F his feed and he "just faded away."

TIIR CASUALTY LISTS. The casualty list continues to grow, and many people would like to know how long t"e present fierce lighting will continue in the Dardanelles. The defence authorities in the Dominion know as little as other people do on that point, .but it is pointed out here that the operations are not likely to degenerate into the slow trench warfare that is proceeding iu Flanders. 'The (lallipoli peninsula is not very large and it narrows to a few miles in width at the point where it joins the mainland. The present business of the invading forces is to take possession of the whole peninsula and silence the fortresses which dominate till! Dardanelles strait. When that has been done the Allied warships will be able to proceed into the Sea of -Marmora, and Constantinople will lie at their mercy. The troops that are employed on the peninsula will not be required to proceed to the mainland, since several arniv corps would be wanted to face the masses of men the Turks could bring into action in the open country. The natural assumption, then, is that the colonials and the forces acting with them will occupy the ■ peninsula, anil entrench themselves across the lieck of land adjoining the mainland, and this appears to be the view taken in defence circles. The Dardanelles fortresses are not likely to offer a prolonged resistance to the troops. They were built to command the straits, not to withstand attack from the land, and at the time of the TurcoTtalian war a few years ago it was stated that their big guns could not be brought to bear against troops at all. Apparently one is justified in trusting that the Dardanelles operations will be brought to a successful close quickly.