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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 17018, 15 December 1920, Page 6

The statement by llr TV. G. McDonald, the Government Wheat Controller, that there should be sufficient stocks of flour for the people's needs until tho end of February, will bo j generally welcomed, and should go a ! long way towards checking the practice of hoarding, which has been carried on of late. Stocks havo been conserved very carefully for some months, and the even distribution that has boon made throughout the Dominion has prevented some districts from 'holding excessive supplies while others were short. Very careful "spinning-out" ) has beer, required to produce the satis--1 factory position described by the Wheat j Controller. A factor in the present situation has been the dry season. At sowing time the season was quite three weeks late, but the dry weather of November and early December hastened tho development of the crops wonderfully, even if it has been at the expense of tho yield, and Mr McDonald is justified in predicting an early harvest. The consumer may consider (himself fortunate in that wheat importation i.s not necessary, as no market could be resorted to that would enable wheat to be landed here under 12s to 12s Gd per bushel. ' The difference between that price and tho price of local wheat, ranging from 7s Gd to 8s per bushel, would have involved an appreciable rise in the cost of the loaf. One result of devotion to tCie .principle of proportional representation appears to be a tendency to end up in. tho direction opposite to that in which one sots out. Thus our morning contemporary commenced an article yesterday by sternly rebuking speculative arguments and the use of future tenses, thus:— Under proportional representation, a contemporary declaioi "stable and coherent povomment would become possible only through substantial sacrifices of principle end betrayal of trust." But there is no occasion for wild speculation as to what •'■would" happen, under proportional representation. It was without'the least surprise, therefore, that we found tlhat after half a column of aimless rambling our contemporary ended by turning its back upon itself in a burst of "woulds" and "ifs," thus:— Had Great Britain enjoyed proportional representation, in 185-6 IrelandTwoTild havo got Home Itule. Had proportional representation been in operation in Germany a fewyears ago, instead of havins b&en delayed until* the bitter lwsons of the war taught the people wisdom, it is quite reasonable to believe that tho Kaiser would not have been permitted to plunge tho world into a. welter of blood in 1914. * That most successful English peer and" business man, Lord Leverhulme, better known possibly as Sir W. Lever, the founder and owner of Port Sunlight, and the most celebrated English artist of tho day, Mr Augustus John, have fallen foul of each other. Lord Leverhulme commissioned the artist some months ago to paint his portrait, and' gave him four sittings for the purpose. Ho belonged to tho 'class • of subject with which Mr Augustus John has been particularly successful, that of men of j strong individuality in character and homeliness in looks. When the portrait was sent htfme, a cheque was sent in payment to the artist, and there, in any other case, the transaction would have ended. But when Mr John returned subsequently from a, holiday hft found awaiting him the portrait with its head cut out, bearing a label on .which was written, "Remainder of a portrait painted by Augustus John." In reply to a letter from the artist in which he described the return of tho i mutilated picture- as "the grossest and most deliberate insult" he had ever received, Lord Loverhulmo explained that he had cut out tho head, as the whole portrait was too largo for tho safe in which it was to have been kept. The roturn of the picture and tho offending label were a "mistake on the part of tho housekeeper. It- is hardly a matter for wonder that Mr John, unable, apparently, to accept this rather remarkable explanation, persists in regarding his sitter as having been guilty of an act of unpardonable vandalism. —.-■» . What other stop the indignant artist may take to salve his wounded pride * has to be seen. But it is contended oh his behalf that unless Lord Leverhulme's agreement with the artist covered tho purchase of the copyright in the picture he has overstepped the law. British artists appear to be willing to leave the quarrel to the original disputants, but Italian artists of all kinds made it their own and by. way of protest against tho insult to a member of their profession lliey lately declared a 4 one-Say strike. For 24 hours no painter—wo admit it is not clear whether house-painters or artists were thus indicated —worked in all Italy, and masons.,' colour grinders, sculptors, architects, picture dealers, and models joined in a sympathetic strike, nt the end cf which tho Florentine striker's carried an effigy of Lord Leverhulme in procession and then "Solemnly burned it. Apait from demonstrating the fellowship of art, which is not always conspicuously evident among artists in one community, it is doubtful whether this protest did more than relieve the feelings of those who took part in it. Lord Leverhulme, we may be sure, would hear of it unmoved. Out on the wastes of the Never Never — That's where the dead men lie 1 There where the heat waves dance for ever— So a young Australian poet, now dead, wrote, in his best remembered poem,, of that great tract of country also known vaguely as "out west," or "the back of beyond." Usually "the wastes of the Never Never," "Where brown Summer arid Death have mated," 'describes the country only too exactly. Drought and heat together ravage at year after year. And then, . once perhaps in a generation, kindly rains visit it in due season and the arid land, blossoms like the rose. This year is one of those infrequent occasions when the Never Never belies its reputation. It is enjoying, we read, the finest season that it has known within the meniory of many of the oldest inhabitants. Almost from the South Australian border to the back of North Queensland the far west is a picture of beauty, grass is thick and deep, and even before the recent cyclonic rains which so damaged ! the wheat crop of New South Wales, [ water was in. abundance. The owners of stations, on which the condition of

the cattle is for once "something to marrel at,' : arc in good heart, for a season such as this makes up for a number of bad ones.