PANAMA CANAL

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10710, 2 September 1912, Page 5

PANAMA CANAL

CABLE NEWS

(Unitdd Prtti Association — By] Eke? tiic Ttlegrajph—Copyright.'),

REFUSAL TO ARBITRATE

A NEWSPAPER OPINION.

(Received Last Night, 5.5 o'cock.;

LONDON, Aiigu&t 31

The Daily Mail states that the United States ran have only cue ground for refusing to arbitrate " on the Panama Canal, namely, that of having broken cue Treaty, whilst President Taft .intl the Senate may insist on the right to break another.

A GERMAN PAPER.

ATTACKS PRFJDENT TAFT

(Received Last Night, 5.5 o'ecek.)

BERLIN, August 31

The newspaper Yossische Zeitung furiously attacks President Taft in expectation of tho refusal of arbitration with Britain, and his disregard of Treaties, including his own arbitration proposals a few months ago.

CONVENTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

PROCEEDS OF TOLLS

(Received August 31, 9 a.m.)

LONDON, August 30.

Mr Bunau Varilla, the negotiator for the >sale of the Panama Canal to the United States, believes that if Britain and America concluded a convention by which -the proceeds of the G.uial Tolls could be used exclusively to cover working expenses, interest, and reimbursement on capital inverted, the whole question could be settled. The convention would supplement and exnlain the Hay-Paunee-fote Treatv, and the Canal Act could be repealed.

COSfOFUViNG j

THE COMMISSION'S REPORT,

tecuSSEH BY A MINISTER?

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night, In an interview this morning the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher said there was no question that the report of the Cost of Living Commission, would be of considerable value to the Government. The Massey Government was alive to the necessity of some of the reforms recommended by the Commission. For instance, the recommendation affecting imported and loc-ally-made boots, shoes and slippers was very valuable. Mr Fisher said he had a Bill in course cf preparation, which he hoped shortly to introduce and put through the House this ses-' srion. This would deal effectively with that class of good<> (either imported,;to the Dominion or made here) sold as being the genuine article, which were in point of fact to a great extent

"shoddy" in the worst sense of tli: ; "term. The Government did not propose to tnke measures to prevent the public purchasing composition cardboard boots if they wanted them. The Government., however, was certainly aoihg to «?top goods of that description being sold to the public as. leather. Although it was not the business of any one individual to raise very strong objection to buying a shoddy boot, it was certainly the business of the State to protect citizens from being imposed upon by the sale of adulterated or shoddy goods. He hoped that as timo went on the public would realise tint the news Government was determined that this species of commercial fraud would be .stamped out. The report, said Mr Fisher, would probably come as a shock to many of those out-and-out Protectionists who believed in the development of what were called hot-house industries. It was very essential to note the point in connection with the Commission's report that Mich recommendations should have come from a Commission- upon which Labour was so 'strongly represented. The problem was that of maintaining a sufficiently high protective tariff in New Zealand to enable our own people to buy our own goods at a reasonable price, without- having recourse to the products of European countries and sweated labour, which was a. rule, and not an exception. The very object he had in mind last week in appointing Mr Spence, Collector of Customs at Invercargill, to go Home to England toJ represent the Customs Department, was to prevent tho importation to I New Zealand of goods made on the Con-1 tinetvt by sweated labour, shipped to ' England, and exported to New Zealand as being goods of British mami- , facture, thus eseaping-the- preferential tariff. ' Mr Fisher added that the 1 nature of the Commission's report showed the wisdom of the Government withholding its tariff proposals this session. The evidence taken before 'the Commission would be thoroughly digested before anything was done.