Export Facilities.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15170, 7 January 1915, Page 6

Export Facilities.

In a lengthy telegram to-day. our Wellington correspondent deals fully with the facts concerning the space available for our frozen exports. W e also print another telegram from the night agency of the Press Association in Wellington, which appears to be scouring the highways and byways, not for facts, but for opinions, the circulation.of which may create prejudice against the Government. This is a new departure which cannot be praised. Of th 0 latest effort of the Press Association it is sufficient to say that Mr Gribblo, although lavish in his opinions, has not'a single fact of any value or any relevancy to set against tho one prime fact of the whole situation. That prime fact Js that Mr Massey has been tireless in his efforts to secure tho normal facilities for thc carriage of our produce to' Britain, and has been wonderfully successful. It was no part of the Government's duty to come to tho assistance of shippers, and Mr Massey could not be blamed if lie had spared himself the extra trouble and anxiety of helping them at a time when tho Government havo quite enough to attend to. The people who are complaining—there are certainly not many of them, and not all even of theso can be supposed to bo tho simple patriots they would call themselves— admit by their complaints that they themselves could havo done nothing. It was only to be expected that tho war would causo some disturbance of shipping. Thero would have been no real ground for complaint if the disturbance had been actually disastrous. Thoso arc not normal times, especially in tho shipping business. But tho Prime Minister has exerted himself so zealously that, with tho assistance •of the shipping companies, ho has actually provided conditions that arc practically normal—conditions bettor, indeed, than hay© obtained in some seasons in the past, when war was a thing undreamt of. When the facts aro fairly considered, .it is nothing less than astounding that the splendid work of the Prime Minister should not bo universally praised. Those people who have tho effrontery to attack the Government havo greatly under-estimated the fairness and the intelligence of tho public. Tho country has reason to feel glad that tho Prime Minister did interest himself to such good purpose in securing facilities for export such as we are sure must he envied by some other food-producing State's of the Empire. ,'