PASSING EVENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1676, 13 April 1904, Page 45

PASSING EVENTS.

History is philosophy teaching by examples. —-Thucydides. The Trades and Labour Councils’ Conference settles many knotty points ui politics with a readiness and ease that is to say the least of it, surprising. No difficulty is to the members of the conference insurmountable. They determine that the Government should print all the school 'books, and sell them at cost price just m readily as they decide that the State .should issue a paper'currency and upoln this form of created money construct all the unfinished railways. There is reason for the State’s undertaking the printing of school books, and the argument is strongly in favour of uniformity were it not that school bocks like other things in this progressive world become obsolete or are discarded as unsuitable. a better book having been prepared; but to determine off-hand that the Government of any State should undertake the manufacture of money with the proverbial bale cf paper and a printing press is to decide upon a course of national financial embarrassment that would in the end bring ruin to the vast majority of these forming the constituencies of the representatives to the Trades Councils’ Conference. To merely issue Government notes and declare them bv Act of Parliament to be legal money would not prevent, their deterioration: in the open market unless, indeed, the State was ready to pay one sovereign for every one pound note on presentation and demand. There have been periods of stress when paper money was largely used!, but it had attendant evils. When Great Britain was. a century ago. reduced to the condition of issuing unlimited paper money, consols .fell to as low as sixty-five with interest at six per cent. Again, when the United States of America were forced \ to issue “greenbacks,” their gold-purchasing power was rodheed to one-third their face value. The Government of that day could not borrow money abroad and pay interest on loans with sheaves- of dollar hills'. The nation’s creditors demanded gold, and that commodity advanced to a prefuim. Working men and producers were paid for their work .and produce with dollar bills —the previous paper money of the State. —and as the currency was debased by as much as sixty-six per cent., it surefy requires no economist to understand how hardly those classes of the community were hit by the issue cf “legal tender State notes,” To tide over a difficulty, or to stem some: financial cataclysm., the issuing of paper money may be permissible, and it is accounted sound finance to back with the State s name millions of notes issued by the Blank of England or the: Bank of France. It may even be accounted good business for the State t 0 take over the issuing of notes from the banks, and it would be perfectly safe to do so were the State itself to provide such backing of gold m reserve as it now requires these institutions to bold. Any interference with the currency of a country may be lightly resolved upon by an irresponsible body, but it is surrounded with many practical difficulties which to the uninitiated do not appear. That is the Only reason why members of the Trades Conference delight to settle 'this and oth-r questions with so much airy-mindednees.

The war in the Far East is making but. slow progress. The news is snappy and a/t times, scarcely coherent. Intelligence is not the outstanding characteristic cl the war news, and so there is abundant scope for speculation. Speculators upon the war make various prognostications, and should! one iota of their voluminous and d'aily asseverations become realised they acclaim their prescience by the repetition of their prophetic utterance on such and such a date. To persons of intelligence this is an unfailing source of humour, and to- the critics of the war a means of unctuous self-adulation. At lien. however, we Understand something of the plan of campaign of the Japanese, the movements of the past month are easily understood. After the disablement of the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, and the subsequent partial destruction of that fortress, the retirement of the Russians to the north became strategically imperative: unless the forces in and around Port Arthur were prepared ta run the risk of being. cut off front communications and supplies from Muikdlen and thei north. If on the Other hand the Russians were to retain possession of Port Arthur they must prevent the advance of the Japanese laud forces across the Yalu river, and it s along the banks of this frontier stream, or in the country immediately to the north-west of it., that the. Russian generals have placed their troops. The Russians seem to be awaiting the onward rush of the Japanese soldiers, and although ail effort, is likely to to prevent the passage of the Yalu, our cablegrams this week inform, us that a body of Russians have been repelled at a point, near its estuary with,.'.considerable loss. It. would appear that possession of the Yaius river is essential to the strategic position of Russia ii£ l Northern. Korea and Maaicliuria. • If slfe is once driven iuto*Maaichuria, Port Arthur must ah u 'dned to* the disabled fleet. Russia. -c-yM i not attempt with-any likeli- ' ■ '-r f "c ■•.-A. the railway open 1 . ;-ukden and Port Arthur with

Japanese troopa across the Yalns in any numbers} forcing their way to the west through Feng-huaai-Oheng in the north towards |§ukcfen nnd> Ta-tung-K ao in the south near the ooast. Russian generals know how important it is that the Japanese should be prevented from crossing the YaJp| »f«r now that they have lost cf Bay up to JPort Arthur, ! the.-flauk of tlieir military position would he exposed toi the Japanese,, and the invasion of Manchuria would be begun. With reported losses on the Yaiu, the Russians 'have determined to mobilise, the naval reservists, and an effort will be made to stem the inroads of the foe. It, is not expected that the war will be other than one of innumerable insignificant engagements for some time. The broken country of northern Korea is no t favourable to the operation of massed' Russian, troops, and the Russians are determined to strain their resources to defeat tlieir agile enemy. Intervention of a foreign Power with a view to peace is not to be thought of for the present.

