MOTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1919, Page 5

MOTHER COUNTRY.

HIGH. FOOD PRICES. CAMPAIGN AGAINST PROFITEERS. By Tolesraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Oct. 19, 6.5 p.m. London, Oct. 18. Mr. C. A. McCurdy, M.P, addressing' 1 the Food Conference, said the Government had been strenuously attacking high prices. During the j. -x weeks, since the Profiteering Act iiad been passed, sixteen hundred local tribunals had been established, and 1350 prosecutions had »been brought forward resulting in 1320 convictions and fines amounting to £7060. . Several important retail organisations, 'including grocery and drapers, were voluntarily developing schemes • whereby prices would be reduced and the profiteer eliminated,—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. THE FINANCIAL PERIL, i TAX ON WAR FORTUNES, Received Oct. 20, 1.15 a.m. London, October 18. Sir Donald McLean, speaking at Edinburgh, said that the country had at last awakened to the financial peril The country must economise or go bankrupt and must effect a fair and adequate reduction in the National debt. The proposal to tax war fortunes must be seriously examined. Innumerable fortunes, small and great, have been •made out of the war. These accumulations should be the first to be drawn upon.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. RiETAIL PRICES HIGHER. Received Oct. 19, 11.5 p.m. London, Oct. 18. The general level of the retail food prices in Britain on October Ist was five per cent, above September 1. —Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.

PROBLEM OF THE CONSUMPTIVE. London, Oct. 18. Dr. C. Addison (Minister of Health), speaking before the Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, said that the Ministers of Health and Pensions were arranging for a thousand training colonies to be linked with sanatoria, thus enabling patients to earn a living in healthy surroundings. The scheme would entail an enormous cost, but millions were now being wasted because they lacked the courage to properly grasp the problem. The consumptive must not be treated as a leper.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. DEVOLUTION COMMITTEE. London, October 11. A Federal Devolution Committee has | been appointed. The Speaker is chairman, and there are 16 peers and 16 members of the House of Commons on the Committee, including Lords Brassey, Denman, Emmott, Harcourt, Inchcape and Sir Frederick Young. The special points of reference are: (1) The need of reserving to the ImParliament consideration of- foreign and Imperial affairs, also matters affecting the United Kingdom as &■ whole; (2) the allocation of financial powers as between the Imperial and subordinate legislatures; (fl) the special needs of the component parts of the United. Kingdom in which subordinate legislatures are established. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. THE LABOR CRTSTS. London, October 10. The Trade Union section of the Provisional Joint Industrial Committee, after a meeting, issued a statement attributing the causes of the crisis to Government action delaying the formation of the Industrial Council, and regretting the allegation that there was some sinister motive behind the Labor attitude. The difficulty had arisen solely through the Government's • refusal to carry out the report, regarding which employers and trade unionists were unanimously agreed. Another meeting with the Government lias been arranged for October 21 and, in the event of failure to agree,', it will be necessary to re-summon the full industrial conferences to obtain further instructions. THE EIGHT-HOUR BILL, London, October 16. It is understood that the Cabinet is determined to adhere to the decision to exclude agricultural workers from the Maximum Hours Bill. The Government claims that agricultural workers are in an entirely different category from other workers. The Agricultural Wages Board fixed the hours at 50 weekly between 'March anil November and 48 between November and March.. Seamen and firemen are at. present excluded from the Bill, but will probably be included before the measure is passed.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.