WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1917, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

BALLOT DEFAULTERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Jan. 1!). There has been a good deal 01 com-1 nient here, not all of a sympathetic] character, upon the extremely patient attitude of the Minister of 'Defence towards those reservists who have been drawn in the ballot and who have failed to report themselves for medical examination. Technically the?? defaultel*,; ai r e guilty of the very grave offence of being absent without leave or of the. still graver one of deserfing, and in the ordinary military course they would have been summarily arrested and reminded of their duty in an extremely unpleasant way. But instead e r ordering this Mi. Allen has contented himself with reiterating the hope that the defaulters will "lose ?io time 'a.carrying out the instructions that nave been given to them." No doubt the explanation of the Minister's patien:e is, that ho wishes to avoid anything in the shape of physical compulsion—"l. would hate to iave to do so," lie said yesterday"—but there is a danger of his forbearance being misunderstood by melt who do not appreciate the admirable spirit in which the g-rea tmajority of the reservists are taking up the burden of service.

PATRIOTISM AXD PROFIT. Mr. Dalton, the British Trade, Commissioner, who spares neither himself nor tliu resources of lii« olliw m his efforts to promote closet trade relations between the Dominion and the Mother Country, lias arranged with the South Taranaki Winter Show Company to display, at its exhibition at Hawera a collection of British manufactures whieli ought to make a special appeal to consumers all over the country at the present juncture. The Comm'nsioners enthusiasm is infectious. He looks for an enormous development of British trade after the war as a result of the vastly improved organisation and methods that have been forced upon the manufacturers, and indeed, upon the whole nation, by the great; crisis through I which the Empire is passing, and he wishes New Zealand to participate to the full in the ndvantases of this new order of things. Possibly the exhibit he is now getting together with the assistance of manufacturers at Home and merchants here might ,l>e made available for othei shows, and enterpri-ing secretaries would do well to communicate with him on the subject. I FARM LABOR. I Reports from all parts of tlie 'Xortli Island tend to confirm the statement of the secretary of the Agricultural and Pastoral Union that there -,5 a great dearth of farm labor in this part of the Dominion. The fact that tlwre are about twenty harvesters on the books of the Labor Bureau, however, is o.uoted by one of the local newspapers as "pointing another wily." There rre also, it seems, live men employment in Auckland, three fartn laborers out of work in Timaru, and four men on the books of the LabAi Bureau at Dunedin. When these facts were communicated to the secretary of the Union this morning he greeted them with a broad smile. "I should like to see those three farm laborers in Timaru," he said. ''Jf they are comp?"-.ent men and can be spared from one of the largest agricultural districts in the country, let them come along and I'll find a •job in ten minutes.''