NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 201, 27 August 1886, Page 1

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tub operations of the Temporary Aid Society have thrown a good deal of light upou the nature of the distress now existing in Auckland. There have been applications from 195 persons who are out of employment, and who have 726 persons depending upon them. The trades represented by these men are : —Accoußtant.6, clerks, etc , 22 ; agriculturists, 6 ; carpenters, 28 ; engineers, 17 ; labourers, 17 ; ironworkers, 4; light labour only, 6 ; painters, 14 ; plumbers,4 ; storekeepers, storemen, etc., 9. The remainderismadeup of miscellaneous callings. These, of course, represent only a tithe of the mon who are out of work—many workmen, who are not entirely dependent upon their own labour for a living refraining from applying to tho Society. The Secretary states mat a commendable reluctance ia displayed by unemployed mechanics in availing themselves of the Society's assistance, and many of those who have been aided never return, showing that they have obtained employment- by their own exertions. The Society has assisted many others in obtaining work. It is made clear from these inquiries that the distress is the result of reaction after the very prosperous times of the past few years, which attracted a larger number of men from other places than the city can furnish permanent employment for.

Mr Charles Marvin, who is accepted as an authority upon Russian matters, has been giving the world his opinion upon the Batoum question through the columns of the " Pall Mall Gazette." He says that the Russian Government has been stimulated quite as much by financial and commercial considerations as by Imperial policy., For some months past the Russian Government has had before it the problem of providing for the vast petroleum trade of Transcaucasia, and deciding upoa a permanent Black Sea outlet for it for the future. Now, Batoum is not a very large port, lord Beaconsfield once compared it to Cowee. A Russian admiral went further, describing it to me as being, "so small that if you were to spit into ifc you would block it up." It could be enlarged, however, into an excellent naval station, but itcouldneveraccommodate bath commerce and fleet, and, for that matter, ia too Bmall even lor the petroleum trade alone. The other day the papers reported that it was so blocked up with oil shipping that- the vessels could hardly move. A very fair Russian argument is, Why spend all this money to enlarge the port and leave it open to seizure ? Ido not say this justifies the breaking of tho Berlin Treaty, but it is certainly one of the points of a case that has been before the Russian public for some time past, and has prepared me for the abolition of the porto franco, whatever its effect on the British Government. Besides having to decide where to establish her petroleum outlet, Russia is also compelled to fix the terminal point of the pipe line from Baku. Both are questions involving millions sterling. In 1879 Lazareff could hardly find steamers to convey his army across the Caspian. Ninety oil steamers have sprung up on tbe Caspian Sea since. Ten years ago Baku and its petroleum were practically unknown in Europe. This year, from April until June, 400 ship loads of oil (some of the cargoes exceeding 1,000 tons) were sent from Baku to the river Volga. Thia marvellous expansion of Baku will infallibly be followed by a corresponding expansion on the Black Sea side of the Caucasus. The railway is blocked with oil, and the Government has been compelled to sanction in principle tho construction of a pipe lino GSO miles long at a cost of upwards of a million sterling. Batoum,which the Turks leffc in a state of nature, is so full of oil shipping that a regular port must either bo constructed there at once or else at l'oti. Apparently tho Government has decided to make Batoum tho naval station and to shift all tho commerco back to the latter port. Batoum protects Poti, but JPoti cannot be said to protect Batoum. If millions are to be spent on the development ol petroleum, Kueeia considers she has a right to protect the outlay, and the sooner the point is settled the better for trade generally. England's old commercial interest in Batoum lapsed in 1883, when the free transit of European goods across Transcaucasia to Persia Was abolished by Russia. The autocratic tearing up of a treaty is in principle blamewoith}-, whether tbe interests affected be large or small. Russia _ better course would have been to summon a Conference, and put before it frankly the financial and commercial reasons impelling her to demand the abrogation of the porto I franco clause. Such a course would ! havo been a practical expression of j that love of international law of whioh | Professor Marten?, of the Russian Foreign Office, is such an eloquent cxl pounder. Instead of which she has apparently given a fresh argument to those I who do not regard Russian treaty guaranI tees as worth the paper on which they are written, and yet who, in spite of this conI viction, would honestly like to eeo the j elimination of all unfriendly friction be- ' tween the two countries."