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Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15918, 4 June 1917, Page 6

A number of New Zealanders figure interestingly in the Birthday Honours List. Mr J. P. Luke (the Mayor of Wellington), Br. Truby King, Colonel Potter (tho Trentham Commandant) and Colonel Adams (the Commandant at Featherston), aro admitted to tho Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, BrigadierGeneral Chaytor has been added to the list of extra aides-de-camp to his Majesty, and Mr Morris, for many years Secretary of the Post Office, receives the Imperial Service Order. There will be general satisfaction with these honours, and ire can all join in the congratulations to the recipients of them. Mr Luke's honour is, of course, a recognition of his excellent work as Mayor of tho capital city during the war. His duties in that position liavo been as heavy as they have been various, and he has carried them out with admirable energy and tact. Not less well deserved arc. the honours that come to the Camp Commandants, to whom is mainly due the excellence of tho soldiers New Zealand has contributed to the war.

Much tho most interesting of tho Companionships is, of course, that which has been conferred upon Dr. j Truby King. In the past wo liavo I sometimes expressed the opinion that politics is an occupation haTdly deserving of the placc it used to occupy in tho Honours Lists. Dr. Truby King's | main work, namely, baby-saving, has !>een nearly as far removed from politics as any in which a; man can ongage. It is to him. far more than to anybody else, that New Zealand owes its enviable position in the static'-"- of infnntlife, and wc really do not think that without him this country" eould have mado such fine progress in tho work of rearing healthy babies as the Plunket Society is nblo to place beforo the publie. At the present time the saving of infant-lifo is far more visibly important than it was beforo tho war, and the honour conferred on Dr. Trubv King is A proper recognition' of tho importance of infant-culture and of tho splendid work that ha s been done by Dr. Truby King himself. Everyone—Unionist or Nationalist— who reallv understands Irish affairs,

will rejoice that Mr George Russell, as well as Sir Horaco Plunkett, is to be amongst the delegates to the extraordinarily large Convention called to discuss the Irish question. Mr Russell is far better known, outside Ireland, to lovers of literature than to the public that cares about politics. For ho is "A.E.," whoso exquisite poetry shines like pure gold in the mass of modern Irish verse. To his admirers there is never any diminution of tho oddness of the fact that his main work with his pen is done in his chair as the editor of the ''Irish Homestead,'' a paper devoted to the uplifting of Irish agriculture. He is, of course, only one of many men, Protestants and Roman Catholics, Home Rulers and Unionists, who have given enthusiasm, timo and money to the faithful support of Sir Horace Plunkett and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, which has done a thousand times more for Ireland than has been done by all the Irish politicians ever born.

Our correspondent "Britisher," who writes to us to-day about tho importation of luxuries, has not quite grasped tho purpose of our article on Saturday on the question of imports. We "seek to minimise," ho says, "tho worst form of public extravagance —American motor vehicles." Our views upon the importation of luxuries of any kind are so well known, and we so clearly indicated in the article under notico that we desire economy in motor-cars as in evorvthing else, that wo do not think many people beside our correspondent can have misunderstood us. All that wo wero aiming to do was to expose what seemed to us a very mischievous attempt to pretend that tho importation of motorcars is the main extravagance of the people. No doubt more caTS are imported than is right at a time like this, although it must bo remembered that the importations aro largely of industrial cars, and that most of the motor spirit and tyre importations aro for cars in tho country beforo tho war. But tho fact is that .the motor-car importations are a small fraction of tho total, and that it is not candid to speak as if tlio caso were otherwise. Restrictions upon the importation of pleasure cars aro certainly desirable, but it is still more desirable and important to prevent tho public from being misled. And the truth is that some of those who cry out against tho motorcar imports do so only in order to obscure the fact of the general public's extravagance in other respects. That is to say. we were combatting what was really an indirect encouragement of extravagant consumption generally.

The "Daily Chronicle's" correspondent with tho Italian forces has confirmed the story, which received wide currency in the early part of tho war, that the enemy were in tho habit of chaining gunners to the machine guns. The discovery was naturally regarded as a proof of the unwillingness, of which other proof had been given, of some German troops to stand their ground in face of a British attack. It was further stated, on the authority of prisoners, that (some of tho men so chained to the guns were criminals released from gaol, who would probably seek freedom by flight unless prevented. The enemy in denying the statements alleged that the chains which bound the men to the guns wero really in the nature of traces, and assisted tho gunners in moving tho guns. Tho disbelief with which the explanation was received is now justified by the statement that gunners in tho Austrian Army have been found "chained by tho ankles to the trinod, and by tho waist to the barrel." Obviously such a practice was intended to prevent tho gunners from running away. It is suggested that tho men so treated are Roumanians, but this is hardly likely. The Austrian generals are not renowned for brains, but they would hardly be so foolish as to put enemy prisoners in charge of machine guns opposed to tho troops of one of Roumania's Allies.

Tho statement of the President of tho British Eoard of Agriculture in his address to tho Gardeners' Company, as reported in to-day's cables, is most gratifying. Speaking with tho responsibility of tho Minister most closely concerned in the-subject, he declared that if there were no waste and everyone economised in breadstuffs, Britain could not be starved, even though the submarines prevented any grain and cereals reaching the country. This is further than any other Minister has gone, and must bo taken as proof of a promising harvest and of a great national effort to grow foodstuffs at Home. This effort is indeed indicated by Mr Prothero's statement that half a million new gardens are being cultivated for vegetables, while the sales of seeds have increased by 350 per cent. Tho latter statement confirms what has been said locally within the past week or two as to the probable shortage of imported seeds, and should encourage the Canterbury Industrial Association in its efforts to seenro the loan of vacant land on which to grow foodstuffs and soeds. Seed-raising might easily become a much more important industry in New Zealand than it has cvor been yet.