WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1916, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

TKADE WITHIN rilE EMPIRE. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, September I. lhe Britis, » Trade Commissioner's comments upon the readiness of importers to turn to foreign manufacturers for supplies tliev cannot obtain promptly 0,11 British manufacturers durin» the course of the war are being freelv discussed in business circles here. "It is through 110 lack of loyalty on our i,art '• the head of a large importing linn said to-day, that we are turning to America ana Japn» :.or goods we cannot get from tbe Mother Country while so many of her factories are employed in the'proauction of war material. Our customers must have what they want, and if we don't get it for them they will obtain it in some other way. The result may be a temporary expansion of foroi'nn trade, but it will be only a temporary expansion, and when the war is over the British manufacturers will be in a 'better position than ever they have been before to satisfy all our needs and to meet competition of every kind." The opinion that the increased industrial activity at Home, occasioned by the concentration of national effort, is going to give an immense impetus to* British trade and commerce when the new armies of workers are free to devote themselves to the arts of peace is iield very generally by business men. Germany, whatever she has failed to do, has demonstrated in a most striking way v:hat can be accomplished by a self-con-tained nation, and her example will stimulate afresh the Imperial spirit among the British people. There tvill lie a beneficient economic revolution, which moans a far-reaching social revolution, throughout the Empire and the cost of the war, in treasure at any rate, will be a hundred times repaid.

, THE GERMAN MENACE A scathing article in one of the local newspapers denouncing the reticence of the Minister of Defence in regard to the alleged deserter from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to tile flerman lines lias brought from Mr. Allen the surprising statement that Private R. Nimot. of Carterton, the man concerned, is not a deserter at all, but a prisoner of war, along with five other New Zealanders, at Lalmp, Westphalia, in Germany. "Cireiimstanial reports," runs an inspired paragraph in the Dominion, "have been ■virculatcd in New Zealand to the effect that this man went over to the enemy and betrayed his comrades. That news not official. The other news that has come to the Defence Minister, that Nimot is a prisoner of war, is official. In view of the circumstances, the Minister of Defence has cabled Home, ordering a thorough investigation and a report. Until that report is available judgment may be -uspended." The man's name has been in everyone's mouth for a fortnight past, and details of his flight to the enemy's trenches have been published in all the newspapers, but Mr. Allen appears to have boncst doubts as to his infamy. He has cabled for an official report, and till this is received further comment ought to be 'Withheld, but if the first story is confirmed, Mr. John 'Payne and his friends will have ample justification for their protests against the Minister's supercilious disregard of their warnings.

LAND FOR SOLDIERS Quito an encouraging: report upon the progress being made in" this district with tlie settlement of returned soldiers on the land was presented to the Wellington Land Board yesterday. It seems that sixty-eight discharged soldiers have been granted sections under tlie special legislation provided for such cases, and that a majority of them already arc on the land making homes for themselves as speedily as their bodily strength and means wiil permit. The Commissioner is keeping up a constant search for land suitable for this .class of settlement ami is fairly well satisfied with the measure oi success he has obtained, but he would like to be able to make better provision for tlie men without experience and without capital who are anxious to secure smaller sections and .ry their hands at the smaller, rural industries. This aspect of the question has been seriously discussed by the Cabinet on two or three occasions, but apparently the ridicule heaped upon his scheme for settling families on ij-acro plots of kauri land'in the Far North has damped the Prime istor's ardour for this class of settlement. Some of his colleageus are frankly disappointed by his revised attitude towards this problem and are urging that instead of settling men on considerable .farms at a cost of £2OOO or £3OOO apiece the Government should offer the men small areas of land reasonably near the centres of population, ■where they could engage in vegetable and fruit-growing, poultry-raising and bee-keeping with a good prospect of success. By the present system not more than a mere fraction of the men returning can be converted into rural producers.

.STILL MOUNTING Ul'. If Mr. Mac Donald were fully installed as Minister of Industries and Commerce :he might make some serious eil'ort to stay the steady increase in the cost of lhing, but merely holding office as locum tenens for one of his :olleagues he is not likely to attempt a task which seems to have ball led all the good intentions of the party leaders. lie may be trusted, however, to give the Board of Trade every possible assistance in carrying 011 its investigations, and really it is to this body rather than to Ministers that the country must look for the creation of the healthy public opinion which one day is going to compel the Government to take effective action. The Board already has furnished several very valuable reports and 'has a number of others in preparation. If it were allowed to indicate in plain terms the significance of these reports and to make definite recommendations for dealing with prices, progress would be much more rapid than it can be while their very publication is denied except grace of a not oversympathetic Minister; but the decreasing purchasing powci of a week's wages ia lighting on the side of reform, and after Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward have seen at close quarters what is happening at Home in this connection they may lie disposed to give a more practical interpretation to their own legislation. New Zealand politicians liave a good deal to learn at the present time from tlie statesmen of the Old Land.