THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16309, 16 August 1916, Page 10

THINGS IN GENERAL.

" BOYCOTTING." Trtek is a hopeful feeling in the air. Rightly or wrongly people are beginning to "believe that the Germans are pretty nearJT done. On© of the signs of this bej of ii the warnings we are getting from unexpected places about the course of trade alter the war. Such notes of warni:._• have been sounded at the Auckland inplovers" Association and at the Auck- ;=. a executive of the Fanners' Union. At the Employers' Association Mr. K. ACraig was afraid that New Zealand would start some " boycott" of German goods .v i so "cut of! her note to spite her face " ; r letting ail the German bargains go to : "utrals. But who said " boycott?"' Individually we talk of buying no more (jernian-made goods, and why not? Is Mr. Craig or anybody else going to start a campaign to teach us that we are wrong - ' Naturally we talk of keeping a firm hold of our own raw products so that we may build up the industries which are essential to our life and safety, and of fostering, by tariffs, our own trade and the trade of our allies. Again, why not? The individual attitude is in the nature of a boycott. It is a good and wholesome thing that it should be so. Industrial associations have been organising home industry campaigns for years. Is it really necessary when the season is favourable to grudge the seed or to cry from the housetops that there is danger of over-cul-tivating the land ? In the national sense the word ''boycott" is meaningless unless we are prepared to apply it to the tariff systems of all countries except Great Britain. Even then w-e would hare to admit that Great Britain did a little bovcotiing on the sly, especially in the cocoa industry in which some of" the most enthusiastic free traders are engaged. It is title, as Mr. Craig said, that the subject of after-war trade bristles with all sorts of difficulties. It is not a simple problem, but it may be very srraveiv questioned aether the danger does no't lie on the ,road along which .Mr. Craig seeks to lead us rather than on the road we are intimed to follow. Certain it is that the .--•rial boycott of Germans—' ruthless ostracism "—which on e member of the association advocated, will lead us no■wcere unless it takes us into the columns of the comic papers. Have not the Germans told us that ihev want neither our culture nor our company? As well keep a hoy from school for playing truant.

NUfiSING THE MARKETS. i »A n + v! re are the farmers. Thev are ! s raid that preferential trade may take the direction of Using exports to enemy j a.id neutral countries so limiting the n-.u-kets. But do the farmers propose to -at their cake and have it? If British i markets are to be protected for them, why should their goods not be reserved for Bntiso markets? Is it to be all take and no give. It is surely fairly evident that the after-war adjustment of trade is to Vto l ™i advantage of New Zealand produce, There is more to be gained in the British market than can possibly be lost in the American, and with the "exception of these two no market in the world lias ever enriched any New Zealand farmer Is the butter from Siberia and the South of trance that may be landed in Britain to sell against New Zealand at a slight '' tariff disadvantage likely to be a more serious competitor than the Danish butter that has for years been competing on even terms? The general]" current idea of after-war trading is Empire trade first, allied trade second, neutral trade third' enemy trade last. Surelv there is nothing that New Zealand farmers need fight shy o: in that idea. Number one is, ''alwavs was and always will be their main market. Cut it off and they may sav good-bye to their prosperity.* True, the third has been better than the second, but dees any New Zealand fanner really believe that one and two patriotically nursed are not likely to serve him better than the whole bunch left, as they have been in the past, to their own devices? If there is to be any after-war trading arrangement at all, there must be some give and take, and we need not scare ourselves at the start by conjuring up visions of calamities resulting from the possible taxation of exports to enemy and neutral countries.

"ANZACS" AT POZIERES. The word "Anzacs" is being rather loosely used by some newsp£(>er correspondents. As between the Australian and New Zealand forces its use often results in ambiguity. Take the case of Pozieres. hen the news first came it was the " Anzacs" who were fighting on the Somtne, and there was some speculation, as to whether .this included New Zealanders. Then Mr. Philip Gibbs settled it by specifically including New Zeaianders. But it would appear that Mr. Philip Gibbs was wrong. At all events the New Zealand war correspondent has not gone there, and the New Zealand casualties have recently shown a decrease instead of the increase which must have been apparent had any considerable proportion j of the force been fighting at Pozieres. Further, Lord Nortiiclifie recently gave us ] the specific information that General Godley's command was not at Pozieres, but was doing good service holding another part of the line further north. The truth would seem to be that General Bird wood with the Australian Division is on the Somme, while General Godley with the . Australian and New Zealand Division, in which are practically all the New Zealanders now in France, is located elsewhere. GERMAN TRADERS. A recent inquiry made by Mr. Myers, Minister for Customs, upon what turned out to be " mistaken information " shows that the Government is alive to the importance of prohibiting the importation of enemy-made goods. Eve©* now and again one hears of the indignation of customers on discovering that goods they have bought are branded " made in Germany." The inference is at once drawn that"importations from Germany are still troing on, in spite of the war regulations. It is a natural but not a very shrewd inference; natural because it might be supposed that the goods purchased by merchants over two years ago had all been sold, hut lacking in shrewdness because it is inconceivable that Germans are j fiiv making poods to sell in the countries cf their enemies and branding them ' made in Germany.'' However inconHacuous ti. brand may be, it is a handi-'-ip_, and the German who is smuggling I.is good* abroad is not looking for handicaps. The.German articles we have to logout for are smuggled articles made in Germany, but resold through neutral firms, or made in neutral countries by German firms, and under circumstances v. hii-li will benefit Germans of the Fatherland.' The "made in Germany ' articles annoying People bore with it I n'icntiy for a time, hut in two years their patience has been exhausted. * The .-:nui.'„ - article is not so easily detected; in fact, the final purchaser has no chance tn detect it. We have to depend on the patriotism of our merchants and the \i;i!ance of our Customs officials. A NOVEL STRIKE. Six weeks ago Amsterdam was the scene of a rather novel strike resulting from the scarcity of foodstuffs due to Hutch merchants over-selling to Germany. Hie municipality undertook the distribution of potatoes to retailers, but some m evial privilege? were accorded to a Workmen's Distributing Association. This aroused keen feeling among retailers, who first indulged in a street riot, but subsequently endeavoured to gain their point by a strike. They closed their shops and ii line a led to farmers not to bring vegetables to town till the Government closed the frontiers against export in order to bring the prices down to prewar standards. The weakness of the strike was that the farmers were not interested in bringing prices down, and the municipality insisted on setting up in business as greengrocers. All the same there was in Amsterdam a great deal of public sympathy with the vegetable retailers. Vegetables have been so scarce in Holland that the Government has undertaken the distribution of; rice at a Cheap, price,

THE TALE OF THE GEBMAH FLEET. In the cablegrams of this week we have been treated again to the interesting little story of the German fleet steaming unmolested in the North Sea looking for Jellicoe and Realty. How often has this threadbare tale been repeated? It comes periodically from Scandinavia, usually from Copenhagen, but occasionally from some of the other ports. This week ,1 fleet of Dreadnought*, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines was seen leaving the Kiel Canal "steaming a, little bekiw its highest speed-" The detail concerning the speed of the fleet is very naive. One wonders how the observer was able to fis the speed the fleet was making and the speed it could attain. Occasionally the story is varied by the " booming of guns," but there is singularly little variety in the presentation of the alleged facts. In spite of its apparently neutral origin it is a German story circulated to help the Germans to hang on to their faith in the German Navy. It must now be getting hard to swallow, even in Germany. The Gekejui..