TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 56, 7 March 1930, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY

♦ ' — ■ — There seems to be an increasing #ap between the longest day and the test weather. Meteorologists and Statisticians may say that this is not 30 —that January is no worse than it was and February no, better, and that, measured over a period of years, the summer and the autumn are as they used to be.~ But, whatever quinquennial tests may or may not show, many people in this country have a fairly fixed idea that climate has changed, and even Bay of .Plenty farmers will tell you that maizegrowing is interfered with by frosts that never used to be in that balmy atmosphere. One upshot of this grievance against the weather is a proposal to change the schools' vacation from December-January to February. But even February is capable of producing strange surprises. Generally it is the torrid month— the month of drought (if there is to be a drought) and of dry travelling, the month when you. can rely perhaps on some settled weather, and when the loss of duration of daylight has hardly begun to be felt. But February this year selected the perfect Northern climate to show us what it can do when it is nasty. On one February day in Auckland more rain fell than on any one day for six years. The floods in North Auckland not only made clay roads impassable, but stopped the trains, marooning the express for a Saturday and Sunday at Maungaturoto. Abnormal events like this may have np weight in an argument concerning change of vacation dates, but are some indication of the sporting uncertainty which the vacation-taker must face. There is of course always a silver lining to a wet season. Butter-fat is plentiful. • • • -• A rather remarkable figure has been removed from the life of New South Wales by the death of Mr. John Brown. The very plainness of the name demands notice when it is linked with such a personality—or with that quite different personality who, under the same label, adorned the Victorian era. ' This John Brown of Maitland was one who saw the possibilities of the coal seams, and who wooed the mineral genius of the district in the early days. He had a strong will and a tenacious purpose, to both of which the New South Wales coalfields owe much; and both are well-known to the militant miners' organisation of the last thirty years. The same rugged strength that built up coalmining, and constructed railways and ships to help to transport the coal, proved a rock on which the waves of Labour militancy often broke themselves in vain. But while Mr. Brown extracted from the struggle with Nature and with man a great fortune, which enabled him to breed and race classic horses and to breed prize cattle, he lived long enough to see the colliery industry into and by no means. out of the slough of despond caused by high production costs and Labour discord. For years the colliery owners bought peace at a price, until rising costs killed the export trade; and now, concessions having failed to buy a new peace, the whole industry is in jeopardy. Amid the turmoil this best-known of the "coal barons" —he raced, by the way, under the name of Mr. Baron—makes his final exit. He was not in touch with the hew Australian spirit, and never pretended to be. • • ' « Although the linking up of road and rail, by railway participation in road services, caught the public imagination, it is not nearly so remarkable an alliance as that between land and air, forecasted by the "Manchester Guardian." An overt step has been taken by the Southern Railway Company in acquiring an interest in British Imperial Airways; but the "Guardian" indicates that negolia-

lions on a wider front are in progress, and that a triple alliance will eventually "link up road, rail, and air in a network of communications." As the finance of commercial aviation is still difficult, for lack of an assured return, the flying companies, by an alliance with railway companies, may overcome certain problems of capitalisation. Given availability of capital, commercial / aviation is more likely to be conclusively testfrl than would be the case if raising of fresh capital depended entirely upon an uncertain money market. On the other hand, if commercial transport in the air is coming, the railway com- J panics might be well advised to get in during the early stage when their help is wanted, and when they can get in cheaply. The choice is between being pioneers now at a considerable risk, or purchasers later at a considerable cost. Land and sea transport has long envisaged air transport. It is understood that possible participation therein was provided for when the Shipping Company's articles of association were amended as long ago as before the War.

When setting up the Federal Farm Board, Mr. Hoover subscribed to the Coolidge attitude against price-fixing. But he who may control' financial credit and storage facilities, which are the keys to the practice of waiting for one's price, may find it very difficult to keep clear of price-fixing. To help the holder ""to abstain from meeting the market is surely to go a substantial distance towards controlling the price. Much of this ground was covered when New Zealand butler storage and control—at first under private direction, later under the Dairy Board —were discussed in London and New Zealand two or three years ago; and parallel questions are arising in connection with the Federal Farm Board, which is charged with not giving effect to its full powers to the satisfaction of the United States wheatgrowers. Wheat's recent fall to the dollar basis causes Senator Nye to,ask whether "the socalled grain trade" is acting the part of a "bear" to depress American agricultural products and io defeat the Farm Board Act; also, "whether banking or credit interests aided the so-called trade." 'He who is the master of credit and what it can command is generally the master of supplies, of. their marketing, and of the prices they bring. How can the Federal Farm Board go far enough with the farmers without going too far with the price-fixers?