PASSING EVENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1687, 29 June 1904, Page 45

PASSING EVENTS.

History is philosophy teaching by examples.

—Thucydides

‘“Tlie progressive policy of the past twelve years has touched every corner of New Zealand, creating wealth and prosperity for the people of the colony. Hie city and province of Wellington stand out clear from the rest/of-the colony in having reaped a larger measure of the benefits of such progress and development.” Although this statement was made by an auctioneer, with a hne imagination and a sanguine disposition, it contains a full measure of truth, - and the increasing trade of Wellington during the past decade justifies all that has been said with respect to the city’s progress. Wellington is_ now not only the principal city on account of its being the seat of Government, but because of its being the chief business centre in New Zealand..’ From the statistics we publish of »th© trade of Wellington, it vail be seen that Auckland now must take second place in commercial importance. It is not to be supposed, however, that Auckland is a decadent city. Neither is it to be imagined that stagnation - has' Overtaken he?, or that inertia has taken possession of her citizens. Auckland is ; .making progress, but her progress is not so rapid as that of Wellington. The northern city has much in her favour. She commands all the island trade; she secure! whatever advantage there is in/ the calling of the Ban Francisco Mail jj Mervica steamers; she has a monopoly of

the Kauri timber and Kauri gum industries; while the great Thames goldfields yield much' gold by which. Auckland is largely benefited. What has enabled Auckland to maintain her lead in the matter? o£ 'Customs revenue, has been the existence of the sugar refinery there. This year the duty paid on sugar at Auckland will approximate two hundred thousand pounds,, but that will not enable the northern city to take first place; yet in general merchandise Wellington imports 1 so much more than Auckland as, to be able to more than obliterate whatever advantage the sugar refinery affords; W 6re this particular duty paid at the various centres of population, Auckland’s position would 1 ' be- stnl more affected. Altogether the trade o£ Wellington in point of value exceeded that of Auckland last year by as. much- as seven hnndifed thousand'pounds;, and the Empire city’s'customs revenue was in excess of that of Auckland by upwards- of ten thousand. The effect of this will prdaably be toallay the jealousy of the Auckland people against Wellington., For many years Auckland has been envious of Wellington’s commercial progress, but now that the northern city sees that it is im- - possible to prevent Wellington from occupying the premier place in trade jealousy and ill-feeling will subside. W e doubt if the completion of the Main Trunk (Railway will assist Auckland as much as it will Wellington in the matter of business, but it must be admitted that the Auckland people have worked strenuously’ for its construction. The study of the statistical returns of the trade of the various ports is interesting reading. •

There is a belief, however well or ill founded, that the present session of ’Parliament‘will be one of a- peaceful order and .of short duration. It may not be as quarrelsome and distressing as some of its predecessors, hut the programme of work contains subjects for debate that will excite bitter thoughts and warm words. Still, it is far from likely that the session will run into twenty-one; weeks, as was the fact last year, and the daily sitting hours will probably be shorter. After the usual review and criticism of the Government administration has been offered by the House, the most important questions, for debate will be those pertaining to land, liquor and religion. There is a growing demand in the- country for the right to convert Crown leaseholds-into freeholds at the option of the tenant, who is anxious to absolve himself from the conditions his peculiar tenancy impose upon him. .The right of purchase is claimed by the vast majority of Crown tenants, 'and. we are of opinion that it would be more advantageous to the State to convceda that, right than to continue, the f leasing of land for terms, of 999 years. No matter how the land may improve in value the rent must remain the same. On the other handfrthe tenant, while being hedged about by irksome conditions with respect to cultivation, feara that Parliament may violate some day the terms of his lease and introduce the principle of revaluation. This prospect lias- converted him into a freeholder, and lie- would rather have, his land valued now and offered the right of purchase than submit to further inspection and a possible increase of rent. The idea of the . State becoming a rack-renter is abhorrent to the tenant. (Besides the right of purchase would inspire Crown tenants with hope. They see no prospect of their children becoming on the land, other than workers for the State,, and they desire if possible by their ef- . forts to pay off the purchase-money and ; leave their families free of the incubus of rent-paying. This is a worthy ambition,, as good for the State as for the individual, and ought to be encouraged iby the legislature. The House of Representatives is divided on the question and when opportunity is afforded for its debate, the discussion will he long and strenuous. Should the freeholders be beaten now the fight will .certainly he revived. On the liquor question, some amendment to the law is necessary to obviate the difficulties that arose in Bruce and Newtown; and when the question- is once opened up it is not easy to say how far the legislature will go in the way of revision and amendment. Numbers of legislators,, however,, realise now that it was, a departure from constitutional practioe to give to the people the right of dealing with their neighbour’s property at the ballot-box; and so- in the matter of the Bible-in-Schools question they will be chary about leaving to the decision of the people what they as representatives ought to decide. If menbers of Parliament are not to guide- .and educate public opinion instead ofjollowing it they will degenerate intopfelegates merely.

