The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1920. A COOL PROPOSAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16688, 10 March 1920, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1920. A COOL PROPOSAL.

Mr. M‘Adoo, formerly Secretary to tlie United States Treasury, and, by the way, son-in-law of President Wilson, has made a typically Yankee suggestion that the United States should purchase certain British possessions on the Atlantic coast, including the Bahamas, the Bermudas, and Jamaica, thus showing once more that the average'American does not yet understand the English character, in spite of Foster Fraser’s attempts to enlighten him on the subject. The Bahamas were discovered by Columbus in 1492 and have been under the British flag since 1718. There are over six hundred islands or islets with a * total area of 5450 square miles and a population'of about 60,000. The Bermudas were discovered in 1515 by a Spanish mariner named Bermudez and were colonised by the British in 1612. Their area is no more than twenty square miles, and their population about 18,000, mostly coloured people, but an important British nawal station was established on' one of the islands in 1810, where there is the largest floating dock in the world. The island of Jamaica, the largest of the West Indies, is commer-, cially far more important. It was. discovered by Columbus in 1494 and settled by the Spaniards in 1509, but taken by the British in 1655. Its7area is 4307 square miles and its population in 1911 was 831,123, nearly all negroes and half-breeds. In 1833 Britain emancipated the slaves and in 1884 gave representative government to the jpeople. In the case of all these possessions the greater part of the trade is done with the United States, and possibly this fact has caused Mr. M‘Adoo to think that his country has some sort of a claim to their possession. But in spite of the, fact that American millionaires are. sometimes able to' purchase historic estates inEngland there is still a strong vein of sentiment, rising superior to sordid commercialism, in the English character. Hence Mr. Lloyd-George’s very emphatic declaration, in respect to Mr. M‘Adoo’s suggestion, that there is “nothing doing.” England may find her war debt of £4,277,000,000 somewhat. of a burden to carry, but she is not going to sell part of .her estate to help the discharge of that debt. Mr. M'Adpo need have np anxiety lest England should fail to repay the United States the advances made during the war. Nor need he think that England wants American dollars to save her from bankruptcy so badly that she will barter some of the jewels in her crown of empire. England has not only a great pride in her possessions, she has also a deep sense of responsibility towards her subject races and is as unlikely to hand them over to any purchaser as chattels or fixtures of the estates as she is to sell the estates themselves in order to escape a troublesome debt. Englishmen overseas will note with the keenest satisfaction Mr. Lloyd George’s statement that is not the slightest intention of selling any part of the British West Indies and that his spirited reply to Mr. M’Adoo’s suggestion was received in the House of Commons with loud cheers.

The- Board of Trade recently announced that owing to the increase in the price of flour bakers could raise the price of bread one half-penny on the 21b. loaf. The bakers, after considering the position, declared that this increase was not sufficient and proceeded to ia-aise the price by one penny. It would, of course, be folly for anyone not in the business to criticise the action of the bakers from a financial point of view, the presumption indeed is that they would not defy the law unless they had good reason fordoing so, but the action may well be considered from its general bearing on the industrial situation. The other day Mr. Justice Stringer made a report on the pay of railwaymen recommending certain increases, and a number of meetings have been held at which the railway workers have held that the increases offered are insufficient, and in some cases have threatened drastic action. A strike of railwaymen would be a serious matter and would have the effect of raising the cost of transport very greatly because passengers and goods would have to be carried by motors. All employers would swell the chorus of condemnation of such action by the workers on the railways, but their position would be materially weakened by the fact that the bakers had taken exactly the same action when the award of the Government did not suit them. But, say the bakers, the position is quite impossible in our ease; the railwaymen reply that it was equally so in theirs. AVhat is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and if employers expect their workers to. obey the provisions of awards they should set the example of doing so themselves, though there is nothing to prevent them making protests in the proper quarters.

Some little time ago it was reported that the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company had decided to erect extensive woollen mills at Waingawa. Further details of the company’s plans- now available show that the mills will be some 300 feet long and 214 feet wide. They will only be one story high, but will be divided into many departments, such as the drying, oiling, spinning, twisting, and card machine rooms. There will also be the milling and scouring departments. A tramway line will be rim into the buildings, while trolleys will, pass the products from One machine to another. The wool will come straight oft the hacks of the sheep into the mills, and out again as finished articles. Tweeds, blankets,- rugs, knitting wool, etc., will he manufactured. The company also contemplates establishing soap works and plans have already been prepared showing buildings a hundred feet long by sixty feet wide, where all varieties of soap will be made, including scented soaps of various kinds, household soaps, carbolic, and sand soap. Tlie .Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company is an exactly similiar concern to the Taranaki Farmers’ Meat Company, the latter having been modelled upon it and had a very close association with it at the outset of its career. The Waingawa works have had a most successful career and the Smart Hoad works promise to be equally succsesful and to become at least as large and important an undertaking. Both are carried on so as to give the farmer shareholders the full benefit of all there is in their produce. They assure the farmer full value for his fat stock; they freeze or preserve the meat; and they aim at turning- to the best possible use all the by-products of the industry by the manufacture of fertilisers, etc. It is hut a step further to embark upon woollen industry, so as to manufacture the farmers’ wool instead of sending it to England to be manufactured and returned in the shape of blflSkete and other woollen goods, and the soap industry for thp purpose of utilising the tallow. There is a large field in Taranaki for such enterprises and there is no good reason .now why they should not be established. Prices of the products of these industries are high and likely to remain so, and there is little reason, to fear that cheap labour, in England or low freights from there will enable English manufacturers to undersell local factories, even were there no tariff to protect the latter. New Plymouth ’ s well situated to become the centre of manufacturing industries requiring power, and it should be an incentive to the borough to develop its hydro-electric scheme as rapidly as possible with the object of providing cheap power* which would encourage a progressive concern like the Farmers’ Meat Company to develop its business on similar lines to those being followed by the Waingawa company.