NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18040, 15 March 1922, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITISH FARMERS' LOSSES.

As " pretty fair examples of what is happening all over tho United Kingdom," the agricultural correspondent of tho Daily Telegraph recently published the profit and loss accounts of three farms'in Essex, owned by d farmer who is in the prime of life, with years devoted to his profession, and possesses a deep knowledge of the science of agriculture and the art of stock-roaring. The accounts are for the year ended May 51, 1922. On the first farm of 404 acres, the valuation at Jun 6 1, 1920, was £11,155. The year's expenditure was £7058, including £2368 for labour, and £882 in rent, rates, tithes, etc., and the proceeds from produce and stock sold £6717, showing a loss of £540. Similarly on the second farm of 276 acres, valued at £5675, there was a loss of £1660, though the third, of 152 acres, valued at £5037, showed a profit of £2338. This farmer attributes his loss to the very higli cost of labour directly and indirectly, and the low price of produce when grown. The land, he considers, should bo relieved of all rates, and farmers should be assessed and pay rates on the buildings and houseonly. They would then be on the same terms as an implement maker, a brewer, or a grocer. "Why should the farmer pay rates on his raw material—tho land!" ho asks.

THE REPARATION CLAIMS, Shortly before his appointment as Minister for Finance in the French Government, M. de Lasteyrie drew up a report expressing the opinion of the Finance Commission of tho Chamber of Deputies as to the method to be adopted to compel Germany to meet her Treaty obligations. The report says: "In order to put an end to the present intolerable situation the Allies must use tho rights bestowed on them by the Treaty of Peace, and take in hand control of German finances. They must exercise preferential rights conferred on them by Article 248 of the Treaty over tho whole of the property and resources of the German Empire and Confederated States. To this effect the Allies should without further delay have recourse to the only means known in history to compel a defaulting State to pay its debts; they must instal in Berlin a Debt Commission similar to those which have functioned so satisfactorily in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, etc. . . . It is a question of simply exercising control over German finances and insisting that certain of the German resources shall be devoted to the service of its foreign debt." This, M. de Lasteyrie insists, should hare the duty of bringing pressure to bear on tho German Government to put its public finances in order, and should also take charge of the revenues derived from customs, mines, public forests, etc., re-establishing control over foreign credits due to Germany for the purpose of preventing capital leaving the country, and participate for the benefit of the Allies in certain German industries in which the Commission would bo constituted as shareholder. GERMANY'S EXPANSION. That Germany's inability to meet her obligations is not real wag argued by M. de Lasteyrie. " The Reich has even started a policy of economic expansion which is responsible to some extent for her present budgetary deficit of nearly 190,000 million marks. Out of her total estimated expenditure of 250,465 million marks only 95 milliards arc in respect of tho execution of the Peace Treaty. If Germany had no obligation to pay reparations her budgetary deficit would amount to practically 100,000 million marks. A large portion of this deficit is due to the fact that German expenditure has been exaggerated in many directions. She has indulged in a large amount of permanent improvement of her railways, including the doubling of, oertain lines, the construction of new ones, and even the building of platforms required for projected strategical lines. Of the estimated deficit of 17,000 million marks on her railways for the current year over seven milliards are due to permanent works of this kind. Germany has also spent an enormous amount of money on developing her waterways, for which purpose the Budget of 1.921 included credits of 440 million marks in respect of the Rivor Danube and the Oder-Sprte and Rhine-Weser Canals, while another 150 millions was allotted for the construction of another canal. Further, the Govern* ment has drawn up plans for the construction of a new mercantile fleet which will cost 12,000 million marks during the next three years, and will enable Germany to reconstitute her merchant shipping on n pre-war basis. It seems strange to French minds that while we are devoting the whole of our resources in reconstituting the devastated regions Germany is able to carry out a programme of economio expansion." THE COST OF STRIKES. An official summary of the trade disputes involving a stoppage of work which occurred in the United Kingdom in 1921, shows that the aggregate loss of time was much in excess ot that in any previous year. The number of disputes which began in 1921 was 800. and the total number of workpeople involved was nearly 1,800,000. A further 40,000 were involved in disputes in progress in 1921 which began in 1920. The aggregate loss of working time in all disputes in 1921 was 86,000,000 days. The number of disputes was less than one-half the total lor 1920, and much below the totals for either 1918 or 1919. Owing, however, to the magnitude of the coal-mining dispute, the number of people involved in 1921 was little less than in 1920, and greater than in any previous year except 1919, but the aggregato loss of time through disputes in was much in excess of any previous year. The decline in employment which was in progress at the end oi 1920. continued during the first quarter of 1921, and by the end of March employment in most of the principal industries was bad. The prolonged dispute in tho coal mining incfustry, causing a general stoppage of work at the pits from the beginning of April until the first week in July, resulted in a scarcity of fuel which greatly accentuated the effects of the depression in trade; and at the beginning of July, of nearly 11,000,000 workpeople in industries insured against unemployment other than coal mining, 19 per cent, were unemployed, and large numbers of others were on short time. LOCAL HEALTH OFFICERS. In some places the salaries of medical officers of health have recently been reduced or threatened with reduction, while many local authorities, in response to the national need for economy, are thinking of saving a little money at the expense of their medical staffs, wrote a correspondent of the London Morning Post recently. Naturally this has caused anxiety among the section of medical men especially and officially concerned with the administration of the public health measures of the country, and the Society of Medical Officers of Healt'n has been taking steps to organise help for their members in cases of particular unfairness. The Question of what the salary of a medical officer of health should be may in the near future come in for wide discussion, inasmuch as a difficult situation bids fair to arise in Manchester in connection with this very point. The Ci-y of Manchester has advertised for a medical officer of health, offering as salary, with no bonus and with no question of future rise, £1500 per annum. The Society of Medical Officers of Health has decided that this is the wrong figure altogether, and has notified rts members Chat the post should not be applied for by any of them. There is reason to believe that the city authorities consider that the salary to be provided is adequate, and that they will regard any contrary view taken by the medical profession as class dictation. If so they will refuse to make any higher offer. But there is also reason to believe that, unless a higher offer is made, and unless the appointment can be conferred with some general approval from the medical profession, the Manchester authorities win pot receive applications of the standard that might reasonably be expected for such a city. There is here all the material for an unedifying struggle unless counsels of compromise '