DEmlployers of labour in New Zea- ' iland will be interested in any new f method devised for tho purpose of unproving the* efficiency of the worker and . olr increasing his interest in his work. Labour conditions in this country are by no means the freest, and some of the more capable among trade union-,-vists have complained that under the present system there is no incentive to : them to become more efficient. Em- : ployers are also hampered, and cannot give preference to any of their employees. That our present system must ' undergo revision and amendment in some directions is the conviction of both inasters and men : . and it is probable

that the first amendment to be made will be in the direction of allowing the worker to earn more than the maximum wage by becoming a more expert workman than 1 his neighbour. In view of such a contingency, the system which has been introduced into the dockyards controlled by the British Admiralty is worthy of the consideration of employers of labour in tlris country. The authorities noted that there were several time-wasters, as well as timeservers in the dockyards, and the new system had been adopted for the purpose of putting an end to these evils among bodies of workers. As much : work as possible is to be done on the premium system. When the job is given i out, the time it ought to take is fixed, and. if the worker does it in less time I than is allowed he is paid a premium, but if he takes longer his fixed wages • are in no way affeeted. The object of the system is to offer inducements to earnest and capable workmen to avoid the practice of the “ca’ canny” principle.. If a man does a job, the time allowed for which is forty-eight hours, in thirty-six he is credited with a saving of twenty-five per cent, of the time f taken in its performance, and if his Wages are one shilling per hour, his premium on that item would be nine I shillings. The time of finishing a job is the time of commencing the next, ! and no premium is paid unless the workmanship be done to the satisfac- ; tion of the, overseer. After propounding this method, the Secretary to the : Admiralty said he hoped that the ih- : troduction of the premium system (would lead to the workmen taking an ! increased interest in their work, machines, tools and equipment generally, and to keenness on their part in pointing out-to their officers where improver ments. may be made and time saved, re- ' suiting in - better ways of working. Many employers of labour in New Zealand would welcome the institution of such a system. Unionists as a body would oppose its introduction, but the intelligent and expert workman has nothing to lose and something to gain by the approval of the principle and its adaption' in practice whereby higher wages than the maximum fixed by the Arbitration Court award. It may be contended that piece-work is provided for now, but piece-work is not always workable, and so time-work and the payment of premiums for greater expedition might be considered as an alternative by workers, employers and the Court when labour disputes are being settled. An amendment in the law to allow of this being done would, no doubt, ,be favourably considered by the Legislature. . '

