ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 142, 15 June 1908, Page 9

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

London. May s. i ' ME. ASQUTTH'S BUDGET. __part from his scheme for old-age pensions, there was nothing unusual in -Mr •Asquith's budget speech. As to the manner of the speech, "it was marked,"' 63j_ the "Times,"' "by the perfect lucidity of statements which he has taught the public to expect when he l, as a serious subject to expound. 11a Joes not strive after effect, and therefore produces the highest effect—that of making his meaning perfectly clear to every intelligent, person. There are no rhetorical ornaments, there is no making oi little pomes to surprise the audience, and no pretence that the subject is so complicated as to call for some specially ingenious handling. The whole thing is done." the "Times"' continues, ""as a plain matter of business susceptible of plain business-like treatment, and the result is so admirable that Mr Asquith's method may well be adopted as the model -or all succeeding Chancellors of the Exchequer."' From an Opposition journal, this is high praise indeed. Mr Asquith told the House that this ■was the first time in the memory of living members when the annual financial statement has been submitted to the Committee oi Ways and Means by any other Minister than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, although there are precedents for that course as far back as the time of the Ministry of .Robert Peel. "1 need hardly say," ho added, •that it would have been mot; ;;greeable to mc to leave the task where it naturally falls, in the hands of my ngh*hon. friend: but we both fel, that my relinquishment of his office, and his succession to it, are so recent that for mc to take his place this afternoon would be a matter not merely ot personal but of public convenience." The Prime Minister recounted with pride his success in reducing the -National Debt. On March 31 next the Government -will have paid off nearly 50 millions of debt. The increase of debt caused by the Boer war has been wiped out, and by March 31 the National Debt will be back at the figure at which it stood in ISS9, viz.. .697.000,000. It ■was reduced last year by nineteen millions, and the annual interest on the debt has been brought down by a million and a quarter. All this is very satisfactory. The budget itself was, apart from the pension scheme, of a commonplace character. It contained no suggestion of a super-tax on the great unearned incomes which this happy country provides for a fortunate iew. There ■was no impost on motor-cars or other I novel proposals. The tax on sugar vas reduced from 4/2 to 1/10 per cwt., | equiva.'ent to ;i reduction of one farth- j ing a pound in the retail price; and the i duty on marine voyage policies was reduced from 3d. to Id- That was all. Xet the "Daily Telegraph" characterises it as "the most reckless budget o* modem years'. And the "Times" thinks that in a non-contributory scheme of old age pensions of 5/- a week there is the "obvious danger," that it will ■weaken the inducements to thrift. Some people and some papers are past praying for!

THE PEIKCE OF WALES. *TSb person in tais room," said the Prince of Wales at the Colonial Institute's annual banqnet on Monday, "has landed in so many different portions of British soil as I have." lie might have added that he has traversed more of the globe than any Royal personage that has ever lived- Caesar and Hadrian crossed from end to end of the Roman Empire, but the distance -K-as less man the journey across Canada. Charles the Fifth knew the world from Vienna to Morocco, and the geographical diagonal of Napoleon's career was no more estensive, thought pointing in a different direction. The travels of the present Czar round Europe, and the greater part of the circumference of Asia, have, of course, taken a wider cast. King Edward's experiences, sxretehing from Washington to Calcutta, have been broader still. Nevertheless, the performances of the Prince of Wales in this kind surpass everything previously recorded in history. He has crosed all the oceans, and visited all the Continents, some of them repeatedly. With Australia from e_d to end, with Africa at either extremity, with Tnriia throughout its whole extent ids Royal Highness is familiar; and his next journey to Canada will be the sixth.

LABOUR CONDITIONS TX XEW ZEALAND. . Mr Ernest Ayes, who has recently been sent by the Home Office to look into the operation of the various laws in Australia and New Zealand affectjng wages and conditions oi labour, gave evidence this week before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Home Work. His view was generally doubtful, if not unfavourable, as to making the decision of Wages Boards regarding payment legally binding. Roughly speaking, he would put more faith in an appeal to men's better feelings than in any attempts to coerce them into paving a legal fixed wage. The legal i superstructure that would have to follow in this country from the establishment of "Wages Boards seemed so formidable that he was driven back to the view that it was not possible here to fix a legal rate. The Boards could, however, do much without the power to fix a legal rate. They could formulate recommendations, and ensure publicity by securing better returns from employers as to the rates of wages they paid. The boards in Australia were an experiment, and many h"!d that in times of distress the determinations would not be obeyed, if concerned with decreases of wages, and that the whole structure would crumble away. Others held that by the time the distress came the custom of paying the wages fixed by the Boards would have become so strong that it would be maintained.

ROUND THE WORLD EST A MOTORMr Charles J. Glidden. of Boston, Mass, U.S.A., has now completed a further stage of his self-imposed task of covering 50.000 miles in his Napier car; his total travel is now over 46.000 miles. His most recent trip undertaken in February has included Egypt, Syria. Greece, Italy, and France, and he expects to land in England about May loth. Mr Glidden writes to point out that since the abandonment of the Alaska and Northern Siberian route by the Round-the-World Motorist, driving from Xew York to Paris, he and his Napier car still hold the record for having crossed the Arctic- Circle, which feat was performed on August 26. 1003. Mr Glidden writes that Greece offers many attractions to the motorist, though the roads are limited in number and bad in quality, but well graded. Petrol, however, is an expensive item, costing as much as 60 cents. (2/7 d.) per gallon. He altogether drove 944 miles in Greece. visiting Piraeus, Athens, the plains of Marathon, Thebes. Delphi, Mycene. Corinth, and other places of interest. Mr Glicden"s tour is unique in the annals of motoring. From Honolulu to Marble Arch is a far cry, but Mr Glidden has toured all the countries intervening between these spots. South Island, Xew Zealand, to the Arctic gives another wide range which Mr Glidden and his Xapier have explored.