WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1907.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2782, 10 July 1907, Page 51

WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1907.) THE WEEK.

- u lfaa4uam-a!!ad aatata, alia* »»i«atU diilt."— Jvtbdal. "■m* aanir* aa4 good mbm aw ever j*ia. H — P*»a. The day cannot surely be much longer delayed when New Zealand, Playing at which has shown -the world Parliament, the way in other reforms, will seriously take in hand the matter of the reform of parliamentary procedure. Not that the Dominion that I is to be would be able to lay claim to ' pioneering in this respect ; for, as all | readers of Winston Churchill's "Life of Lord Randolph Churchill" are aware, tbe reform of parliamentary procedure was one of the principal planks in tbe platform of the celebrated leader of the now defunct Fourth Party. But practical men, dispassionately regarding the way in 1 which our legislators have been positively playing at Parliament since the present session opened, will be unanimous in the opinion that it is high time an alteration was effected. Perhaps Sir Joseph Ward, who has the essential instinct of the man of business and; who knows absolutely the j value of time, was more in earnest than L 3 ordinarily supposed when he hazarded the suggestion that the Governor's Speech at the opening of Parliament might profitably be abolished. And all who have marked the slow and wearisome progress of the debate upon the Address -in-Reply — the solitary item of business which the House of Representatives has so far dealt with — will be inclined to heartily agree with the Prime Minister. For all this ! talking night after night is serving no purpose except to give members an oppor- j tunity to fill the pages of Hansard. And it is time that members realised that the making of speeches is not their chief duty to their constituents ; that talk is cheap, and the world grows weary of it. It i might be -excusable if there were not other J matters demanding urgent attention. The , farming community are anxious to know th« exact contents of Mr- M'Nab's Land ! Bill triumvirate ; the commercial world j would be exceedingly glad to have the ' tariff question definitely settled ; while millers and grain merchants would hail with a sigh of relief an authoritative announcement that no interference is meditated with the duties on flour and wheat. But meanwhile the debate on the Address-in-Reply, like Tennyson's brook, " goes on fdT ever." It was Carlyle who declared that " beautiful talk is by no means the most pressing want in Parliament," and) described the British Legislative Chambef as "little other than & red tape talking machine, an unhappy bag of parliamentary eloquence." And! the same sapient philosopher held up to scorn the . " notion that a man's liberty consists in giving his vote at the election hustings and saying, 'Behold, now, I have too my twentieth-thousandth part of a talker in our national palaver.' '* A little of Carlyle's effective sarcasm might profitably be levelled against the mode of proceeding indulged in by the New Zealand Parliament, in order that the freeborn and enlightened New Zealand elector may clear himself from the reproach implied— also bx Cwlvle — when he wrote of "a

Parliament speaking through reporters t«_ Buncombe and the twenty seven millions, mostly fools." The Farmers* Union has hpt>n alrnfina

Tli* Farmer! and the Tariff.

The Farmers' Union has been skating upon thin ice when, in the course of the conference proceedings af Wellington, the tariff question came up for discussion. And natur- . ally the keenest- interest centred around the -evidently favoured by some of the delegates who hailed from nongrain growing districts — that it -would be a wise proceeding to abolish the' duties upon wheat and flour. In reply to this proposal, one of the Canterbury delegates^ forcibly, remarked that farmers would nob' object to the removal of the grain and flou- duties providing the duties werer taken off everything and the colony converted to Freetrade in every particular. But it is monstrously unjust to expect the farmer to pay duty on his tools ofi. trade and then to deprive him of that*, protection which alone enables him in? ordinary seasons to put his land into) wheat with any prospect of coming ou£ on the right Bide. For a number of year* past it has been -impossible for the New' Zealand! wheat-grower to compete witlr," India, the Argentine, and Canada in thef markets of the world, and- henca, wheat-growing* in. the colony had practi-. cally been to the production oft. the six million odd bushels needed for! home consumption. The removal of th»' duty would, of course, mean the swamp-, ing of the colony with Australian flour, for the millers of Melbourne and Sydney; would speedily utilise our markets as al convenient dumping ground for their, surplus output, and the New Zealan* miller would be forced out • of business. Thus something like a million sterling would every year go to the Commonwealth' to purchase breadstuffs for- New Zealand requirements. And such are the fluctuations of the market that in the long run it is doubtful whether the householder, would get his bread any cheaper than a# present ; while manifestly the price oh such articles as bran and pollard, fowl feed, etc., would be considerably higher., And until such time as -the New Zealand? Government no longer needs Customs duties for revenue-producing purposes, and! is able to attain to the ideal of Freetrader - — at any rate with the British Empire,—* it would be manifestly -unfair to discriminate against . the farmer, and especially penalise him by removing th« duties now operating upon wheat and flour imported from other parts of that world.

