NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 241, 6 July 1920, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Co-operation is the order of the day, and the members of Parliament for thi> central districts of the Dominion are acting' wisely in meeting together to-day to arrive at a common understanding as to tlio needs of thoir respective localities, The areas represented arc- from Gisborne and Now Plymouth south jo Wellington and Nelson and Marlborough across tho Strait. Hitherto the Parliamentary representatives from these constituencies havj concerned themselves mainly to press the claims of the particular works of their individual neighbourhoods, and lef' it to tho Government to hammer out a general policy of development from tin; miu-s of demands put forward. It is much the sounder course to reach a general agreomout among the local members with first-hand knowledge, and then unitedly press for tho adoption of the piogramme drawn up. By this means there is some hope of urgent works being

placed in a proper order of priority, and an equitable distribution being secured of the total funds Available for developmental purposes. ♦ # » » Fifty years ago last week Sir Julius Vogel delivered his famous Budget inaugurating the public works policy which has been steadily pursued to this day. He proposed to borrow during ten years a sum of ten millions, of which -C7,5C0,000 wis- to be expended in building soroo 1500 miles of railway at a cost of ,£SOOO a mile. The lines he projected were a North Island main trunk line with connections to New Plymouth and Napier; a South Island main trunk line from Picton, via Amuri and Christchurch, to the Bluff, with connections to Cromwell and Quecnstown; and a line from Nelson to Greymouth and Hokitika, with a connection to Westport, It took thirty-eight years to complete the North Island Main Trunk line. Marlborough is still busily agitating to have the missing gap of eighty miles in thv! South Island trunk line completed. Of the Nelson-Hokitika line a considerable 6tretch also remains to be built. In Sir Julius Vogel's original ten-year period just under 1300 miles of railways were built. It took twenty-eight years to build another .1300 miles; and twelve more years to add the remaining 400 miles of the present total mileage of open lines. And yet there are people who tell us that New Zealand is the most progressive country in the world!

The increase in tho bank rates for overdrafts is in sympathy with conditions throughout the world. With a Bank of England rate of 7 per cent, aud Government borrowings abroad at 6j per cent, an upward movement locally was not likely to be long deferred. The rise may possibly 'have a beneficial effect in discouraging the speculative holding of commodities. It is very difficult to know if much of this is going on, and also uncertain whether speculators will be shaken out by an extra half or one per cent, in their overdraft rates. With the ending of the commandeer the resources of the banks will probably be taxed to tho full in providing advances on produco shipped once more on an ordinary commercial basis and subject to the present interminable delays in transmission and congestion in Britain. * * * * As information stands, the fortunes of war have been dramatically reversed in the Eusso-Poljsh campaign. Recent messages, more particularly that which speaks' of the conversion of the Polish Government into a Council of National Defence invested with emergency powers, bear out the report which' stated at the end of last week that on their right wing, south-east of Warsaw, the Poles had been forced back 95 miles before a Bolshevik offensive. The success of tho Soviet forces promises to re-establish their domination of the Ukraine, tho most important food producing area in European Russia, and also to give them unimpeded access to Odessa. On tlie other hand, the Polish situation is not of necessity desperate. At Eovno, wiwh the Russians aro reported to have reached, they are still about HO miles east of the Polißh. frontier as it was provisionally settled by tho Peace Treaty, and though their anti-Bolshevik adventure has fared badly, it is not impossible that the Poles may succeed in establishing a defensive front covering their own territory. , * * * # In his speech on the no-confidence dobate on Friday night, Mr. Holland turned to Tennyson's "In Memoriam" for a description of the attitude of the Liberal Party: An infant cryine in the night: An infant cryinsr for the liebt: And with no lanirua«c but a cry. To an outsider the difference between the Liberal P.arty and the Labour Party lies mainly in tie lustiness of tho infantile equalling, with the addition that the Labour infant shows also a propensity to break the furniture fit times. If we are to turn to the poets, the dreary fnrco With wlnich Parliament is wasting its time could hardly be better described than by the well-known stanza of Onnir Khayyam: Mvself when younir did eagerly, freaumt Dootor and Saint, and heard much arsument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door as in I went. Mr. Holland may know the whereabouts of a Socialist millennium, but, unhappily,liko Omar's Paradise, it 6eems to lie on the other side of a door without a key.