NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 73, 19 December 1928, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

It will be noted that the Mayor of Wellington considers it unlikely that the City will be able to take advantage of the Government’s offer of a £2OOO subsidy for unemployed relief works. This subsidy involves the raising of a loan by the City for a similar amount, and in view of recent commitments Mr. Troup deems this inadvisable. There is no doubt that the City Council has been active during the winter months in providing work for the unemployed. The Mayor states that more money has already been raised here for that purpose than in any other centre. But what is puzzling other centres besides Wellington is why the Government should make a direct gift to one city for unemployed relief works and in the case of others grant only a subsidy. Complaints have been made on this point in both Auckland and Dunedin. Why was Christchurch singled out for the special favour of a gift of £2000? Discrimination of this nature is bound to occasion comment, and it certainly calls for explanation.

Already political celebrities in Britain are getting into training for the coming elections. Special attention these days must be paid to the art of speaking before microphones. It is an art requiring totally different methods to the ordinary platform procedure. Words, not personality, are the important things. Pauses loose their significance, for the listener merely wonders somewhat irritably why the station has broken down. Ramsay MacDonald and Lloyd George have both spoken recently. Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, spoke at the tenth annual meeting of the League of Nations and was broadcast from the most powerful station in Britain to an audience probably numbered in millions. When it is realised that there are several million people who have never even seen the Prime Minister of Great Britain, much less heard him talk, it cannot be doubted that radio is bound to become an extremely important link in future election campaigns in Britain. Here, happily, politics arc banned from radio programmes.

A study of the disposition of Britain’s population suggests that it can best be served through a number of ports in different parts of the kingdom. London, as England’s major port, has within its immediate environs some 7,500,000 population. This in itself makes a market of magnitude. But the railways systems of England al! concentrate on London and add to the facilities for distribution. Even the Continental railway systems gravitate towards London. These factors have given London its dominance in overseas trade. It is not sentiment which attracts trade to London-town, but natural advantages. Overseas trade gains the benefit of these natural advantages, and before they can be given up others equally favourable niade. available. Mr. H. M. Ford, the secretary of the Clyde Navigation frust, who has been touring the Dominion in the interests of the Port of Glasgow, has made some very interesting remarks concerning other points of distribution for our products. He rightly emphasised the fact that our primary exporters of meat, butter, and fruit are meeting keen competition, and in that competition success will be assisted by offering the British public products with a mimmtim of handling and in prime condition. In achieving this end, Mr. Ford emphasises the great help which ports other than London could give Bristol serves the West of England, Liverpool ■he North, Hull the North-Last, and Glasgow offers facilities for simp ymg the Scottish market. The diverting of a portion of our supplies direct to the provincial markets no doubt has its advantages, but London affiliations at present dominate the position.