JOHN BULL’S PULSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1921, Page 6

JOHN BULL’S PULSE.

BEATS STRONGLY AS EVER. INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES. “So far as Labor is concerned,” stated Colonel G. F. C. Campbell, in the course of an interview wita a Wellingcon Times representative, "oi course the position at Home is very serious, but the industrial disputes in the Old Country scorn to me to be taking on a new and more iiopeful phase. The last threatened s’<ike of the coal-miners in England was avoided by free discussion between the Government, the employers, and the employed; and what struck me us being peculiar was not the fact that die Government took a hand in, the discussions, but the prolonged discussion which took place and the reasonable and sensible attitude taken up by all parties. The conclusion 1 came to was that Labor is now more under the control of its executive officers in the Homeland, and that the executives of the Labor organisations, as well as the employers, recognise the terrible responsibility of throwing the country into an industrial upheaval. If the course of action taken in regard to the dispute, I liave referred to is an index of what is likely to happen in case of future disputes, I think it augurs well for tlje ultimate understanding and co-operation between the Government and Labor and capital, which we all hope to see. “You ask me about the production from the land in the Old Country. Well, the land in England, Scotland and Ireland is very much more under cultivation than I had expected to find. The farmers were doing well; the prices of all kinds of agricultural produce and stock were high; and there was, of course, always a ready market to hand. Despite the long winters. I am satisfied that farming is a payable undertaking at the prices now ruling; and some of the farms that I looked over were, 1 should say, very well farmed indeed. I noticed, however, considerable areas in some parts of England and Scotland devoted more to scenic purposes and eport than to cultivation. In a country with 40,000,000 inhabitants every foot of land should be made productive where possible. I should say that it would be possible to obtain much more production in the Old Country, without destroying the beauty of the land, or the opportunity for sport if a good many of these beauty spots were utilised, say, foi- grazing purposed. The desire for land in Scotland appeared to be very much the same as it is in New Zealand. There is a grfat outcry for land, and not sufficient land in the market to satisfy it. On the other hand, a good many landowners complained that they were wanting to sell and could not find purchasers. These circumstances seemed to point to the fact that an active land settlement policy be a good thing in the Motherland.” “Did you observe any signs of decadence in the national characteristics, such as some people allege?” asked our representative. “No,” was Colonel Campbell’s reply. “I say emphatically that the pulse of John Bull is beating as strongly as ever. I could detect nothing which would give me the idea that there was not at least as much energy and confidence of character iii, England as there is in America, New Zealand, or the Continent, or any other place T visited; and I am satisfied that you cannot teach the Englishman anything about finance, but you can learn a considerable amount from him.”