THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1922. THE “CUT” AND WAGES REDUCTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18464, 27 January 1922, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1922. THE “CUT” AND WAGES REDUCTION.

The Minister ■of J Finkiice has bluntly stated jin Parliament that the alternative to a reduction of salaries and wages in the public service is a reduction in the number of public servants. The public service is over-manned at the present time. Its personnel might be cut down considerably without detriment to the efficiency of the service. If, however, a reduction of staff were made by the Government, as a step preferable to a reduction of salaries, the effect would necessarily be to aggravate the uflemployment difficulty. The Government is pursuing the less drastic course. If it decides against a redaction of the number of public servants as being a measure that would cause a great deal of personal hardship, it is shut down to the adoption of a plan of retrenchment such as it is proposing. Retrenchment there must be in some form or other. Increased taxation is out of the question. It would involve confiscation of capital and* would be productive of economic ills of a grave character. No person who is desirous of avoiding industrial disaster would suggest that the public receipts and should be balanced by the Imposition of fresh taxation. Liquidations on a large scale would be the result of the adoption of a suggestion so egregious; hundreds of people of slender means, living on the proceeds of their investments, would be forced into bankruptcy; and thousands of men and women would be deprived of work. Nothing would be more certain than this to precipitate a tremendous fall in the general level of wages. Mr Holland, , who opposes the retrenchment proposals in Parliament because, as he says, he fears that they pave the way to a general reduction of wages throughout the country, is blissfully ignorant of the operation of economic laws. If it were not so, he would know that the greatest hardship to labour is experienced when capital is stiffening losses. In innocence he supposes that to despoil capital is to benefit labour. The contrary is the case. All schemes for arbitrarily increasing, or for arbitrarily maintaining, wages rates come to nothing when there is no demand for labour, as would happen if his precious expedient for securing millions of public revenue at the present time by increasing taxation were accepted. The existence of unemployment in the dominion at the present time is due to purely economic causes. If business were prosperous, if capital were earning good returns, and if accumulations of capital were being invested in the enlargement of industrial works, new demands for labour would be created. It is impossible, as an American authority has put it, for an industry to grow and attract labour to it without increasing wages. Individual employers might like to reduce wages, but anything like a general conspiracy to reduce wages for the purpose of increasing profits would bo defeated hy the very fact that profits were increasing. The competition of employers to extend their operations and utilise their new capital would* induce them to hid for labour. These are considerations which Mr Holland, whose political existence is dependent upon his ability to set class against class and to represent the employing and working classes as implacably opposed to each other, nay find it convenient to ignore. Nevertheless, they will be recognised by reflective people as sound economics.

