NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 179, 17 April 1923, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Municipal electors no doubt will be interested in the official figures published this morning indicating the manner m which the three candidates for the city Mayoralty have attended to their duties during the past year. The striking feature of the return is tho fact that the Mayor, Mb. Wright, has attended every meeting of the council and of the committees mentioned, whereas Councillor F. Fraser s attendances are smaller than those of cither of his rivals for the Mayoral office. This is particularly worth noting in view of Mb. 1 ( baser S professions of whole-souled devotion to the duties of office. As is pointed out by the executive of the Civic League, Mb. 1’ baser has been posing particularly as the champion of the tramways employees. Yet the record of his attendances at meetings of the Tramways Committee show that ho attended fewer meetings than any other member of the committee—in fact, only 45 out of the 71 meetings he was summoned to attend. Mr. Fraser is rather ingenious at “explaining away disconcerting facts of this nature, but even Labour supporters prefer deeds to explanations, however plausible.

Unless the cabled summary of his speech has done him injustice, General Smuts spoke in very general terms in urging that the Britisu Empire should define its position with regard to the European crisis Many people will sympathise with the South African Premier s view that the Empird should speak 'before the passions of the nations have carried them too far. Whether intervention, or an offer of mediation, would at the moment serve a good and helpful purpose is, nowevet, at'least open to doubt. The position meantime is that lirarice has imposed pressure on Germany, while the latter country as yet has oHereu no official intimation that she is prepared to honour her treaty obligations. There is an obvious danger that a .British ultcr of mediation at this stage might simply antagonise Fz.ince, and, if anyunng, play into Germany’s bands. It is conceivable that France may proceed to such extremes in the Ruhr as would compel Britain to protest. That position, however, has not yet arisen, and unless it does arise a sincere offer by Germany to meet her obligations appears to be a necessary preliminary to any British attempt at mediation

One of yesterday’s cablegrams mentioned that the president of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation (Mr. Attwooh) was urging British implement manufacturers to send an expert to Australia and New Zealand to study the requirements of fruitgrower and thus stimulate British trade in preference to American. This common-sense suggestion is capable of very wide application. As the former British Trade Commissioner in this country (Ma dalton) and other people have repeatedly pointed out, there are many classes of trade in which British exporters would be wise to undertake a systematic exploration and study of Dominion requirements. In this. way tlloy would get out of tho habit, still much too common, of expecting people in the Dominions to be satisfied with goods designed for entirely different markets. Every opportunity ought to be taken of emphasising the fact that at present British manufacturers are neglecting opportunities of expanding trade with the overseas Empire. Artificial measures to foster trade within the Empire are well enough in thenway, but ordinary trading enterprise is needed as a foundation to build upon.