The continued prosperous state of New Zealand offers a striking contrast to the perturbed condition of trade and labour in Australia. In nearly every State in the Commonwealth there is a dearth of employments Both in New South Wales and Victoria, the cry of the unemployed is being loudly heard, and statesmen.are concerned lest the labour party should dominate federal politics. A Royal Commission has just reported on the question of whether locomotives should be imported or manufactured in New South Wales. In open competition, so a minority report states, locomotives could not be built locally as cheaply as they could be imported. Tim majority of the Commission report, however, that preference should be giveni'to local manufacturers in the interests of labour, and if there is to be any limit to local preference, then it must be defined, by the Government or the railway commissioners. From this two conclusion's may be deduced. First, that the old free-trade colony is being rapidly converted under the influence of the labour party, and in the second place, whenever the Government restricts local preference so as to curtail local contracts and throw manly out of it will incur the displeasure of the labour party. An agitation is afoot also- for the inclusion of seamen and State employees under the provisions of th ft- much-debated Arbitration Bill of the Federal Parliament. The Government is. of course, opposed to this proposal, and a fierce fight may be anticipated.. The people of Australia might take a leaf out of the statute book of this country, with a view to' settling these questions. While allowing seamen to come under the operation of our conciliation and arbitration enactments, we have established for Government, employees courts of their own to which they might appeal for redress • and the conference of railway employee delegates which sat in Wellington last week • is an evidence of the freedom of Government employees to ventilate their grievances and to bring their wants directly before the notice of Ministers. Labour trouble's invariably arise whenever there is- a tightness of finance, a contraction of enterprise, and a cessation of public works. Prosperity in this country and the institution of Conciliation Boards and Arbitration Counts has practically put an end to open warfare between capital and labour. True, labour leaders, are not satisfied with the peaceful relations that exist. They see the worker doing well and being content, and they fear that unless they promulgate; a new labour platform of socalled reforms, the worker will forget the exigence of. labour’s agitators. Some desire to divorce Labour from Liberalism, and wish to create an Independent Labour party. Should this agitation be successful.,it would mark a cleavage between Liberal and Labour politicians, probably induce the Liberal party to .stand by the Farmers’ Union, and lead to. the. absorption of the old and effete conservative influence witniri the ranks of Liberalism thus reformed. Even in this, hour of* our prosperity that seems to be the trend of political party adjustment. The two .great liberal democracies of Europe—Great Bright and France—have seldom at any period of their history displayed so much mutual forbearance aiid consideration. Having entered into a formal underatandi i: g some months ago to settle their differences by arbitration, under which the old question of the shore rights on the Newfoundland coast were adjusted, Great Britain and France have now concluded and signed a convention for the settlement of foreign and colonial questions, this convention being regarded as ‘•'the greatest diplomatic success for many years.” Under one of its provision the difficulties arising out of the dual grievance of the New Hebrides will be settled. For quite a number of years the situation in these islands has been far from satisfactory, and many complaints against the French have reached this country from missionaries maintained by some of our New Zealand churches. These complaints have invariably traversed the cmscrupulun- conduct of French traders and land jobbers, and .the plunder the natives is doveribed as having been cruel and qyt'Tger.u.U I Under this • new co-u-bvi. a') I ... trouble in the' New. H b •>. ■

likely to be set at rest. From an international view point, the Anglo-French convention will exert an important influence. ; It will mean, as far as Great Britain and France are concerned 1 , the idealisation of the Far Eastern war and a determination by these Powers not to fak# any part in the conflict. Having placed the relations of France and Great Britain on a footing of confidence and harmony, an endeavour may be made by Germany to disturb the historic dual allianoe between France and Russia, and Russia, herself may be inclined to take umbrage at the facility with which France was ready to> join hands with perfidious Albion in a -spirit of friendship. It is not so- long since the Russian-inspired press of Paris was reminding the French of the Fashoda affair, with a view to their being incited to actively support Russia in the Far East against Japan. It was openly stated that the Czar wished the French Government to understand that the ‘Solidarity” of France and Russia was unbreakable, and that if the French determined to fight'Eng land over Fashoda then Russia would fight, too, and speedily menace India. Bat France was not ready to fight Great Britain. She had, indeed, no intention of fighting, and would only accept Russian assistance diplomatically. In these negotiations France has cop looted her own affairs, and the “solidarity” between Great Britain and France .is as strong to-day as the dual alliance ever made the “Colossus of the North” and the French Republic. The war has not altered the cordiality of, the relations of the British and the French. It has actually solidified, or. rather intensified their friendship. The possibility of a rupture between France and England is now remote. No inducement that Russia could offer or- German|y could by jealousy inspire, would disturb the happy relations established by the An-glo-French Convention of 1904; and the fact that it has been signed at a. time when the respective allies of the contracting nations were at war with each other is further evidence of its stability.’