THE INDIAN AQUATION. While it is a far from reassuring note that Lord Northcliffe strikes in the course of the interview on Indian unrest which is summarised in a brief message from Delhi, there is unfortunately no reason to suggest that his, impressions of the Moslem situation are unnecessarily alarmist. In blaming the British Government’s policy towards Turkey for the difficulties in India with which it is now confronted, Lord Northcliffe is merely giving frank expression to a view which is by no means new, and which probably harmonises with suspicions that are being entertained to an increasing s extent throughout the Empire. It is deplorable to think that, in meting out what she considered justice to the “unspeakable Turk” and to .the peoples that have writhed under his domination, Great Britain has struck a blow at her own prestige in India. But the facts of the situation, whatever they may be, must be faced. For some time past various authorities in India have been making urgent representations as to the desirability of some clear statement of an authoritative character being made with a view to allaying Mohammedan feeling on the question of the treatment of Turkey by the Allies. The Secretary of State has reviewed the past history of this question and emphasised the endeavours that have been made to reach a satisfactory settlement., But it is sufficiently apparent that some more effective order of procedure is necessary to bring about the desired improvement in feeling in India. Lord Northcliffe refers to what the moderate Mohammedans consider to be the smallest concessions on Great Britain’s part 1 ' that will bridge the present existing gulf. Doubtless these constitute what may be termed a decidedly ’Targe order.” Replying to an influential deputation of Delhi Moslems some weeks ago, the-Viceroy of India said he was fully conscious of the responsibility of himself and hia Government to press Indian Moslem views on the Home Government, anj, he felt the force of the contention that the Raj’s efforts were not a source of comfort unless the result was effective, “but the problem was complex and international.”. Lord Reading went on to point out that the British Empire ha 3 every reason to desire peace between Turkey and Greece, and that his Majesty’s Government desired a fair and equitable peace, paying due regard to religibys sentiment. He promised that everything which the deputation had urged regarding the international control of Constantinople, the grant of Smyrna and Thrace to Greece, and th© abolition of the religious suzerainty of the • Khalif oyer the holy places of Islam, would bo represented to the Home Government with the full authority of the Raj. So far as can be seeny the moderate section of the Mohammedans has no reason jto complain of the attitude of the Indian Government towards its claims. In Mr Montagu, Secretary of State for India, the opinions of the Moslems of that country find a sympathetic supporter. Undoubtedly Greece has been, and remains, a mischief-creating, factor in the situation. In a recent speech Lord fcurzon, after emphasising: the urgent need for peace in Anatolia, observed: “We are the greatest Mohammedan Power in the world, and it is to our interest, not only in relation to England, but in relation to India,' Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Arabia/to" have a friendly Turkish Power on our flank.” On the question of territorial arrangements which might form the subject of negotiations, Lord Curzon was purposely vague. A troublesome question is whether there is \oom for both Turks and Greeks in Asia Minor. Not withoul a good deal of significance is Lord Curzon’s admission that thor© is no getting # ont of the present onl de sac in the Near East “unless the Great Powers come together, and with perfect loyalty and absolute sincerity bend their shoulders to the common task.” In the meantime the Moslems of India are all impatience for more definite assurances respecting British policy towards Turkey. There are indications that the necessity for a change in. that policy will not be-uncompromisingly disputed, unpalatable though.the admission must be that mistakes have been made. And if there must needs be a retracing of footsteps, or a retrimming of sails, it were obviously well that it should be effected before the position in India grows worse. Since to temporise may be dangerous, the sooner the whole question of British policy towards Turkey )& brought under review the better. UNNECESSARY HASTE. It is / not by any means clear why the Government has adeemed it necessary to force the Piityio Expenditure Adjustment Bill through the House of Representatives in the way it has been doing. Two all-night sittings have been held, for which there is no apparent justification, since Parliament is not immediately pressed for time. It is necessarily a 1 disagreeable duty which, after having postponed action until the eleventh hour, the Government has been compelled , to perform—one by which it cannot possibly gain any popularity. It may be up by a knowledge that it has . accepted its inevitable though disagreeable responsibility, but it should be careful not to give even intangible ground for thd impression that it is using its large majority to force unfairly the passage of the Bill. While the retrenchment proposals must* be regarded by all reasonable people as unavoidable, the apparently unnecessary haste with which the Bill is being pushed forward is really to be deprecated. It may be suggested that the explanation of the all-night sittings of the House is that an organised stonewall was set up against the measure. Even if that were so, however, there is no why the opponents of the proposals should not bo afforded a large amount of latitude in gating their objections to them. The clamant need of a largo reduction in the public expenditure being recognised, as it is by all but an insignificant minority of the members, the Government would have been well, advised to refrain from conceding to its opponents any such argument as that it refusecT* to afford an ample opportunity to resist the proposals by the use of the forms of Parliament. It is a mistake to give even a semblance of ground for such a complaint, which, we may be sure, will be loudly expressed on the platforms of the country. So impeew.tive is the need for retrenchment Cm* any suggestion that there is room for consideration of the question whether increments should be voted at the present time to the salaries of certain

civil servants mast bo held to be wholly untenable. It would surely b© absurd to grant increments at a time when general Retrenchment has been forced on the Government.

The ■ Board of Trade has advised Dunedin butchers that instructions have been received to carry out a comprehensive inquiry into the meat. trade, such inquiry to include the examination of accounts of representative firms for the past _ three years; also to ascertain the correlation of the wholesale prices of stock and the retail price of meat. Each butcher addressed is requested to forward a copy of bis trading account, profit' and loss account, and balance sheets for the past three financial years.

The erection of the Donald Eeid wing of the Early Settlers’ Hall has now proceeded sufficiently \to allow the museum to be opened as usual' on Sunday, and visitors will be welcomed.

