WELLINGTON TOPICS

Marlborough Express, Volume L, Issue 217, 23 September 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

AN OLJ> STORY,

STATISTICS AND PRICES

{.Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 22. The reports of a little "b2eeze" at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Farmers' Co-operative Association in Timaru last Saturday over the management's rather unfortunate investments in wheat have revived recollections of an animated controversy tiiat was going on in the House of Representatives a couple of years ago. The directors of the Association /laid their troubles at the door of the Government, which had begun by issuing misleading statistics and ended by prohibiting exportation till it was too late for them to vget out of their bad bargain. Of course, it was the Government Statistician, nov; .the Government, thab was to blame for tho first blunder/but the Government cannot escape responsibility for having kept up the delusion that there was a shortage of v'heat in the country. Mr Thomas-Buxton. who was then Meni- | ber for Temuka and probably tlie best informed- authority on the subject in the House, stated in the most explicit way on two or three occasions that there would be a surplus of 300,000 or 400,000 bushels. But the Prime Minister pooh-poohed the idea of a business man knowing more about tho matter than the Government Statistician did, and proceeded to back iip his own judgment by buying a million bushels of Canadian wheat ait the inflated price. ' MAKING AMENDS.

That) Mr Mass'ey; was actuated by the very best motives in doing what ho did "no one has ever seriously doubted,; but that he committed n very grave error of judgment in

' p]3eculating on a shortage is obvious to everyone in the light of what has happened since' He may count himself lucky that he did not have to pay more dearly for his mistake. Had the Allies succeeded, in making their way through the Dardanelles and releasing the stocks of Russian, 'wheat lying along the shores of. the Biack Sea. his little "flutter" in Canadian options would have costi the country someThing in the neighborhood of £100,000 lor £150,000. What it did cost probably the public never will know. But if the Government takes the lessons of this unpleasant experience to heart the money will not liave been entirely wasted. It has made one long step towards a better state of affairs by seating up a Board of Trade to advise it on such matters. If it would clothe this body with the same authority as h possessed by the Commodities Commititee in New .Sgiitii Wales the country would not.be'yery long in recovering the half million or so it lost over the wheat muddle. The Government requires only to attack this problem with some of the courage displayed by the statesmen of older countries to make the public much more tolerant than it is at present of ite minor sins of commission and omission. . J>ISCHAItG-E!D-SOIiT>IERS.

The progress statement for the period ended on .September Ist, just issued by the Minister in charge of Ihe Discharged Soldiers Information Department, is not quite so satisfactory as the friends of the men who have dono their "little bit" at the front could, wish. The total number of men on the register of the Department at the beginning of the present month was 5505. Of this total 1683 had returned to their former employment or tto military duty, 1007 had been placed in employment, 1014 had signified that they needed no assistance. 379 had left the country or failed to respond to the inquiries of

! -fal;o department, arid 135 had t*dra.wn sectioitH oi land," while the cast?* of 1287 were under consideration or »ot ready ior action. . That the return is not more satisfactory is certiainly due to no fault on the . part of Mr Herdman, who has been most assiduous and tactful in looking after the interests of the men. Its most disappointing feature is the small number of returned soldiers placed on tho land, fewer than 3 per cent, of the total, and the position ought to be receiving tho very consideration of the Government. Plainly it is not offering sufficient inducements to the men to become primary producers, and if it continues to neglect its duty in this respect it will encounter very grave difficulties when they begin to return in their thousands seeking employment after the war. •

THE FRENCH WAY

As bearina: on this subject in a more or'less .direct way a letter addressed by Sergeant Isitt, the elder son of the Member for Christchurch North, to a friend in ' Wellington, is of special interest. S'eigeant Isitt has been in the trenches '''somewhere in France" for several months, and between strenuous bouts of fighting lie has been allowed on <one or two occasions to make afternoon excursions into the country lying behind-the lines. "These trips," he writes, "have been a revelation to me, and a delight. The .French people are the most genuinely hospitable and courteous folk I have ever .• known. Their 'Bon jour, Sergeant,' as you meet them on d;he road or pass them working in their .little plots of ground—women and old men —sounds like v welcome and a rheery prayer for your welfare, and not a bit like conventional salutation. Kow they live I can't tell. But they -ee.Ti silwayti working, always cheerful, and always ready to share what they have with an Englishman. There are no slum's in the towns like we have even in New 7/enland, and everycottager about tho country has his piece of land, perhaps only a few square yards, and horn this he appears to get -nil he wants to eat and drink and to give away.- If this is the close settlement you have been talking about you :iro on the right track. ,It would do our politicians a vast amount of good to travel through France and see how a. bravo peasantry can bear itself in niich an awl ill time as this. The people's lovo for their country and the v.ra> th*'y -malvo' of it are simply splendid " Probably Sergeant Isitt has not dblved so deeply'sis his father has into souiul and ernnomic problems, but like many unother New Zealander he is keeping his cj Tes op'?n while fighting tlw» battles of the Empire, and fitting himsell.' for the task^ which lie before the younger generation here.