NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1336, 13 January 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

» Supporters of the English cricketers now in Australia will be hugely delighted with the opening of the Third Test Match. The rout of tho Australian batsmen has proved even more complete than was the case in the Second Test, when the team, in the first innings, succumbed for 184 runs. Barnes on that occasion was the bowler chiefly responsible for the downfall of the Australians, but while he has done very .well in tho present game he has been eclipsed by Foster. That so fine a batting team as that which Australia has put into the field to-day should be all out for 103 runs on a good wicket is a very high tribute to the strength of the 'English bowling; but it is also a further evidence of the bewildering uncertainty of the game. Foster seems to have been in quite remarkable form with tho ball. On appearances tho Third Test looks a pood thing for tho Englioh toam judging hi tho La .which thqjr

dealt with the Australian bowling in tho previous game; but it is very unsafe to prophesy. The Australians will be on their mettle, and they are a very fine side despite their first innings collapse in the last two Tests; and they may yet make an interesting finish of it. TnE banking returns recently published have caused seme uneasiness owing to the large excess of advances over deposits. We have pointed out 011 different occasions during the past month or two that the excess of imports over exports was a disquieting factor and that there was necessity for caution. The margin of exports over imports is required to meet tho payments due to our creditors outside New Zealand, and when there is no margin at all and the balance is on the wrong side, it means that we are living beyond our income. The borrowing which the country has indulged in has, of course, gone towards increasing the funds available to meet oiir obligations, but this borrowing has also increased the annual charges to be met. We have no sympathy with the extreme views recently' expressed through the London Standard by Mr. E. G. Jellicoe. The country is not going to the dogs nor anything like it. All tho same the tendency to extravagance, both in publie and in private life, which has been encouraged by the recklessness of the Ward Administration and the constant harping on the prosperity of the country, is harmful and requires to be checked. New Zealand is badly in need of a Government which is prepared to settle down to the solid business of developing the country's resources instead of talking about it._ It wants most of,allj settled conditions and activc land settlement. The latter can only bo brought about by a vigorous policy directed at the opening up of idle Crown and Native lands under attractive conditions. Tho country has had a surfeit of fancy legislation designed to tickle the ears of • the public and it is time that it received more solid fare, and had its business conducted on sound and business-like lines. Had the efforts of the Ward Administration been properly directed instead of being everlastingly devoted to vote-catch-ing, there would have been a great saving of needless expenditure and an enormous increase in the productiveness of tho country which would have very materially improved the existing condition of things. The proposal \of the * Australian Labour Conference that negotiations for the Federation of New Zealand with the Commonwealth should be reopened is interesting as indicating the views of our friends across tho water. Everyone is anxious that our relations with the Commonwealth should be of the pleasantest kind and that wherever possible the two countries should work in unison. Now Zealand, however, has never shown any desire to come under the Commonwealth flag and form one of the Federated States. It is difficult to see where she would benefit while the. disadvantages are very plain. No doubt there are directions in which the two countries might be brought closer together and if negotiations are opened up on the lines'proposed' they may not prove altogether fruit-i,s'i-,BFt federation—that is not at all likely.