The visit of Mr R,. Crowe, chief of the dairying divisions of Victoria, has revived interest in the proceedings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the methods adopted by Victorian dealers for the disposal of butter in that State. Previously we directed attention to this subject, and contrasted Victorian methods with the grading system established in this country under Government supervision. Mr Crowe supports our view that the farmers in Victoria are not nearly so well served by the Agricultural Department of that State as our producers are by the Agricultural Department in this country. Here the grading system is complete, and is, Mr Crowe observes, working satisfactorily; but farmers themselves are not organised as thoroughly as they ought to be. Yet there is an organisation in New Zealand called the National Dairying Association that manipulates the produce of all those factory companies, who have come under its' provisions. In Victoria farmers agents are both buyers and sellers, and have so controlled the trade in butter that retailers are unable to purchase in the open market. Mr George Jones, secretary to the Victorian Shopkeepers’ Association, when before the Commission stated that there was really no open market in Melbourne at all. When retailers went to buy at the advertised time and place they invariably found that all the butter had been secured by the agents who were acting for the producers. In this way retailers had to secure supplies from agents, who thus made a commission out of the farmer and also profit out of the retailer. But that was not the worst phase of this business. Butter would be received from factories, the brands /of which would be effaced and fresh ones stamped on to the boxes before export. Thus the individuality of factories was destroyed, and they received no credit fior the merit of their production. “Palm oil” was used by agents of various firms having dairying machinery to sell, and managers and secretaries to dairy factory companies confessed to having had ‘Tips” of from £5 to £lO from several trading representatives. If they remonstrated they were told it was the usual custom, and so acceptance became easy and afterwards was looked for. No organisation of producers exists in this country beyond that of the association to which we have referred, and it does not appear to be necessary, having regard to the fact that the Government has undertaken the supervision of export under the grading system. What strikes the consumer of butter in this country is worth mentioning. The market price for finest New Zealand butter in London is eiglity-seven shillings per cwt, whereas in Wellington it is one shilling per lb. That is to say, that choicest New Zealand butter can be bought

more cheaply by consumers in England than it can be in the country whence it is exported. Surely farmers have a right to better prices, or consumers to a reduction.

The intercession being made on behalf of Lieut. Witton to the Home authorities by Mr Watson, Premier of Australia, has some chance of success. But the friends of Witton will not surely be satisfied with a pardon unless it is further demonstrated that Witton cannot be proved guilty. At the time we considered the ends of justice had been served by the shooting of Lieuts. Morant and Handcock* and that Witton should not have been imprisoned for life, but cashiered, as was his comrade Lieut. Picton. The case of Witton has agitated public men in Australasia and in South Africa, and the conviction is gaining ground that Witton should be released. The other day the Natal Assembly sent a petition to the Home Secretary for the release of Witton; but as fresh evidence has been forthcoming in his favour he should be given a fresh trial, and as it shows he merely obeyed the orders of Morant in one case, and acted in selfdefence in another, his acquittal on the evidence would be more satisfactory than being granted a free pardon unless the reason were particularly stated. Lieut. Witton joined the newly-formed Bush , Veldt Carbineers at Petersburg in 1901, but the corps was disbanded eight months afterwards on account of its misconduct and cruelty. Its commanding offioer, Captain Hunt, had been murdered by the Boers, and Lieuts. Morant and.Handcoek assumed command. They sought to revenge Capt. Hunt’s death. Morant was senior officer, and after an engagement with a party of Boers at Rietriel, one was taken prisoner from the laager, and being feund in the uniform of his murdered captain, Lieut. Moran o ordered Lieut. Picton and a firing party to shoot this Boer. There was a consultation among the officers, and Witton said he agreed with some of the men that the Boer should not be shot, and remonstrated with Morant. who said that if his orders were not obeyed he would shoot the man himself. Then on another occasion, when some eight prisoners were being brought in, Morant announced liis intention of shooting the lot. Witton questioned his authority, and was told that he was “a junior officer and had only to obey orders.” Morant ordered the Boers from the waggon, inarched them twenty yards from the road, and directed that they should be shot. Lieut. Witton was one of the firing party. He told in his evidence how he hesitated to fire, but one of the prisoners rushed him and he fired to keep him off. All these Boers were shot, and in all twelve murders were charged tc Morant and his followers, who were, on the whole, a reckless and impassioned band. Still Morant took the whole responsibility at the subsequent court-martial, and declared that Witton only did as lie was commanded. This did not, however, appeal to Lord Kitchener at the time, but it is contended now that, being without an advocate, the points favourable to the acquittal of Witton were not emphasised. Fresh affidavits have since been made, and the petition of the Natal Parliament will strengthen the plea of the Federal Premier.