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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144670, 3 May 1915, Page 2

The present war has Jed many people !o rend the cable news who in the past have yiven very slight attention to ibis part of their newspaper, riifortui.au)y not all of them real Do that n considerable amount of intelligence is r>r iUiro-i to extract anythin*: ] : ke a true vicvr of events from the informal ion provided jjom various sources. Far too many people are inclined to accept ns tnub anything they read in t he paper, witiiour u".n" discrimination n'- 10 the origin of the statement* they swallow with such avidity. When tins error is pointed out to ibem they arc ap' to inquire why a paper publishes int'dheonce which is not true. The* fact is that it is tar more diUiruh to tell the truth than people ordinarily irm. Take for example the of an

intelligent foreigner arriving in the Dominion anxious to make himself acquainted with tho political conditions existing hero. Happening to take up a Government paper of good standing Iw i-ants that the Massey Ministry is an excellent one, which has handled the financial situation well great skill and passed legislation of a really progres■■avo character. Turning to an Opposition paper he learns tlr. Massey Ministry is the too l of the canitahsi and large hmdmvner and that unless Sit .1 o-e’ph Ward is soon returned, to office the country will Iw* on the verge of ruin. 'I i-e foreigner is naiurady puzzled bv thi- il vrrgence i.f ooinian. but it Table reah-cs ihnl bo- b papers arc telling th.c truth from their own point of view. TVhen many conn l lies are involved in

j a great, war as at present each party to j tho conflict looks at events from ir> j own angle, mid thus not two but ImSfj a-dozen. psprrus of the truth are coul corned, all of wnich have te he considered Ix/foro .wnrnte conclusions can be reached. But it may baurcred: "We admit this readily enough when such complicated questions as tho origin of the war arc concerned, but surely .such simple facts ns victory or defeat, whether ono side has advanced or retreated ought- to lie stated with accuracy.’’ It may he pointed out that oven in such apparently simple masters as t-hoso personal bias has enormous influence. Most of us for example have hoard members of rival football teams tie- . scribe a match l-hal has just boon played, and found little* agnvnioni between iho two descriptions. But in war we have to remember that, quite apart from those unavoidable discrepancies some Government* deliberately falsify tho facts given to the public, in order to maintain tlie spirit of confidence which goes so far towards securing victory. Hence in reading the cables from day to day it is necessary to accept no statement hastily. To come to details, ono may say that nows from Constantinople should never be regarded as into, and that reports from Berlin only accepted as the strictly German version of facts. The British Press Bureau tells the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth, and the French communiques contain the portion of the truth which the French Government considers desirable to tell the French people. Tho High Commissioner 5 ? messages are merely reproductions of the cables received by the New Zealand Press Association and are not vouched for as more accurate than other information. At tho present time we a-ro receiving messages from Athens about iho operations in the Dardanelles. Athens is not very far distant from tho scene of operations, but tho news received there must bo largely in tho nature, of rumour mid conjecture. Tho island of Tenedos is hearer at hand, but observers there see about as much of

wbat is going on as a naan on Aft. Kgmoufc would see of a battle in New Plymouth. Moreover there probably are censors even in Tencdos. It will thus be soon that it is often necessary to reject statements that are cabled to us and even more frequently to suspend Judgment until further information is received. Some people do net know what it is to suspend judgment; they always jump to conclusions whether they have evidence before them or not. Such persons, if they were not so j numerous, should be interned for the period of the war.

Hmo and again the New Zealand Government has been urged to protect consumers within the Dominion against unduly high prices of sucli commodities ns butter by placing au export duty upon them to check selling abroad. That, wo are convinced, would bo a wrong policy, for it would also check production. If, however. Australian merchants are buying New Zealand butter in order to fnllil their contracts with Java and other countries, and-so

creating a genuine scarcity of the article in il:is country, thou it must be admitted a strong case is made out fur Government inter .ontion in the direc-

tion mentioned by the Premier, that is, prohibition of export except with the consent oi the Minister of Customs. The position is that the stocks of butter bold in cold stores within the Dominion aro now lower by some 2«S.CDO boxes than they were at this time last year, so that it is unlikely that there is much really to spare for export after supplying domestic requirements. Whatever ran be spared should be supplied to consumers within the Kmpiro and not in foreign countries. The shortage has : been brought about by so many far- i tories manufacturing cheese in prefer- j ■ cnco to butter during the past season. | but it is rpiite likely that some of J these factories will, in view of the high price and comparative scarcity of but- ■ ter. now put their butter plants into : operation. Of course, the milk supplies | have dwindled now to small proportions, > but if some of tho cheese factories !

adopt this plan their output will be a v eicnmc audit.on to the supplies and perhaps keep the price from advancing any further. In loss than throe months the early rows will he coming in .again end all ioart of a shortage will thou be removed.

After a long and tedious wait, mostly unavoidable, a start has at last been made with tho laying of the electrictramways beuvoen tho hreak*.vater and Fitwroy. The breaking of the ground at Moturoa was made the occasion of a little demonstration this morning, in which the .Mayor and Mr. Groenshields.

one of tho contracting linn, were the chief actors, the former having the honour of driving tho first pick. Both gentlemen spoke in hopeful terms of tho success of the undertaking, which they prcoict id would very soon be a paying concern. There is. indeed, good reason to believe that the tramways will at least pay their wav very soon after they are in full running, for the route is an excellent one as regards population domiciled along the route and also as regards feeders in the shape

of streets and roads converging on the track. But even if tho trams do not

immediately pay in a direct manner, they will certainly pay indirectly because of the attraction they will prove to th* town and suburb*. People of independent means hare frequently been known to abandon the idea of sealing in or near this town because of the lark of speedy means of communication hoi ween the town and the suburbs, people who have wanted a small suburban properly, which while out of town was sufficiently near to enable them to get in and out of town easily and quickly, as for instance to and from the theatres. Tramways will overcome this objection to New Plymouth suburban residence. Tramways, it lias boon demonstrated

over ami over again, attract; population, and there is no reason to doubt that it will bo so in the case of Now Plymouth. Tho contract is in the hands of a firm of excellent repute, who can bo depended upon to carry it out in every way satisfactorily, so that by Chvistmps there is every probability tho ears will bo running between tho breakwater and Titzroy.