NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 181, 27 April 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The citizen’s most important duty today is to record his vote. Electors who do not wish to see a Mayor and City Council taking their orders from an outside coterie of Labour extremists should vote without fail. The leading article of the journal which Mr. Hickey edits this week extends its fraternal greetings to Lenin. Trotsky, and company, and the Italian Socialists. "It is good,” this extremist organ tells us, "to cheer on the victorious march of our Russian comrades. It is desirable to applaud tho magnificent spirit of the Italian movement.” This is not exactly the strain used by Mr. Hickey in addressing the municipal electors. When the votes of the credulous are wanted the Labour lion will roar ns gently as a sucking dove. The fact remains that the official Labour movement bos been captured by a section of ill-balanced apostles of tho "class war” and Communism. It is to this chariot that the Labojir nominees for tho City Council a.nd the Hospital Board are tied. Citizens will do' a. service to the city, to the Labour movement it?blf, if they make plain in the most emphatic manner their preference for candidates of less questionable associations. There is a Urge choice of citizen candidates for the’Council, and electors may be at a loss to make their selection. It is important, however, to vote for the full number required, -as otherwise the Labour supporters with a full ticket and no surplusage will gain a decided advantage.

What to-day’s vote means is indicated by the announcement that the city’s revenue for 1920-21 amounted to just over £1,000,000. This is equal to about £1 per week per Household of five persons. The money barely suffices to cover /he necessary expenditure. It is a huge sum, and its wise expending means a great deal to our comfort and convenience. Are citizens prepared to risk a spendthrift Labour extremist majority on the council playing ducks and drakes with it? Such an event can only occur if they are apathetic and do not take the trouble to vote. Neglect to-day may prove expensive at a time when expense can be least afforded.

Wanganui claims to stand third on the list of exporting ports during the first quarter of the year. This is a position which she has not hitherto achieved, although 'her last year’s total was large enough to pult her ahead of Napier for fourth place. The rise of Wanganui and Napier is not regarded with jealousy by Wellington. With direct shipment from the younger ports the total outgo for Wellington may not look as impressive as it would otherwise do, blit the city gains far more than it loses from the rapid growth of the provincial centres. The latest "Monthly Abstract of Statistics” shows the total exports of the Dominion for the twelve months ended on February 28 as £47,974,000. Of this total no Jess than £19,290,000 came from the southern portion of the North Island—Wellington’s hinterland. Auckland (including Poveriy Bay) contributed -£12,200,000 of the balance, and the entire South Island only £1G,400,000. Thus two-thirds of our export trade is provided by the North- Island, and of that share by far the greater part comes from the districts for which Wellington is the chief centre. This is a satisfactory

position, nnd it becomes even more satisfactory when one reflects on the enormous possibilities for future development in these districts.

Guyra and its "ghost" have now had an innings of several weeks. The latest advice is that a little twelvo-year-old girl has confessed to having been the cause of the disturbance. The haunted house is occupied by a Mr. and Mrs. Bowen and their daughter—the child in question —and a Mr. and Mrs. Hodder. The noises always occur where the child is. The Sydney "Sun" of April 17 records a typical nighlt at the house. The place was surrounded by a picket guard some fifty strong, nine more were inside to keep till there under close scrutiny. In addition five or six women visitors were present. At 9 o’clock a hard knock on tho cottage was heard, followed by two more kndfeks. The pickets outside flashed on their searchlights, but could find nothing. _ Inside the cottage the child was in her bedroom with some of the watchers, including the local constable. The knocks occurred on tho wall exactly opposite where she was standing, and were severe enough to shake the entire building. The “Sun” stated that the police were satisfied that however the knocking was caused tho girl was in no way responsible for it, as on different occasions tho police and four or more other persons had been in the room with 'her when the noises occurred. If this twelve-year-old child has really duped these watchers, and outwitted the vigilance of the whole township, her performance . will outrival that of the Cock Lane G'host itself.

The operation by which the British Government proposes to convert a large part of its floating debt into funded stock no doubt ranks as one of tho biggest and boldest of its kind over undertaken. The proposal applies to war bonds, maturing during the next two years, of an aggregate amount of 632 millions sterling—approximately onehalf of tho total floating debt of the United Kingdom. Special concessions must, of course, be offered to investors to induce them to convert 5 per cent, war bonds into 31 per cent, stock, and the chief inducement appears in the fact that tho face value of the stock which replace 632 millions in war bonds is to bo upwards of 1000 millions. For each £lOO in war bonds, bearing interest at 5 per cent., investors will bo offered 3| per cent, stock to the valuo of £163. Ths interest on stock to this amount will bo just over £5 Ils., and the difference between £5 and £5 14s. in annual interest represents the inducement offered to investors to convert a shortdated into a long-dated loan. This will mean an addition of more than four millions sterling to tho annual interest bill paid by tho British taxpayer, but the compensating benefits brought into prospect are very considerable. Handicapped by a huge floating debt, the British Government is continually in tho market to renew its short-dated loans. Particularly in times of financial stringency liko those now ruling, this means not only that tho Government is itself liable to ’be charged a very high rate of interest, but that its operations tend in a? serious degree to absorb the money needed to finance trade and industry and to raise the rate of interest which must be paid by those who require it. The success of the operation now launch, cd ought, to represent a very important step towards remedying tho icxisting dislocation of tho British money market and establishing conditions more favourable to tho prosperous revival of trade and industry.