A Perl** ftf Dew Wheat.

I The continued upward trend of the wheaf,market is a topic of mucijf interest, and it is univer'-t sally realised that the risingprices are due to more farreaching causes' than any supposedf shortage in the colony's yield". Indeed, ib'. is beginning to be admitted by men whose* long experience in the' grain trade entitles* them to be heard that .owing to a com-; bination of pressing influences we are in. all probability approaching a period when the - price of wheat will permanently!, attain a much higher range of values than for many years past. The following frontf, the London correspondent of the Melbourne Age dated May 24 is interesting as showing the situation in Great! Britain : — We are at the beginning of a period oft dearer wheat, according to authorities onj the London Corn Exchange. Deficiencies in the Russian, American, and Canadian? supplies are reported. At the some time! there is a steady increase in the home consumption of the ' principal exporting coun-r tries. Freetrade England is always th«( first to suffer, alike from short crops o& market speculations. Its food requirement^ are enormou3, its reserves small at ans time, and its interests always liable to be! adversely affected by seasons in half a? dozen different countries or -by the schemes? of market "riggers." While a preferential tariff, that might conceivably increase tha£ price of the quartern loaf by a. farthing ian being denounced by party politicians «s at, burden which, the poor would find insupport-^ able, an ordinary market spasm occur** and the result, as we ere now witnessing* throughout Great Britain, is an addition off 3s 6d to 4s per sack to the cost of flour. This' has happened within one montbi The poor of Glasgow, Manchester, and other; great cities are already paying a halfpenny more than the normal price for their quartern loaf. Keen competition among thai bakers in London keeps down the price to the consumer for the present, but it is generally expected that his escape will baj of brief duration. At the moment whed Mr Winston Churchill was declaring irW Hercules vein at Edinburgh that theft Liberal party had barred, banged, andr : bolted "a good stout door of British oak"" against preferential trade wit'i the coloniesc — .that is, against a system which wouldj ultimately help to give England somef security against foreign scarcities and tlwf effect of market manipulations — the mil-i lees of the Scottish capital were deciding in conclave to add another 6d to the saow of flour. This is the sixth increase the* have made in three weeks, the total amounff of the rise being 4s. Imagine the cyclonia* exoitement that would have seized Mrv Churchill had that rise, the natural out> come of England's peculiar susceptibility toi foreign market conditions, happened toi concide with the establishment by a Tory) Government of preferential trade- relation^ with the colonial States. England would be well advised to enco~ur* age an increase of, colonial grain exports toi ite market if what one well-known expertf of the London Exchange says is correct?,* The world's demand for wheat, he believes^ ia outstripping- the supply. "Excepting! those from Argentina, he states, "there! have been- no very abundant supplies front any quarter of the world during recent years. Moderate harvests have been ox 4 rule. " Even Canada has not done much towards saving the situation. Fifty-fourJ years «go, when I first came here, Qontw nental growers supplied us with nearly all the wheat that we- wanted. But with th<* steady growth of their own populations, Germany. Franoe, and Belgium can no» only do' with all the wheat they can raise, but actually enter our markets as competi-. tors for English-grown wheat And with

It corresponding numerical growSi of the §*pples of the world, the competition for the available supply has been growing keener every year. Therefore, it is clear to me that whatever may happen at the present moment, a permanent rise iv price, is inevitable in the near future."