TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9253, 2 November 1895, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Victorian, Govern-Agent-General meat have recently and taken a new step in con 4 Geneval-Agent. section with their determination to push the colony's export trade ia England. For some time, we gather from the Age, Which is no friend to the present Victorian Agent* General, Mr D. Gillies, it has been felt tba* the arrangements by which the cumulation and sale of Victoria's products were managed by the Agent-General and bin clerical staff were not calculated to properly develop the colony's industries! "and at this stage, when Viototian exports are making their presence felt in the Old Conntry, it is of supreme importance to producers and shippers that the trade should be established under the stimulus of active and capable direction." Mr Taverner, the Minister for Agriculture, whose Department ia largely concerned in the export trade, brought the question before the Cabinet, and it waa decided to appoint someone as general agent, whose sole duty it should be to see that goods sent from the colony were placed on an equality with those exported from other countries. The difficulty was to find a suitable man, but the Government believe they have secured him in the person of Mr J. M. Sinclair, who recently visited America, on behalf conjointly of the malice farmers and the Government, to enquire into American methods ot agriculture. In his position as general agent in London, Mr Sinclair is to act quite independently of the Agent-General. His mission, as it is set forth, will be to investigate the entire conditions of the trade in Victorian produce in England, the methods of distribution, and the prospect of acquiring fresh markets. He will be able to inspect the condition of goods on arrival, and will report regularly as to their condition on landing. He will report on the butter trade, and what is best to be done for its development, and he will afterwards famish reports on frozen meat, rabbits and poultry, and the win*

j and fruit industries, which reports will I ! probably be laid before meetings !of dairymen, horticulturists and others. j Such an agent, if well-qualified for his posi- '. tion, as Mr Sinclair is said to be, should* ba | able to very greatly advance the interests of colonial producers, and there is no doubt that the Victorian Government have dons the right thing for the colony in making the appointmeut. Times are changing, in fact, have already changed, and the qualifications for the modern model Agent-General are very different from what was once the case. In future appointments of this nature, it will be, above all other things, necessary that the person selected should be a thoroughly souud business man, fully competent to look after the colouy's trade with Great Britain, without having any private axe to grind, and to furnish reliable advice as to the best markets. It would be betu. still if such a man could act under an Agent. General, but no colony could bear the additional expense, and the movement which is being made by Victoria towards superseding the partly ornamental, partly useful Agent-General of the past by a purely commercial man, who shall be able to circumvent all the "rings," is likely to ba followed in time by all the colonies. If any further proof ware Australian necessary than was afforded Trade with by the admissions of Mr Canada. Larke, the Canadian trade representative, to show that Now Zealand had nothing to gain by entering into Mr Ward's proposed reciprocity treaty with Canada suoh proof is furnished by the reports that gentleman has sent to Canada. It will be remembered that the practical effect of Mr Larke's answers to questions put to him at his Wellington meetiug wag to knock the bottom out of the scheme and it is interesting to note that his candid confessions as to the smallneS3 of the trade between the two countries likely to result from the treaty were amply confirmed by Mr Frank Courage, of Amberley, who recently visited the Dominion. Mr Courage stated, in the interview published Joy the Pbkss yesterday, that the Canadians themselves say there is nothing to exchange between their country aud New Zealand, and iv his opiniou it would not pay to sand our wool there. lb w_s left, however, for Mr Larke himself to drive the last nail into the coffin of the reciprocity scheme. In one of his reports written, published in Canada, he refers to the fact that he has received letters from commercial travellers, who propose to make a trip to Australia, presumably expecting to pay expenses through commission on goods they may sell. " I know of no lines of goods," he says, " that a traveller can sell enough of to pay his expenses on an ordinary commission" He thinks that possibly the Canadian canoe might be acclimatised on the Parramatta if an expert canoeist competed in the January races, and that there may be an opening for boots, flour-milling machinery, and lawn-mowers. But he is not sanguine on these points, and we cannot say we wonder at it. He ought to know that the colonies can get along very well without Canadian boots, and the most enthusiastic apostle of reciprocity canuot regard Canadian cauoes as a satisfactory basis for a reciprocal treaty. Such admissions as these add considerable force to the arguments we brought to bear against the ratification,of the treaty, and we must con-, gratulate the House on throwiug out the measure which proposed to bring it into existence. It is gratifying to find Women's that among those who urge Franchise. the claims of women to sit in the House of Representatives the memberß of the Women's Franchise League of Dunedin have no place. These ladies, if their President, Mrs Hatton, voioes their views, as no doubt is the case, appear perfectly satisfied with the possession of the franchise, and have nob the least in«- ; tention of becoming M.H.R.'s. At annual meetiug of the League held a few, days ago, Mra Hatton said that as far aa the present executive and Counoil of the League were concerned, not one of them had ever suggested a resolution in favour of sending women to Parliamant. From the inception of their League they had made it clear that their demand for the franchise was to give women a voice ia making the laws they had to obey, aud to secure the return of men who would insist on the removal of those social and political disabilities from which womeu suffer simply because they are women. "There are some amongst us,"said Mrs Hatton, " who think it possible to select a few women oat of the whole colony with brains enough to play the Wellington farce of 'Follow my leader' to the tune of £240 per year, although they might nob be quite so subservient as those Gamaliels who ait at ease in their political Zioa, nothing daring to make them afraid so much as the craok of the party whip. We do nob think this requires more ability than to play lawn tenuis, bub we do quite believe it possible, it within ten or fifteen years tha right to sib in Parliament ahould bo oura, that New Zealand will aend women there as well qualified to fulfil the functions of political life, or at least to understand the rudiments of colonial politics, as some of those gentlemen at present labelled M.H.R." This is distinctly slashing. It ia quite clear that if New Zealand women were to enter the House the tone of the debates would bs in no daoger of degenerating into tavneueas. We think, however, they are jnst aa well out of it, at any rate for the present.