NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18498, 7 September 1923, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

• ■ Phots IX "AUSTRALIA. ; ' : 1 Wliile .admitting . that the . pooling system- WaS ■ the only effective. method under the Government control necessary during the war; a correspondent, of the. Sydney Forum says' that, the continuation of the system since; the war has been a. cost'ly mistake. , He says* it 'is now - common knowledge that the fruit pool will leave the country ; with a' very substantial loss probably over £600.000 will have to be made up by the taxpayer to provide for inefficiency;-.' and lack- of - knowledge -by those who' are responsible for the financing and marketing of the fruit that cam© under, the control! of this pool. . But there is perhaps no other industry that > - has , suffered so • extensively as -, that of, wheat, . or. : in regard to 'which the taxpayer has had to find - such large sums for inefficiency. Largely, for political purposes substantial sums of money were, guaranteed to farm-; ers, beyond the price that, experienced men knew the wh eaC would bo worth. The farmer in duo course got' all this moneycalled advances ! The taxpayer, particularly in New South Wales, had to malcd up the over-payment. . In that Stato, during the past season, the controllers of the voluntary pool refused offers! for t'heir wheat on, the basis of ss. ;per bushel to the grower .in the country, at a time when the crop was arriving, and when, oversea buyers' needed it-. Siiico then, 1 that pool ■ has sold some of its wheat on the basis to the grower of about; 3s. 6d. per bushel, and it is unlikely to", get much more for the export balance still remaining on its bands. The [ pool still maintains its ' policy" of forcing local millers to,' pay ■ more' for whejii £hah the price at which' it can sell' overseas; it will - sell wheat- for flour for shipment to Japan at substantially below the price that- it .will sell to millers for local consumption. It has actually sold wheat in Europe at quite Is. per bushel below the price. at which it is prepared to sell to millers, whose flout" is used locally 1

' LOANS AND COMMERCE. • Tie - suggestion that' borrowers in London should bo required 'to spend a certain proportion of the loans in the United Kingdom was recently repeated in the House of Commons, when an amendment was proposed to the East Iwdia Loans Bill providing that at least 75 pe' cent, of any loans should be expended in Britain. On behalf of the Government, Earl Win terton announced that of India's loans raisnd during the last financial year no loss than 95' per cent, was directly expended in Britain. The question has been discussed by the city editor of the Times, who shows that such a restriction is superfluous, while its application would have mischievous results. 'He says :-— Money borrowed here must be spent here, for the simple reason that in this country only is ib legal tender. A Japanese borrower who raises in this country, say, £1,000, in. 1310 form of a loan or a. credit, may exchange his claim en that amount (of British goods or services for, say, a claim of 4,600,000 dollars of American goods and services, in which case the l6an is converted from an export of goods to Japan into an export of goods to America. It is, of course, open to the American buyer of the £1,0C0,C00 of the British i:redit originally lent to Japan to sell it to Argentina, in which case there, is a British export to Argentina. In fact, thers is no limit to. tho number of exchar ges that .may be .effected t.before,. the circle of exchange is completed and the credit actually used in a purchase of British goods. It is . obvious that the lending of • money, even when it is not immediately taken in the shape of goods by the country which borrows, oils the wheols of commerce by promoting an exchange of goods. Lending, therefore, does stimulate, trade, and it would bo neither ■wise nor statesmanlike to impose upon all borrowers tho obligation to spend • any moneys borrowed here themselves directly and immediately upon the purchase of British goods. Any.universal adoption of such a principle would mean that borrowers would. have to raise funds in those countries which were in a position to supply them with the goods they wanted. This would endanger the supremacy of London as a monetary centre, would lessen Che. volume of international commerce because of other countries' inability to lend, and restrict the "trade of this country.

A NAVAL HOLIDAY.

Commenting on the ratification by the five great naval Powers of the Washington '.Treaty, the London Daily Telegraph says : The " naval holiday " has" begun. The ideal was recommcneded by Great Britain to the Germans more than 10 years ago. They rejected it, and now their fleet lies rusting in the waters of Scapa Flow. The suggestion was revived in a cleaner and clearer atmosphere by President Harding, and the success of the Washington' Conference, so far as the naval problem was concerned, will be looked upon as the most far-reaching and beneficent act of statesmanship of his period of office. The " naval holiday," which has now begun,'constitutes a great act of faith, and, in terms of money, will represent the largest economy ever effected by international agreement. ' ' For, as events prior to the conference - and the proceedings at Washington itself proved, the world was about to witness' a fresh rivalry in the buildinsr of coloesal capital ships. What the influence of this expenditure on the economic and social, and even political, well-being of the nations Involved mi?ht have been, it is impossible to sav ; but it would have ! proved a grievous handicap to, them. That menacing cloud has been dispersed.

POWER IK AGRICULTURE. i ■ In view of the proposal made by the Publio Works Department that' arrangements should bo made for experiments in the use of electricity for ploughing, it is interesting to note that the Royal Agricultural Society's Show ,at Newcastle included exhibits demonstrating the use of electricity in farming operations. En- i gineering observes that Mr. R. Borlase Matthews, who is well known as an enthusiastic advocate of electrical methods on tho farm, looks forward to the day when the agriculturalist will be able •to obtain; his power for ploughing or driving fixed _ machinery by tapping overhead electric transmission lines, and he '.'exhibited apparatus for doing this and utilising the electricity so obtained. Referring to other mechanical aids to agriculture, : the journal remarks that at the shows a few years ago the. predominant feature was the number and variety of the agricultural tractors to be seen, and the only question appeared to be which type ,of machine would ultimately prove most' generally useful. Matters are very different to-day. . The tractors which' were going to save the British farming industry have not done so, and, indeed, are themselves hard put to it to survive There were plenty to be found at the Newcastle Show, but little or no interest seemed to be taken in. them; and the general . impression appealed to be that the day. of the tractor nad passed, at any raw for the ' present. - Experience has shown - that these machines require more skilled attention to keep them in working order than can be given to them on tho average farm, and the reduction -in the value - of horses and of labour has made their advantages less important. Mechanical methods of ploughing and cultivation are, however, almost certain ultimately to prevail, but for the) time being the tractor in ' under a • cloud. *