A meeting of the executive cf the Bed Cross Society was held yesterday afternoon to make arrangements for a lecture which is to be delivered in Bums Hall on Wednesday evening next by the Bey. M. MuJlineux, M.C., who hafi been a representative of the Canadian and New Zealand Bed Cross in France since the armistice. Mr Mullinohx, who arrived in New Zealand last week by the Tahiti, has performed a great service t jor the past three years in piloting pilgrims to war graves on the battlefront and in caring for the graves of soldiers in the various cemeteries in France. ’

The Deacons’ Court of Knox Church recently transferred to the Museum, on loan, about a, hundred articles from China, the greater part of them collected near Cantor..by the Bev. G. H. M’Nour. Together with a number of pieces from the same part of China, presented by Miss Hancock, these constituted a substantial basis on which a Chinese section of the Museum might be founded, but ladk of case room has made it impossible to place them on exhibition. On being informed of this the Chinese community in Dufiedin very generously collected among them & sum/ of £35, which was sent to the Registrar of the University by Mr Sew Hoy, who, expressed the wish that it might be devoted to the purchase of,cases in which to, exhibit the Chinese collection. The registrar has written to Mr Sew Hoy asking him to convey to the Chinese donors the thanks of the University for their gift. The old-age pensioner named John Mathieson, an inmate of the Benevolent Institution, Caversham, who left the home on Wednesday afternoon, returned safely yesterday, and is once more under the oare of the institution authorities.

Mr H. Y, Widdowson, S.M., presided over the sitting of the City Police Court yesterday morning. A girl named Clara Alma Briggs, whose ago was stated to be 17 years, was charged with having escaped from the Oaversham Industrial School on January 26. Sob-inspector Eooles said that the girl, who had pleaded guilty, asserted that ehe would bo 19 years old next April. She had escaped at 5 o’clock on Wednesday, morning, and was found by Constable M'Crao at 4 o’clock the followings morning in Howe street. She had escaped three times in two months, and five times in the last two years. He understood that the girl was incorrigible, and it was difficult to know what to do with her. The magistrate remarked that they would find a way of dealing with her. Addressing the girl, he said he supposed that she had made up her mind to persist in this conduct, to which she promptly replied, “Yes.” Mr Widdowson; Well, next time you come up we will deal with you. We can’t put up with this sort of thing. You are convicted and ordered to bo returned to the school. A sitting Of the Juvenile Court was then held,' at. which a girl, 14 years of age, was similarly charged. Sub-inspector Bodes stated that the girl had been committed from Invercargill, under very bad circumstances. Morally ehe was very weak. She had escaped at the same time as the older girl, and they were recaptured at the same time. He expressed the opinion that the, Oaversham Industrial School was not the place for girls of this description. The Magistrate: “It is not the place for mixed girls.” Sub-inspector Bodies* having stated / that this’ was the second time the ; girl Had broken away, the magistrates, after admonishing her, convicted and ordered her to be returned to"the school. jjP‘‘ t ' The Wellington : Hospital Board discussed the proposed amendments to the Hospitals BiUi‘with special relation to tee question <sf appointments (says a Press Association message). ; Satisfaction was-ex-pressed that the clause giving Ministers power of veto bad been struck out. The opinion was expressed that there was still an element of -.danger in the measure, as the Minister might be able to hold up an appointment indefinitely. A mdtion against any amendment to the Act was Carried. Tho High Schools’ Board of Governors yesterday passed a resolution heartily congratulating Sir John Boss, who is an exmember of the board, upon tho honour of knighthood recently Conferred’ on him. At yesterday’s meeting of the - Otago High Schools’ Board of Governors attention was directed to the fact that the department had intimated in o recent communication that at the present time there is no necessity for the expenditure out of the board’s funds for school prizes, the money for which .should be raised by entertainments or subscriptions. As the board fully realised the ’ stringency of the times, it derided to refer tho views of the department to a committee, which will confer with the, rector and lady principal, and report to the board as to what steps should be taken in the matter. The same committee was instructed to go into the matter of the cost of printing the annual reports and prospectuses of the two High Schools. Mr G. A. Martin, manager of the Otago team which was recently on tour, stated at the meeting of the Otago Cricket Association last night that Mr H. M'Donald, of Auckland, and formerly of Dunedin, had handed him a gold medal to be presented to the scorer in the Otago-Auck-,land match. Mr J. Shepherd, who won this modal, had also carried off the cricket bat presented by the Otago Sports Depot for the highest aggregate of runs of the tour. Mr G. Dickinson had won the bat presented by the president (Mr Crosby Morris) for the highest bowling aggregate of the tour. The secretary was instructed to write a letter of thanks to Mr M'Donald. The retail price of milk at Auckland will be reduced from 7id to 7d a quart from Saturday (says a Press Association telegram). At a special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce at Invercargill yesterday (says a -Press o resolution was adopted viewing with alarm the Railway Department’s proposal to discontinue the running of the through ChristehurchInvorcargill expresses. It was decided to hold a public meeting of protest on Tuesday and to invito the co-operation of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and tho Progress League. - A Nelson Press Association message states that a loan proposal of £70,000 for the installation of electric light was carried by 1240 to 180. A steam plant will be erected at Port Nelson, and the whole city will bo reticulated. The spread of the co-operative movement among producers has extended to India, where' it is particularly strong in the province of Sind (says the Melbourne Age). Three years ago there were only 63 co-operative societies in the province, with a - capital. of 150,000 rupees. The number has been increased to 344, with a capital of 1,450,000 rupees. Tho province, according to information made available -by the Federal Bureau of Commerce and Industry, 'possesses every type of cooperative society, no fewer than five being formed to provide commodious *and airy houses, and four being banks. During the last fiscal year loans amounting to 650,000 rupees wore advanced to members. The societies have helped their members to save 331,000 rupees. Had these societies not existed that amount would have gone either into the coffers of the moneylenders or would have been spent. Another function which the co-operative societies carry out is the settlement of disputes between members, thereby saving much litigation and expense.

