THE PELORUS GUARDIAN and Miners' Advocate. FRIDAY, 26th JANUARY, 1912. CURRENT TOPICS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 7, 26 January 1912, Page 4

THE PELORUS GUARDIAN and Miners' Advocate. FRIDAY, 26th JANUARY, 1912. CURRENT TOPICS.

THERE is no need so pressing in Marlborough as; a vigorous policy of land settlement/, in order that the undoubted poten'tiadities of the province may be fully, eKploited. The purchase of som.e o;£ the large estates has been an important factor in (this direction, but there remains a ;great deal to be done in this way, and an even more urgent need is the speedy opening-up of areas that the sawmills have cut out. At the last meeting of the Land Board Mr James Fulton proposed that all the land at present cut, out, or being cut out, in tfye Orxmri Valley, be surveyed at once into suitable allotments and balloted for. This simple proposition went right to the heart of the difficulty that has for many years beset the profitable settlement of such land; but the Commissioner said the milling reservation could not be lifted until the timlber was out out, or until it could bo aihown that the blocks were no longer required for milling purposes. Hind with that reply the Board were apparently satisfied, for no further action was taken. The reason given gyems to us to be totally inadequate to explain the locking-up of the blocks, over’ the greater part of which the timber HAS been out out. With the disappearance of the bush come the noxious weeds—blackberry, fem ; , broom, andf gorsa—and these are qa its unnecessary trials to be added to , those of the ordinary variety that a s ettler has to put up with whan he tal ces up a bush farm. If the law alloi vs a block of 800 acres to be looked uj p though perhaps only 50 or 100 acre s still carries bush, it surely provides an excellent opportunity for a Land Board to agitate for an amendme at of saob a ridiculous provision. Glai in/* examples of the folly of such a pre ofcice can be seen in any sawmill ar ea in Marlborough, the result being that the settles who eventually ;>ake up these

lands are compelled to spend a great deal of time and money in eradicating weeds that would never have appeared if the land was thrown open as soon as it was worked out. We hope Mr Fulton will continue to push this matter till he secures an amendment cf the Act. It is, as he pointed out to the Land Board, absolutely essential that the Opouri lands, in par., ticular, should be dealt with almost immediately, otherwise this splendid valley will remain unproductive for 1 years, and an abiding-place for, all 1 forms of noxious weeds.

At a meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce a resolution was introduced calling for the formation of an International Commission to investigate the high cost of living throughout the world and the changes ,n wages. The resolution, which awes its primary initiative to Professor Fisher, of Yale, will be acted upon at a later meeting of the Chamber. It calls upon the United States Government to summon an International Commission, which will probably require two or three years to conclude its investigations. Economists believe that such an investigation will give highly valuable data, tracing the causes of the advances in prices and wage standards. For instance, American wages are increasing more rapidly than the cost of living, while the reverse is the case in England. The international commission would take up this subject and endeavour to find a basic reason. There is no doubt that cold storage is one of the leading factors in America’s advancing prices, as it permits dealers practically to effect corners in the market by permitting only limited supplies of commodities to be offered for sale, and the rest to be retained indefinitely. Thus, instead of low 1 prices ranging while commodities are in season, and naturally plentiful, j their supply is artificially regulated by cold storage. They are made ,to last longer and command excessive prices. One of the subjects to which such an International Commission would probably be called upon to give much attention would be how Governments can regulate cold storage manipulations in the interests of consumers.

Mrs Plorancf Kelly, a well-known lecturer, who has been enquiring into the conditions of the women workers of New York, in the course of her investigations has discovered that; —(1). A girl over sixteen years of age in New York City may be forced by her employer to work to any hour of the night-even as late as 2 o’clock in the morning. In other words, the law backs up her employers in saying that-she rquat work as late as he says or give up. her job, (2). A girl alone on the streets of New York City after 11,.at night without a male escort is in danger of being arrested as a prostitute, taken to the nearest police station, and booked to the credit of the policeman making the arrest. Mrs Kelly says; ** Thera is no statute providing for such arrests, and the charge may be vagrancy, disorderly conduct, or soliciting. Very little publicity attends these outrages, because respectable girls and women dread to have it known that they have been subjected to that experience. The police deny the existence of the rule, but the practice exists nevertheless.” This is the sort of thing that happens where Labour spends its time and money striking, instead of going, after the political and law-mak-ing With a decent Parliament .the wanton insult to womanhood, detailed by Mrs ,Kelly, wouldn’t be possible.