Our Wellington Letter.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1987, 7 May 1906, Page 5

Our Wellington Letter.

j (From our own Correspondent•) WELLINGTON, May 4. “ The supposed inviolablifcy o , private contracts —no matter detrimental to the public interest—- '} has been a shibboleth of the ole I ‘ Laiisez Faire’ school for the lasi half century.” Thus the New Zealand Times this morning, returning tc the charge in the matter of freezing contracts, which are what are known as “ forward contracts.” To that a prominent man among the shareholders of the Gear Company which is above all the rings, and makes its own bargains every time, quietly asked me what, if the freezer can’t get the stuff away with regularity and j despatch, is to become of Mr Hayj seed ? He added that a forward conI tract is, in the nature of things, a ! necessity of the meat trade. It jis the other side of the question. The other side .certainly establishes* a reason for going about the work of dealing with the Trusts cannily. But the obligation remains of seeing that the Trusts do not rob the man who is the main spring of the whole business. So says the Street with a whoop whenever the subject is mentioned. The echoes of the Trades and Labor Conference have been with us all week. The Street is speculating on whether they want to establish a really great fetish of Protection. A resolution was passed declaring that duty must be paid on all imported machinery down to the engines of steamers made in other ports for companies registered in New Zealand. If that means anything. It, of course, means that the Colony ought to set immediately about the business of building steamers and making the engines for the same. Which at present, of course, is absurd. One does not, however, wonder at the failure to dot that small “ i ” while there was another great letter waiting for the consideration of the Conference. The issue was between working for profit and producing for use. Needless to say the prophets of the Conference decided in favor of the latter. Details will probably follow, for without details such a decision can be of very little value. Possibly the Conference was prevented by that other great subject the exclusion of the Chinese. They debated handsomely, and they decided that the Chinese must be excluded by a fine of £IOOO, I and they further decided that that the principle of exclusion ought not to be carried. We are getting less logical and more practical every day. Practical men and practical works.

Amongst the former there is Mr Bell, the geological head of the Mines Department, who has just returned from the “ Coast ” with his head full of the discoveries he has been making. To the older hands in the Department the new man seems to be something like the young man in a hurry. They had expected him to go about the mines getting the inspectors to trot him round, and drawing the practical miner for all he was worth. In a year from which time they would look 1 for a report. But the young man has astonished them by going on a i line of his own. Why not ? After j all geology is geology. It is a thing j you learn just as you learn the stars, j or the steam engine, or flaxmilling. Thus to the Street there is not any reason for supposing that if the new man sees any rocks in the course of his travels he will mistake them for other rocks; still less that he will mistake them for the clay in which the potter takes his delight. Well, he | has seen rocks on the Coast, and he | has apparently made up his mind to j prophecy great things of certain places of which the local men have agreed that there is nothing in any of them. For example, Mr Bell says that he : likes the look of the country behind j the Waimea and Ahaura—those once ranting, roaring rivers of gold—speaks | of it, in fact, as a land of promise. | Also has he seen the reefs of the ; Wilberforce on the Canterbury side of ; the “ dog divide.” Also has he brought with him a sample of the greenstone, 1 which he uses as another foundation i for prophecy of the good sort. Now these things are not pleasing to the j men of old. Mainly because they saw none of the indications the new man saw —read the indications, it would perhaps be better to say, differently. The Street is not disposed to side with the old ’uns just yet. It is, at all events, grateful to the man who has imported a hopeful tone into the consideration of a subject -which has been more or less moribund for many years. The word is, “ let the young man have his chance, and hear his say. If he can find gold where every man before him has declared there can be none, the country wall not be hard on him. Success will only prove that the earth is, after all, only for the young in this world. If he turns out to be wrong, well, it will then be time to speak up accordingly. But for the present it is the part of wisdom to hope that he may be right. He seems, indeed, to be under the impression that the long lost matrix of which the diggers used to talk so much once is heaving in sight. It is not a crime, young sir.