The Federal Bureau of Commerce and Industry announces that -,the proposed dates on ' which the British*'trade . ship, which is: to make * a world ’ tour, carrying samples of British manufactures, will arrive in Australia- ore as follow:—Fremantle, January 1, 1923; Adelaide, January 21; Melbourne, February 7} Hobart, March 2; Sydney, March' 12; Brisbane, March 29, 1823. On the way out the vessel will call at Bio do Janiero and other South American ports, and, then cross to Capetown. After leaving' Australia it will go to New Zealand, thence to Fiji and' Japanese porta, calling later at Manila and Indian ports.

A party of big gaifao hunters Is on tha point of setting out in Central Africa with the hope of finding out where elephants go_ when they die (observes Everyday Science). A dead donkey is popularly reckoned a rare sight in England; a dead elephant (except those killed by hunters! is a much greater rarity, fer it is .a strange fact that the bodies of elephants that have died from natural causes are scarcely over found either in Africa or India. The natives of both countries stoutly believe that they haye some secret place to which they retreat when instinct tells them that death, either from disease or from old age, is approaching. No such graveyard has been discovered. This expedition intends specially to search for it; If they succeed they will be well repaid for their trouble, for if the legend is true and the elephants sham a common “dying place,” there must bo an enormous accumulation of tusks, worth a fortune. Ivory Is extremely valuable, and is always \ increasing in price, because it is now becoming so scarce.

The Australian wool * industry has, reached out as far as China in respect to the disposal of raw materials for woollen manufacture, and there is a prospect of this trade being extended (the Ago remarks). China at present has two woollen ..mills, and has in the past drown its supplies of raw materials from local sources. The Chinese wool is cf a very low grade* and mostly unlike what Australia produces. Some small shipments of medium to low grade Australian wool hove been sent to China to the* Trade Ocmrmiasionej! in response to orders from on© c! the mills: It/is thought that further orders are likely. , ' By laying an Sgg a /reak bird at the* National Utility -Poultry Society's Show, at the Royal Horticultural Hall, has confounded her critics and justified her reputation (says fffe London correspondent of the Auckland Star),’’ Hatched six months ago, she displayed -all the . habits of « cockerel, and bad stole plumage and spurs. Then she moulted, and began to lay eggs ,and cackle. Recently she was declared a „ female and won second prize. A scoffer offered to bet £IOO it never had and never would lay an egg. He called it the "Bluffs Orpington. On a recent afternoon, however, the watchful attendant found a genuine, warm, brown Buff Orpington egg in the penl , A defendant in jocular mood received a sudden check at the hands of Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court (says the Lyttelton * Times. Defendant had been tellmg tho magistrate in a none too coherent Way how it was that he had been unable to obey a maintenance order. “The trouble with you. is that when you get money it doesn’t last long enohgh,” said the magis-” trate, a remark'with which defendant expressed cordial concurrence. “Have yoa , hod a prohibition order issued against you?” “No, and 1 don’t intend to," stoutly replied defendant. “You have been drinking/ 1 this, morning,” continued the magistrate: - Defendant assumed a protesting smile, and the magistrate pursued his observations. “You have been pouring money down your throat instead of paying it to your wife.” “My dear boy,” protected defendant gently, "I can pour* money down my throat and pay my wife too.” “I am glad to hear it,” said the mjagistfdate. (‘You are sentenced to' o month’s imprisonment, to bo released on payment of £20.”. The situation was slowly dawning upon defendant as ha wa» ushered from court, - W'"

