The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Haggatoki, Kapbnga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho. Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1914. THE WEEK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 30 January 1914, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Haggatoki, Kapbnga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho. Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1914. THE WEEK.

Had it not been for the recent ap-j Y^arently ill-advised and illegal deportation of various labor-leaders, industrial and social conditions would again be nearly normal in South Africa, as some mistakes' that were made'in the earlier period of the strike trouble are being rectified in the right spirit and the right way. The most noteworthy instance in this connection appears to be that connected with the case of Mr F. H. P. Cressweli ? Labor member for Jeppe in the Union^ Parliament, who, a week or two ago, was arrested for attempting to address strikers and induce men to refrain from working, and also for publishing a pamphlet. On the first charge he was sentenced to a month's imprisonment without hard labor; fined £10, or fourteen days' imprisonment, on the second; and for the third, he was fined £20. The prosecutor admitted that there was nothing very inflammatory in Mr Cresswell's pamphlet, and he did not think the writer had intended to promote violence. Mr Cresswell himself declared that, owing to the proclamation of martial law, he had issued a, leaflet instead of giving advice orally. He said he had wished to advise the men as to the best way 'of. conducting- themselves, especially in preventing public violence; but he added that he would always advise men, once they struck, to stand together and be loyal to one another. In giving his judgment the magistrate held that the preamble of the pamphlet was likely to cause disaffection, and that Cresswell, as an educated man, and a member of Parliament, ought to be punished more severely than the others. He would, however, not inflict hard labor, though he thought it was deserved. ■

At the time it was passed the sentence % caused much ill-feeling, which was no doubt aggravated By the popu--1 lar belief that, as it had been imposed under martial law, there was no appeal, and by the circumstance that Mr Cresswell would be prevented from attending in his place in Parliament when it opened on the 31st instant. Happily, however, the law has great resources, and we are now told that the Supreme' Court at Johannesburg has granted a rule nisi, returnable en the 28th, for the release of Mr Cresswell, on the ground that the magistrate had wrongly claimed to administer martial law when there was no riot or disturbance in the Witwatersrand. It may be added that Mr Cresswell is a consulting mining engineer by profession. He went to the Transvaal in 1893j and there he held several appointments, being at one time manager of the Village Main Reef. After the war he set afoot a white labor movement, which led to his severing his connection with the company. Since then he has been a firm- adherent of the white labor policy. He became a mem- I ber of the Transvaal Parliament under the new constitution.

Current ne>vs aiiout the London money market shows that, notwithstanding the extraordinary demands made within the last year or two on the owners and operators of capital, money is again available to an extent and under conditions encouragingly favorable to those who wish to borrow for industrial purposes or great public undertakings. One of the reasons for this is, of course, that money that is lent begins at once to earn more money, of which the interest paid to the lenders forms a considerable proportion, much of which is almost at once again available as capital on the market. A fairly clear idea of what this actually means is deducible from the lending operations of any given period. For instance, of ■'■'new capital" issued in the United Kingdom < in .1912, Great Britain itself retained £45,335,000,' Canada took £46.983.000, Australasia £13,462,000., India and Ceylon £3,708,000, South Africa £3,862,600, otlier Uritich possessions

£4,626,000, the United States £23,----634,000, Argentina £20,110,000, Bra ail £14,353,000, and Russia £10,490,000, while smaller customers brought the gross amount up to £210,850,000. A little consideration given to the amount thus earned in interest will help the reader to realise the wonderful recuperative power of the world's great money markets.

As a hard matter of fact, looked at in the light of things as they are in a world which is perhaps at present much too hard and altogether too practical for the essential welfare of its inhabitants —a recent incident in the administration of Turkey appears to supply some justification for the strenuousness with which some statesmen and communities believe in ample armaments. During the recent war the Turkish fleet was held completely in check by Greece's big warship Georgio Averoff, and this was an important factor in deciding the issue. But Turkey, by recently buying the Rio de Janeiro from her British builders, has placed herself in a position of assured naval supremacy over Greece. It is true, it has been reported (from Athens), that Germany has been remonstrating strongly with Turkey regarding her naval preparations, and predicting that they will involve certain ruin. But the vital fact is, that Turkey's naval effectiveness is now considerably greater thaii that of Greece, who keeps ..a longing, lingering eye—filled with the sinister light of tefritoritis—on certain Turkish possessions. Under the circumstances, it must be mare comfortable, for Turkey to feel that, at least in warships, she is now Greece's superior. It is the philosophy of this that lies at the back of the armamentphobia that now dominates the world. "'Tis true, 'tis pity; pity 'tiSj 'tis true."

Strikes continue to happen in the Old Country, notwithstanding the lessons taught by the past concerning them. Quite recently the Board of Trade showed that during the past ten years the loss of wages in ten organised industries due to stoppages of all kinds had been £17,413,188; and the net gain of wages resulting from disputes ' £2,714,340, leaving a loss of £14,698,----848.. An increase was obtained by the workers as a whole of £15,000,000, but this was due chiefly to conciliation machinery and working agreements. Then, the figures showed that of every hundred strikes and lock-outs the results were: "Won by employers, 50; won by workers, 25; compromised, 25. . To this it may be added that the extent to which conciliation has improved the position of workers in the English coalmining districts was shown at a recent meeting of the Board of Conciliation for the federated coal districts, when a resolution was unanimously passed providing for the continuation of the Conciliation Board till March 31, 1915, with an advance in wages of 5 per cent. This means that, without regard to the gains under the Minimum Wage Act, about 400,000 men employed in the coal mines^of North Wales and .England (except Northumberland and Durham) will receive Is a. week increase, the .total increase being about £1,000,000 a year. The agreement provides for a minimum of 50 per cent, and a maximum of 65 per cent, above the 1888 rates. .-■••■

Not long since a minor international incident arose between Britain and Belgium concerning thd uncouth offensiveness of some Belgian students to the wife of Sir Francis Hyde Villiers, the British Minister at Brussels. The students, while out on "pleasure" bent, had an altercation with the chauffeur of the ear in which Lady Villiers and her daughter were motoring, and they assaulted one of the servants on the car, broke off a door, and shouted at the occupants. Boorish brutality of this kind has more than once in the world's history led to war, and very properly it was not allowed to pass unheeded by the Embassy or the British Foreign Office. However, the Belgian Foreign Minister recently apologised to the British^ Minister, who accepted the apology, which was accompanied by the \ curious qualification, that the students had no idea of the identity of the occupants of the car. This recalls a similar incident of some years ago, when some so-called "young men in good positions" grossly insulted the wife of a gentleman high in the Dominion's public service. In making the apology that became imperatively necessary, the men said to the husband that had they known the lady was his wife they would not have behaved as they had done. "Well," was the reply, "I shan't prosecute you; but your apology makes you still more contemptible in my eyes. It shows that you would be viciously offensive to some poor, respectable woman, with no one in a position to chastise you effectively on her account, and think nothing of it. I should call that the conduct of unmitigated cads and cowards. Messenger, show these persons the door, please.' This incident literally happened, just in the way it is here described, and the apology of' the Belgian bounders who insulted Lady Villiers calls it to mind.