EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10768, 17 May 1911, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

TliK Minister of Education was naturally impressed by The New the proposal made Representation, by Mr Allen for settling the representation difficulty without disadvantage to the South. He was equally naturally impressed also by the duty of seeing to it iha't there shall be no disadvantage to the North. The principle governing' the 7 'situation may be stated as thus:— i When you take "V" seats from A and give them to B, the result is to add to the force, of B, in comparison of "the force of A, twice the "V" seats transferred. Thus a gain of three seats to the North after the general election, , according to the . hew census figures, means adding to the preponderance of j the North in any division six seats. Mr Fowlds said that we cannot add those three without taking them away from the South. According to that it will not be enough to leave the South as it is after giving three new seats to the North. It will be necessary, if the South is left as it is, to add six seats to the North. As a matter of strict logical exercise of the intellect this is all very true. But there is an underlying implication that the citizens of this Dominion" are not really citizens at all, but that they are dwarf members of petty parishes dying of spite and consumed with jealousy. We revolt against any such 'assumption as derogatory to the people of this country. The distributions of representation are based on the principle of equality of weight, the object being to give every man's vote the weight that is given to the vote of every other man as nearly as possible; this not for local purposes, but for the regulation of the great problems of the incidence of taxation, and the equal freedom of all opportunities. Let us by all means see that the weight of the vote is everywhere equal, but let us set a higher value on its uses than it pan ever have in the eyes of local pettiness. The discussion of the subject is a proof of the badness of the system on which the adjustment of the representation is made after every census. It would bo better to consider how that can be .best amended than to lose time in devising a different application of the initial bad practice. • The redoubtable Captain Pierce, who is the soul of the; The American Meat Pastoralists' ReTrust, view . since MrTwopenny, jbhe mild urbane founder disposed of his in-j terest in that journal, seems to be get-; ting more and more obsessed with the idea that the American Meat Trust is going to get hold of the industry in these countries and starve the producers to its own immense advantage. As long as the Captain was alone his trumpetings did not seem to impress men very much, chiefly for lack of veri-i similitude. Now J however, .we .are mpresence of a second votary of tins'; cult of the great meat buyer, and the: consequence is a duet of trumpets, rising in harmonious notes of dismal: warm'iiii. ■'■ The now votary appears to be a Christchurch merchant who has decided views, which he has imparted to :i reporter of the Lyttelton Times, to the effect that there is a large firm well known —but not named by the denouncer for reasons of his own—which is competing all over the Dominion in the having of freezers, running up the prices quite regardless of the market propents. The .experts on watch may sound their warnings of the probabilities of price levels till they are black in the face; thev may even show us to our dismay that the supplies now banking up in store—especially of lamb —do not seem destined to go into consumption for a worse period than the last, which persuaded the ordinary producer that mutton would never be frozen again for any purpose whatever. AP these tilings may spell prudence, but the firm goea on buying recklessly with the design of ruining the other buyers with purses whoso length by comparison with the purse of the American combine'is tho China orange in Lombard street, so that in a short timo there may be no opposition to the combine. Then we shall have to lie on tho bed that we have made, to slowmusic, the tune being "A long farewell to all our greatness." It is pointed out that the Government must intervene through the Legislature, and also by that favorite device of wobblers, a Royal Commission. At the same time it is urged that no Commission would get at the facts from an astute corporation, and it is added that Parliament could probably do very little. It is an encouraging outlook, truly! Quite worthy .of a resourceful people which is never left without necessary information, and invariably knows what to do with it when it has got it. Happily these considerations are immaterial. We do not want either legislative action or a Commission. Last year we passed a law very drastic, especially if>r. combines out in the open. But this combine, according to the story of its : chroniclers, is bound whenever it acquires command of the market to come out into the open. When it does that there "is" not'difficulty, if it does restrain trade, in shutting it up by law with the aid of the tremendous appliances provided. Should this reliance prove unavailing, should the combine prove too ingenious or too strong for the law of restraint devised for his case,, there is another way to treat him. The Prime Minister has pointed that out ill his declaration that' rather than permit the combine" to get possession of the meat trade ho. would be prepared to lead Parliament to the application of the principle of nationalisation. With two such strings to our bow.. ">ve feel it is hot necessary tq.be inordinately alarmed by the obsessions of the redoubtable-' Captain Pierce, even though lie has found. |i disciple to take up the . trumpet and blow" a- vigorous if mysterious second in a duet of warning. At the present stage—if there is a stage out of tjie imaginative world of phantoms—we can do nothing,' for no power can stop buying at. 'arty price that buyers choose.to'offer in-the'open market', even if we knew what'we do not, the name of the firm d<>ihg this service of speculation for- the. unscrupulous foreign blood-sucker. The. average man can Jiardlv fake the risk of going round and pointing :to a particular fiTm and crying: "There's the ; man who is.buying to cut the 'throat of the trade!" But if the redoubtable Captain.-and his.partner in tho diio.really know-, what they are talking, about,; there is no reason .wliv they should not go round in that maimer.' If the octopus throws a tentacle round them there will be a rescue, party from every part of the Dominion. If they keep silence wo shall regard them as' haying nothing to say that is worth,hearing,