THE WOOL COMMISSION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14169, 18 September 1906, Page 6

THE WOOL COMMISSION.

It will not be tie fault of tie Wool Coip,mission, which is now concluding ite sittings in Canterbury, if its labours are not attended by some practical results. The commissioners have been most assiduous in searching out evidence and in turning it to good' account, and they have collected a vast amount of information from a great number of people on. the special subject of their inquiry. It is evident, however, that they will have to go a little further afield than they have yet gone to obtain all the data that will be required for the preparation of an exhaustive report. Even after they have inspected the sheaitngsheds and the scouring works, they will want to know something about the stowing of the wool on shipboard and its appearance and condition on its arrival at Home. We do not think it will be sufficient to leave the inquiry at the other end to the .High Commissioner and the insurance agents, and unless the Government is prepared to send one of the members of the Commission to London it should appoint a reliable export to complete the investigation there. There is one incident in connection with the sittings of the Commission in Christchurch which we feel, in justice to the chairman, wo should mention again. After the little altercation between Mr Turnbull and Dr M’ Arthur we considered it our duty to protest against the latter gentleman’s treatment of the witness and to suggest that he should not take part in the proceedings unless h© was able to do so with proper self-restraint and dignity. Our remarks have been taken to imply that Dr M’Arthur was not in a fit condition to preside over the Commission, and that he had behaved in a way that would shake public confidence in his fitness for his responsible position. Dr M’Arthur’s colleagues and the officers of the Commission arc naturally most indignant at this assumption, and they declare that from the beginning to the end of the sitting the chairman showed his usual grasp of every detail of the proceedings. These gentlemen, of course, are in a position to speak quite authoritatively on the subject, and in view of their very emphatic statements we must regret that our protest was capable of the construction that has been placed upon it by seme of the public. Apart from this unfortunate incident, which we may now fairly assume was due to a misunderstanding between the gentlemen immediately concerned, Dr M’Arthnr has presided over the sittings of the Commission with singular ability, and it would be ungracious to allow him to leave Canterbury without 'the fullest acknowledgment of the tireless energy and quick intelligence he has displayed in the discharge of his important duties.