TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

'The continued buoyant condition df the wool market .should bring The Golden joy to tho grower and Fleece. satisfaction to all who have the welfare of both Australia and New Zealand at heart. The exports of Australia have been curtailed, due to dry weather, to the extent of 112,432 bales for the season to 31st January, while New Zealand's shipments for the same period have been increased by 36,465 bales. As tho two countries combined for the seven months ended 31st January exported between them 1,663,239 bales of wool* it will be recogliised that any shortage of production in this quarter of the globe will make itself keenly felt in all the wool-working centres. The latest news Jvotn London «f the sates which opened there on Tuesday shows that New Zealand wool*

realised splendid prices, crossbreds Bell* ing at 7£ per cent, above last January rates. It is clear that the manufacturers must hfi,VG the wool, for consumption is increasing on the one hand, while, rs is shown above, with regard to Austt'alasift as a whole the production i 3 reduced. At the same time the wool market is ot a fieklo nature, as growers woll know. Many causes to bring it down to an un» payable point could be suggested, and among them are industrial war or national war-— two contingencies that tire by no means remote, if indeed they be not Very near already. That being so, the exercise of caution in expenditure and economy in management are not yet unnecessary, for with wool at a high price one may trnthfully say that it cannot be told what a day may bring forth. Beyond a certain point, as iswelTknown, demand is automatically shut off, and the question for wool growers to ask themselves is : Is that point far oft', and if so, how far? In any case financial safety seems to lie in regarding it as close at hand, no matter how remote it may be. Though we cannot applaud Councillor Tregear's obstructive Councillor tactics at the City Tregoar Council ht«t evening, and his we can understand Colleague. and appreciate his ro« eentmettt of the treatment accorded the proposals he desires to bring before the notice of hie colleagues. If we &re hot mistaken, com© of these motions da,to back to last year 5 they have certainly figured regularly in th© tail-end of the order-paper for several mec-tings past. Now, it may be that the ideas embodied by Councillor Tregear in these notice* of motion do not appeal to the majority of his fellowcouncillors.: it may bo th&t to hard* headed practical men of business they seem Utopian and not worth diecuesing. That is not the point. The point is that every cit;y- councillor is entitled to eUbmit to the council any propoßak ho may deem likely to benefit ths City. Thero eeems to be something wrong somewhere, when a councillor, after waiting three months or more, is still debarred from formally presenting his views on questions of civic life for tho verdict of his fellow-councillors. The current procedure is very much like condemning a man unheard, for Councillor Tregear may never get_ another chalice in the moribund council. We do not propose to go into the merits of the councillor's proposals. After all, there is nothing terribly Socialistic or Utopian in a municipal farm for elderly or necessitous persohs in connection with a. t municipal market, or in the municipalisation of the mill: supply of the city for the sake of suffering child^n, or in public hot i water baths and municipal family laundries ; one could, doubtless, flhd all these ideaa in practical operation in come parb of the world or other. It would do the City Council no harm to discuss th«ee proposals, but Councillor Tregear's most practical notice of motion is this : "Tnat tho council take into early consideration tho form of procedure in order to produce efficiency in administration." Citizens who have followed the proceedings of the City Council for th« last twelve months or 60 will readily eupport Councillor Tregear in this. It will, at any rate, be something to remember at the coming elections. Present indications ar© that th© end of the Sydney gasmen's Gasmen May etriko is in eightMake Peace. The t.">rd Mayor's period with a ahovel in the stokehole has had & moral effect beyond that anticipated yesterday. Not only ( has it inspired Volunteer workers, but it has helped to bring home to tho community the fact that eight shillings a day, in these times, is not a princely remuneration for arduoiw work. "It is no child's play," eaya the Lord Mayor, and he does not think that the public will object to paying about twopence per hundred feet to provide the gasmen with another shilling a day. No doubt thie J6 tnte, and no doubt it was true before the Btrike 5 hence the precipitancy of the gasmen deserves all the reprobation it has received from tho Labour' Government and others. With a good case to present, they chose the violent road rather than the peaceable one, and 1 made war at the expense of an innocent public. The Sydney Labour Council knows this aa well as Premier M'Gowen does, but it has not his sense of responsibility, and, for policy sake, it must appear to back the gasmen. Hence the obviously hollow ring of the rhetoric 5 it talkß thunder, but at the same time conveys &üb-conscibusly th© idea that it would prefer to whisper. From the Labour Council's point of view, thie blank cartridge fusillade is fairly safe if a settlement is in sight; but it can do no good to the prospects of a Labour Government. A general strike at the present juncture, as is threatened in some quarters, would be the last straw upon public patience. And this year the voice of the elector will be heard.