The Tuapeka Times. AND Goldfields Reporter & Advertiser "Measures, not Men." WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13 1919. COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 6688, 13 August 1919, Page 2

The Tuapeka Times. AND Goldfields Reporter & Advertiser "Measures, not Men." WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13 1919. COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS.

Prof. Marshall, late of Ot'ago University, in his work on the Geography of New Zealand, calls Central Otago a j''dissected pone-plain of extreme antiquity." In the vulgar and unscholastie tongue this means a very old lump of rock with a fjattish top, which, in the course of ages, has been grooved by weather and running water into numberless gullies and ridges. Some of the gullies arc wide and long enough to bo tailed valleys, some deep enough to be called gorges. There are also old dried up lake basins half filled with gravel and scdimenj brought down by the streams or blown in by frequent and violent gales. In theso valleys and lake-basins the main part of the habit-1 able and tillable soil of Oantnil Otago | is to be found) and on the wealth they can produce and the population they can carry the future prosperity of Central Otago depends. Obviously this wealth and population are limited in quantity, and can hardly be counted in millions. Yet millions are so much, in men's mouths nowadays that there lias been talk in Dunedin of raising mil.

lions for tho development of Central Otago by hydro-electric energy and irrigation. It i« aot by aa y means the tot ti,uo that people i n Dunodin, where Hope springs eternal in tho human breast, have indulged in rosy dreams ol what might be made of Central Otago if lots of money wore spent on Us fertile vales and wind-swept tussocky ridges, but wo believe the best asset Central Otago at present possesses is the very ono everybody—the Government iiieluded-is tijjing to destroy utterly. We mean rabbits. Look at the present price of skins. And their productiuii costs nothing It i„ almost certain also that the complete extermination of "bunny" in the rough ground ot Central Otugo is impossible. Undor present circumstances possibly the most economically profitable way of devolopmg the latent wealth of Central Otago would be to surround it with a rabbitproof fence, and cut it up into rabbit farms. For why do rubbft skins fetch so high a prieo 1 Because thero is .1 groat demand for them. For what purpose ? It is said for fur-Iwed coats chiefly worn by motorists. "Well tho demand will likely keep up at that rate. And then air-flights are going to bo common. The fliers and the voyagers in air shijg will want fur-lined coats also. ]f hydro-electric schemes provo a success, why not treat our own rab-bit-skins instead cf exporting thorn » II power became available there will , iln "Pening for fur and felt factories "11 over (>„(,•„! otago. Why stick persistently to the sheep if the products ol the easily produced rabbii aro in "on.slant and ever-increasing demand » * » *

There seems now to be two strains of thought running through the British "mid. namely, how to keep within nounds Germany's commercial aggressiveness, and how to make Germany pay lor the war. The (wo currents of opinion appear to meet sometimes, and "uike a confused swirl of perplexed "leas which are not likely to bring «<">ut much practical Jpolit, W c can"ol "Hike Germany pay the. indemnities demanded of her, if she cannot pro'ineo a surplusage of wealth. And that surplusage she cannot produce unless she is allowed to trade freely with every part of the world. Yet we have apprehe!„ii,i,s expressed that under Bolshevist government Germany will be enabled to exploit tlie resources of Russia In the fullest extent, and this possibility is advanced as a reason for /•o»t>m,ed interference in the chronic. war with which Russia and her border States are afflicted. The Daily Mail grumbles "that German officers <>w staffing the Bolshevist armies and a German engineer at Moscow is controlling the munition factories. If tho Allies do not proceed on a crusudo with the Bolshevists Russia will fall body I and soul into the arms cf the Umi," etc. .Mark the word "with." Does'it """i" thai the Allies are counselled to sole with the Bolshevists anil proceed <•'> " erusade against the. counter-revo-liil'oiiisls, or il„. Germans will outbid them in the contest for Bolshevic favours •' If so, the Xorlhcliffo press has turned n somers•iu>.. But then if tho Allies aro to ousc the. Germans from tho l(us.,i:iu trade, and boycott, them in tho British Umpire and America, where aro "ley lo gel the money lor reparation and iinleiniiiti >: .' And though, during the pie 1 live years, thousands, perhaps million, of oaths lia/e I.c.mi sworn that never again shall the t.nie-bor| Mr)on buy Genua 1. goods, the Board of Trado at Home .-ends out a circular urging merchants lo intimate a big campaign to capture Germ 1:1 market.-i, because the Government wishes to encourage British trade with Germany. "Our export trade must be developed in every way, and trade with Germany will hasten her payments for reparation." Hero we have pnlriotiMii hoi.-t with its own petard. If we want Germany to buy our K Is we must buy tier's. Trade is a series of mutual transactions. Jf Britain sells goods to Germany at a profit Germany will pay for them with other goods, anil some of the profit she will make by selling Britain her goods will go back to Britain in indemnities. Which means that some of Britain's surplus wealth must be paid over to Germany to enable 1 lie tatter to p:iy },or indemnity. Where, then, is the profit in the indemnity policy ?

Tl would seem that, the Lloyd-George Government is fust losing its prestige in (lir constituencies. Since it swept (ho polls lust December every bye-election appears to show that its prosperity if being undermined by the undertow of ll.c ebb-tide. The electorates are drifting away one after the 'other. The Intel desertion is that: of Botliwell, in Lanarkshire. Sent land, where 11 labour man lias Ruined a remarkable majority of more than two to one over the coalitionist candidate who is a provost or mayor »!' some Snitch city—possibly Glasgow. The liight Hon. David Lloyd George seem.-, in the mind of his erstwhile Labourite supporters to be hopelessly compromised with his present colh and is now ranked as a Tory, though no doubt he claims still to bo a radical of the Radicals. The influence, of this notable and sudden turne'lout in I'ub.ic opinion is seen in the decision of the Imperial Clover >nt to withdraw the British troops from Ilussia. Kvid.'iitly both Liberals and Labourites, now that peace with Germany has been secured, oppose any further interference with TJnssia's interim! affairs. The Tories cannot now draft England after them to oppose (lie Kussian Kevolution as (Ley did the French Revolution. The mantle of William T'itt seems to have fallen on David Lloyd George, but the latter has not a hope of carrying on as long as his prototype. The principles enunciated in former times by Pitt's rival Charles James Fox, too thoroughly permeate. British politics to permit of another long and costly struggle to re-establish Kussia as a counterpoise. to the Contra! Powers. And all the better, too, for the peace of Km rope. The

vast resources of the former Russian Kmpiro, wielded by a conquering eliief witli the military genius, of a Napoleon would simply overwhelm . Western Europe. Revolutions when strongly opposed by surrounding nations are only too apt to produce warriors endowed with surpassing vigour and ability, nnd inspired by inordinate and insatiable ambition. Tmngine such a supermini li't looM' on Western Europe followed by iwn hundred million Russians, Turks, and Mongols and behind him ns n recruiting ground four hundred million Chinese to say nothing of disaffected Indians and Afghans. If the new States of Poland, TTkrninia. Finland. Estlioiiin and Livonia can be maintain ed as buffer States against German territorial expansion eastwards the Western Powers would do well to let Russia "gang her ain gait."