EDITORIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11282, 9 January 1915, Page 9

EDITORIAL NOTES.

< We are all Socialists nowadays! This Hs largely due to tho fact that private enterprise is not ablo to look alter it:Relf. l/ook at the pathetic faces; see tho crocodile tears of the middlemen who cannot get their meat to market! Hear tho groans because Mr William Massey cannot find arks enough to caiTy tho squatters' frozen jumbucks to the far Antipodes! And yet on other' 'occasions you will find these same people pushing out their capacious bosoms and protesting against State interference with this, that and the other. II

Mr William Massey had told tho jumbuck men to go to Hickey it would , have surprised nobody except those who aro aware that the jumbuck men own Mr William Massey as well as tho jumbucks.

t The wheat question is quite in another category. The wheat question is a matter of feeding Us instead of Thorn. We are all very much interested in tho wheat question. Everybody who knows anything—including Mr Ell j—is aware that a hunch of local Huns 'stands to make enough out of the people's' necessities to take them, and theninteresting families for a trip over the European battlefields when the trouble is over, but any suggestion of locating find limelighting them now is not favoured by the Cabinet. That kind of private enterprise must not be interfered with! So, in the meantime, the Government is importing foreign wheat (which is in many ways a good thing) and selling it at a loss (which is in ©very way a bad thing) in order to meet the competition of the> local Hun. Selling at a loss means robbing Peter |to pay Paul. But even that is better i than a hiatus in the bread-bin.

\ i Whilo we are on this question, would lit be rude to inquire what has become .of the Food CommissionP One always i likes to know what,has become of a reaUy expensive thing wlun it has got unaccountably mislaid. We should like to hare said "valuable thing" in this case, but the verities intervene. Perhaps the Food Commission, and its archives, and its shorthand expert, have been smuggled into the mummy section of the Ohristchurch Museum I

I If the Commission had remained ani- \ mat©, there would hare been questions to ask. For instance: "Why is the price of merchandise and foodstuffs being kept up? Who is pocketing the good maauma? Prices were nailed up very near the ceiling when war was declared 1 . Are they nailed up to stay? The common sailor folk have disposed of the Emden, the. Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau and the rest of the sauerkraut squadron in their usual inimitable stylo. Freights have come down, insurances have Volplaned, everything is on the down grade except the prices, of comestibles, or, in other words, the things to eat. Is it not time that somebody in authority hacked his way through with the news of a let-up and intimation that the populace is about to get some relief? We know very well that the monopolists have no connection with the E.ed Federation, Under whose protection, then, are they .carrying on their high pressure 1 methods?

Two Wellington Chinese have been fined £loo—fthe maximum penalty —for conducting a pak-a-poo lottery. When will these ignorant foreigners be brought to realise that there is only one recognised and legitimate form of gambling—that conducted through the totalizator by the State? The breed of t horses and jockeys cannot possibly be ! improved by a game of pak-a-poo I

The Melbourne " Argus "__(Tbry), commenting on Mr Stathanvs resignation of the Dunedin Central seatj has this to say: "Mr Statham (Ministerialist) has resigned his seat in the New Zealand House of Representatives because, had it not been for a clerk's blunder, Mr Munro (Labour) would apparently have been elected. This is a rare example of chivalry; and, seeing that parties in the House are now equal, Ministerialists have everything to lose and nothing to gain in Mr Statham's generous action. It may result —seeing that the right does not always triumph immediately—in giving the Opposition a majority of two, which is fairly substantial in theae days. An interesting precedent is the case of the first election of Mr Deakin. He won the West Bourke election by a small majority against Mr Herbert Harper, hut at Newham the presiding officer, having exhausted his supply of ballot papers, prematurely stopped the poll. The real verdict of the electors was in doubt. When. Parliament met, Mr Deakin moved the adoption of the Ad-dress-in-Reply, and then dramatically tendered his resignation to the Speaker. In the by-eleotion Mr Harper defeated him by a small majority. Mr Deakin's virtue was its own reward. More substantial reward came later." Tn Mr Deakin's case the real verdict of the electors was admittedly in doubt. In Mr Statham's case it was not. -The ''rare example of chivalry" in Mr Statham's case is therefore nofc apparent. An ordinary sense of fair play would have dictated that Mr Statham should have refused to contest the seat which his opponent had fairly won. An inspired telegram from Wellington to a local Tory organ has this to ; lS ay : One of the ejection cries used against tho present Government during the last election was that frhey had* strangled the State Fire Insurance Department. The profits for the last year of the Massey Administration amount to no less than £17,500, which is £2OOO more than the previous year, and a record for the Department. This telegram should have read: " De- , spite the action of the Massey Govern- ! nient in handing over a large propor- ' tion of tho advances to settlers business to private companies entailing a loss of ■■ £348,147 in business and £1786 in pre- : miums, the State Fire Insurance Department has made a record of profits this year. Of course the Massey Government is not entitled to any special credit for the fnct that there were fewer fires in New Zealand this year, noither is it to bo praised for the circumstance that the Department is growing in popularity owing to the push and energy displayed by the Department's officials right through the !Dominion. The "Reform" Party vigorously opposed the institution of the •gtate Firo Department, and it has taken the only means available to injure its advancement. It is not because of, but in spite of the Massey Government and its private enterprise allies that the Department has made fcuch a satisfactory showing. i Tho übiquity of the British Navy has, ifceen "well shown by the various opsra-

tions in which our Renin on partic.ipr.tod when Turkey joined tho enemy. Until this happened, there was vory littlo indication of tlio disposition of the war vessels of the Allies on tho Mediterranean and Fast India stations. Ail official communique! from Bordeaux had. stated in October that an Anglo-Fro.neh. force was cruising among 111 0 islands of the Arehipotato. It was not, howvor, until November i\ that tho Admiralty announced that this squadron had bombarded tho forte at tho Dardanelles.

The composition of ihe squadron lias nob been made known, but it will have. Ivoen judged from the dam-ago which, was done that it comprised some heavy ships as well as torpedo craft. A German account has stated that nino whips took part in tho bombardment. Tho prompt and effective manner in which action wa.s taken when tho attitude of the Turks became manifest made a considerable, impression.

That destroyers were also present was. revealed in a telegram from Athens which stated that these vessels had captured several sailing ships and a Turkish torpedo-boat. Simultaneously with tho bombardment of the forts at tho Dardanelles, tho power of the. Navy was manifested elsewhere; by tho arrival of the Minerva, at Aknba, ati tho head of tho gulf of the sa.mo name, where a landing party, after 'l-he enemy's troops had been driven out, destroyed tho fort, tho barracks and stores. Whether this place has been held has not been stated, hub apparently it was rendered useless as a baso for operations across the Sinai Peninsula. In the same week another naval force, consisting of the Odin, tho armed launch Sirdar, and a boat from the Ocean, covered with its guns the landing of troops from India under tho command of Brigadier-General Dolamain, -who occupied Fao, at tho mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab, in the Persian Gulf. Further troops arrived at Fao under tho command of LioutenaiitGeneral Sir A. Barrett, and the enemy was successfully engaged, with tho assistance of tho Espiegle and the Odin, the Turkish entrenched camp being captured. It is at this place that the telegraph cable station to. India is situated.

A further coup was carried out by Indian troops against the Turkish fort on the Shiek Said Peninsula, to the east of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. The troops landed under cover of fife from the Duke of Edinburgh, which shelled the fort and put tho heavy guns out of action. The reduction of the fort wns effected with small loss. These naval and military measures, as well as othors on the coast of Syria, were of a precautionary character, and anticipated certain movements which were to be expected since the Turkish troops are directed by German officers.