NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 565, 21 July 1909, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Auckland lias had its first-class English professional cricketer, and also the Plunketi Shield, for ;Boveral years/past. Otago, having organised a very successful social function, has written-to Lord Hawkb to engage a similar professional' for them for the coming season. . Canterbury has secured Buckenham . (Essex), who was anxious to come here. And. Wellington—what is '-.Wellington'.-'..'.' doing 1 Some monthsl ago it' was reported that over £100 per annum had . been guaranteed for- three, years towards, the expenses of a'professional. ;Since then, no reliable information has?conip to' hand; from the local Cricket' Council. ', been stated that the Council has decided that nothing can. be • done. until ; the season after next.. If this is true, the: decir sion'-is not creditable/to the /.Council. With the money already, promised, and .good,"gates!!;. scertain -for; all ilhe.'; repre-i !sentati ve' matchcs, that, the {' Council ! will; take-the trouble to.' arrange, most, if not quite,' all, of the needed funds -could; leasily be raised, 'Certainljv.lcnergetic! ■Otago has' shown' : howTan'jV. deficitcan be extirlguißhed.. .Cricketers of .all v grades and ovcry lover of cricket should unite, arid speedily, in applying pressure to the Council, so that the latter may be. induced to at once cable to Lord Hawkb, and ask him to send (out a suitable man of the first class, to arrive here aB Boon as nossible after November/l._ A; . little fre'sn blood on! the Council might • prove to the advantago of the game in .Wellington.' . ; . "

; In the retrenchment and rearrangement which have been taking place in the Public Service during the past month or two, there appears to have been a good deal of .doubtful economy practised, It is: probable, however, that, the changes proposed to be made in the Stamps De-' partment excel all otters' for downright foolishness. 7 The matter was . very fully' gone into in our: issue of Monday ;last, when .some of the effects of the proposed changes in tho Department were set out. It will be 'noted.'elsewhere that the views expressed by members of the legal; pro; fession in Christchurch endorse in certain respects the opinions pit forward in the l.artifclo in question. The Christchurch lawyers referred to consider that the delays in dealing with matters, submitted to the Stamps Department, wliich have been quite bad enough in the past.' will be accentuated by the change,-and the cost and inconvenience (so the public will be much greater, .than .under, the old conditions. As was pointed out in ' our article,: these considerations are weighty enough, but there are others of equal importance. . There : is. a serious risk ... of hfcavy loss of revenue to the State" arising out .of wrong assessments ''ofstamp duty due to employment, of inexperienced officers, and to understaffing. And what will be the saving gained by' the changes made 1 To all appearances, a comparatively small siim. It is a little remarkable that a small, but extremely important and' export,' Department like this 1 should have-been singled out for drastic retrenchment, but it is still more surprising to find that tho department should be placed under the charge of a Government official who knows . nothing of the duties, and who already has quite as much as ho can attend, to.- It is quite, time that inquiry was ■ made as to Mr. P.' Heyes' is being burdened with so many Departments' of tho State. We have heard more complaints, in connection with the recent retrenchments, from the Departments controlled by Mil. Heyes than from: any: other Department of the Service." We do not know: that Mr. Heyes is to blame for this, but before the Government proceeds further in the matter of the Stamps Department it would be just as well for Ministers to inquire as to whether. Mr. Heyes has. not quite as much as ho can attend, present, without placing further responsibilities in' his hands.' 1

There are some passages in tho British Blue-Book discussed in a preceding article that may be commended to the attontion of those people who believe in compulsory arbitration as a specific for the ailments of industry. In, the section dealing with wages wc find the following observations:

. The net result of the successive changes in the rate of general wages is an apparent increase of over 80 percent, in the average rates between 1860 and 1907. But the comparison of single years cannot properly be pressed to support t'liis inference. Comparison can only l>e drawn between averages calculated over a course of years, and on this basis it is found that the average rato of wages in 1900-07 was to'the average rato in 1860-186? as 140 to 100; in other, words, wages' have risen in tho forty, years by, ap-. proximately, 4,0 per cent. . .• : _ And that result has been achieved (without anything in the nature of compulsion, That notable inctcaso has "como

without , the did of the labour law that florae pooplo in this country plumo themsolves upon. "Ah, yes," wo can § hear tho reply, "but what about the rise in tho cost of living 1" As to that, the report observes that a comparison of prices shows that tho average lovel during tho decade 1897-1007 was approximately 24 por cont. less than in 1850-CO. The ra(x] of wages has largely increased; but tho real increase is materially greater when tho purchasing power of money as measured by' the average price is taken into account. Tho real increase between 1860 and 1897,, measured by purchasing power, was 84 per cent. An artisan who earned £5 (100 shillings) in a month, and was just able to pay his way-, in 1860, would earn '£7 in 1907: moreover, what cost £6 in 1800 would cost only £3 16s. (70 shillings, or 24 shillings less) in 1907. In other words, the artisan who just made ends meet in 1860 was saving £3 45., or 45 per cent, of his wages in 1907. Nature sooms to have the advantage of our "scientific" panacea.