AGRICULTURE AND IMMIGRATION.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 167, 17 July 1920, Page 4

AGRICULTURE AND IMMIGRATION.

lhat the portfolios of Immigration and Agriculture should be in one pair of hands seems ouite an admirable arrangement,, in theory. Tha Minister who is looking' after the rural industries of the Dominion ouo-ht to be toe f very person to care for tho immigrants lauding on its shores, .but at tiie moment the combination does not appear to be working out ™7, ™»11 in practice. Mr G. Mitchell, the member for Wellington •South, wno was interrogating . the lion. \v. Nosworthy or. .the subject the other day is not the only person who lias^ hoard complaints from recent arrivals. It is no answer to these complaints to say the High Commissioner's Office has neglected" to supply particulars- of people it has sent out here. Gross negligence at one end docs not excuse stolid inchffWce at the other. Canada is beating New Zealand in the competition tor population because the biVger Dominion is doing the job well and the smaller one extremely badly THE MINING DISPUTE. The Miners' Federation has .presented an ultimatum to the P,rime Minister and the Coal Owners' 7 Association and will brook no delay beyond Mon d .,y night . The F6de / ati w ants Mr Massey to call » a conference of four from each side" witlx himself as chairman to settle the, disputesbetween the parties "along tho Jines followed at the drawing up of the National Agreement." If Mr Massey is unable to preside, tlien ■\ 1} C Federation- will accept Mr P ■Haliy as chairman, but it will allow neither of the gentlemen to exercise a casting vote, and if these terms are not accepted it will "take drastic iueasurw tf> force the issue " Them is nothing very conciliatory about this and the men evidently are in deadly earnest, but it is hoped' tho Unwers Association will agree to the conference if only to give' the public? an opportunity to ascertain'the i<eal nature of the differences between the*

THE RACING CONFERENCE. Though1 the Racing ■■ Conferencewluoh is siting -in Wellington this week is coneernme; itself about, many otiier matters connected with tho national sport, ; the genera] public is chiefly interested in its proposals for the betterment- of the lot of the jockeys, who with more or less unanimity have boen in incipient revolttor tho last ax or .seven months. ShGeorge Chfford, ihe president of' theConference, has been handling the problem with great tact and has wonto Jus side the sympathy1 of most of the prominent professional riders, but his refusal to recognise. the principle* ot trade unionism in connection with, tiie sport has aroused tho animosity ot ai. number of irresponsible workers who are rendering the jockeys a vfcrvtr,°n f!f7^ by ?ivinS: « personal turn to the quarrel.