Somebody must have been /trying to palm off strange things on' to the Education ' Department as /‘furniture and' effects’* - -for removal (remarks the Chridbdhunrit Sun). The amended regulations governing teachers’ salaries, et0.,1 as gazetted this week, set out a list of things for the removal of which the department definitely) will not pay., ; They are: Dog , kennels, plants in boxes or pots, wood and * coal, horses, vehicles,-and harness (except when such are portion equipment for official work), live stock,’ poultry, cows, eta, cjothes props, garden seats, timber, on material connected with outside structures, aviariefe and beehives, boats. The department is right. We would draw the line at floasome dog kennels ourselves. . Our earliest recollection is of one built for m favourite deerhound. It measured 6ft by 3ft, and was 4ft high. That would bo too much. But why are dog kennels pot at the head of the list?

“What strikes the average New Zealander most on visiting Dos Angeles,” remarked Dr Ellison, late of Wanganui, who was a passenger by the Tahiti on Saturday (says an exchange),/ “is the enormous number pf automobiles. There are more motor cars in that city than there are in the whole of Australia and New Zealand. One sees a • ((continuous , stream of them passing along tire streets. The climate is glorious, and Los Angelas is a most. magnificent and beautiful city. There is absolutely no poverty. Wages are high, and the people live much more luxuriously and- extravagantly than , those of equal circumstances in New Zealand and Australia. Another thing that im- \ presses the New Zealander is the American Sunday. It is essentially a gala day. The baseball games are bn, the theatres and shops are open, and, generally, the day i is regarded as a holiday. Of course, that is really necessary, because in America there is no half-holiday during the week, and the hours are long for practically, every business or profession.” , The revenue collected at tho post offices of the dominion for the quarter ended December 31, 1921, amounted to £746,475, compared with £733,932 for the corresponding quarter of 1920 (states a Wellington Press " Association telegram). The postal revenue from all sources /amounted, to £381,118, with £374,996, and the total telegraph revenue to £365,357, compared with £368,935. Taking tho four main centres, the revenue collected at ’’ Auckland was: Postal £80,723, telegraph £83,235; Wellington, £88,983 and £97,603 respectively; Christchurch, £46,938 and £54,955; Dunedin, £28,049 end £15,675. The postal boxes and bag rents for th« dominion returned £7483. The money order commission amounted to £8705; postages to £358,283 13s 3d; postal note commission to £4163 8s 2d; miscellaneous postal receipts to £3477; telegrams returned £176,783, telephone exchanges £183,523, and miscellaneous receipts £5048. At the City Police Court on Wednesday James Grainger ’ was charged with being on the Crown Hotel premises during nrohibited hours, and James Dennis Duggan with . being on the premises of , the Caledonian Hotel, Carroll street, after hours. Attention is drawn to Mr Geo. Sumpter’s announcement of a sale of freehold property in .Herbert, on account of Mr James Stark. ' ‘ Never a mechanical stop when you ride a flarloy-Davidson motor cycle. .Otago agents: W, A. Justice and Co., Imperial Garage. 292 Princes street. Dunedin.—Advt. All stores are giving away ‘Tn o-Rubbing” Laundry Help at Is a packet I So here ia your chance to procure it—Advt. Ton dozen men’s cashmere sox, all pure wool, in ravy and black, all sizes; usual price, Ss 6d.; Sale price, 2s lid pair. Post free at Mollison’s, Ltd.—i^dvt. Watson's No. 10 is a little dearer than most whiskies, but is worth the money.— Advt. * A E. Ji Blakeley, dentist, Bank of Australasia, corner of Bond and Rattray f.trecta (next Telegraph Office). Telephone 1659.Advt. ~ Save your Eyes.—Consult Peter G. Dick, D.8.0.A., F. 1.0., London, Consulting and oculists’ optician.—“ Peter Dick,” , jewellers and opticians, Moray place/ Dunfedm.—Advt