THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8172, 2 July 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1906.

The London Spectator has always opposed the idea of salaried members of Parliament. Professor Gold* win Smith, writing to that journal from Claaada, expresses hia agreement with] The Spectator's view, and tfaaa controverts the Prime Minister's argametit baeedl o» the

practice of the colonies: "1 have all my life voted for 'he Labour candidate when a good one presented himself, and cheerfully contributed co his election fond, deeming it in the interest of the whole community that labour should be direotly represented in the councils of the nation. I heartily welcome the Labour vote for the reduotion of armaments. But I confess that what I have seen on this side of the Atlnntio leads me to share your misgivings about anything which can give public life more of the character of a trade. The Parliament of Great Britain would surely lose dignity by the change. Sir Henry Campbell-Baunerman, I venture to think, when he points to- the colonies for a justification of the measure, hardly takes into account, at least so far as Canada is concerned, the difference in social structure between Great Britain and a odlony. We have here no such class of independent men of means as that whioh hitherto has largely filled your House of Commons. The leaders of our commerce cannot afford to leave their business for Parliament; or, if they, do it is apt to be in the interest of their business rather than in that of the community at large. We tnus find it necessary to pay for the labour representation. I am sorry to add that, while Sir Henry GampbellBaisnermau, if he wants an example of a worthy people, cannot do better than here, if he wants an example of political perfection he might look more profitably elsewhere. He probably did uot watch the course of the last session of our Parliament, and mark the ominous concurrence of the facile passing of a sinister party measure with a large increase iu the salaries of members of both Houses, the granting of a salary to the Leader of the Opposition, and the creation of a number of pensions."

A bulletin just, issued by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland contains particulars as to co-oper-ation in Germany—especially as regards agricultural Hocieties - collected by Mr 11. de F. Montgomery, D.L. (a member of the Agricultural Hoard). It is estimated that there are about 2,SCO,000 independent farmers in the German Empire, and that of these over a million are membeers of co-opera-tive societies, the most popular form being credit societies. The bulk of these credit societies are small looal associations, receiving deposits from their members, usually at 3% to 3% per cent, interest, and making advances on loan to them for short periods up to two or three years upon any reasonable security—often the seourity 'of a well-known good obaraoter is sufficient at rates of interest usually about 4 to per cent. For longer periods members can obtain money on mortgage at about the same rate of interest. The management of these local societies is usually under the control of unpaid committees, the only paid official boiutr the accountant, who receives a nominal salary of about 50s per annum. The actual work,, however, is usually done by the looal schoolmaster, as in most of the small villages there Is no one else who can do it, or, at any rate, do it nearly as well. The looal societies are assisted by distriot oentral banks, to which they are affiliated," these receiving* the surplus capital of the looal societies, and making advances on loan to them when the looal funds are insufficient to meet the demand for loans. The district banks in Prussia are further assisted when necessary by loans from the Prussian Oentral 00-operative Bank, which has been endowed by the State with Prussian consols to the amount of £2,500,000 for the assistance of bona-flde oooperative aooieties of all kinds — agricultural and other. In the report statistics are quoted from which It appears that on July Ist, 1904, there were 22,400 co-oper-ative societies of all classes in Germany, of which 18,309 were connected with agriculture, while on March Ist, 190P, the number of agricultural sooietiea had increased to 19,763.