THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7963, 14 February 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1906.

The desirability, or otherwise, of paying members of Parliament for their services has often been discussed, and in this country there is, practically, a unanimous decision in the affirmative. That there are reasons against the praotice cannot be disputed, but, at the same time, tbe objections are not- by any manner of means fatal' to the advisability of the system. It would be difficult to point to any system, and say "that system is perfect," but if the system enables ua to accomplish what other-

wise would be impossible we c&a

not afford to rejeofc it. This is precisely the caae in regard to tbe praetiue, or system, of paying tbe representatives of tbe people in Parliament for their services. It is a democratic praotice and it is baaed, upon democratic principle. That tbe practice does not prevail in tbe British House of Commons, and the reason why it does not, may easily be inferred from tbe preceding sentence. That, however, it is a practice that will come into force there is but little room to doubt, in view of the progress that the Labour Party is making in England. It is certainly beyond question that tbe practice, in some cases, breeds professional politi-cians—-our own House is not altogether wanting in instances, and there is, also, some reason to believe that at the present time there are some members of onr Parliament who would never again "earn" £3OO per annum were their constituents to permanently reject their services, but that is the worst that can be said against the system. On the other hand it is very clear that vested interests, monopolies and capitalists; do require "the oountry," so to speak, to pay their representatives, beoanse the principles upon which they work are totally opposed to the policy of which, the payment of Parliament tary representatives is a portion. In recent cable news it was stated that the Labour Representation Committee at Home bad reported that the election of 29 of tbe Party's candidates necessitated the doubling of the affiliated societies' subscription?. Tbe burden, tbe Committee declared, ought not to be imposed at all, as the party is doing national work, and ought to be paid oat uf national funds. The contention is, certainly, a logical and a proper one, and one that in the interests of Labour should be given effect to by the British Parliament.

The absurd scheme, recently outlined by Captain E. Lasoelles, a Canadian, who served on General Hutton's staff during the Boer war, in a paper read by him before the Royal United Service institution, scarcely calls for oommeut. There was, however, one point that it emphasised somewhat strongly, albeit indirectly, and that is the need Df home defence, so far as the Colonies are concerned. With all due deference to the opinions of Captain Lascelles, it may be taken as a fact that the Colonies, or, at any rate the A ustralasian Colonies, should not consider the question of maintaining troops for foreign service, but what is.of importance is that the most effective and inexpensive system to provide for the evpulsiou of foreign Invaders should be set a-going and steadily developed. Canada is certainly differently situated, geographically and in other respects, and a totally different system of defence would probably be necessary in her oase to that which would be completely suooeessful in the Australasian Colonies. To our mind the proper system for this Colony is simple: it consists of rifles, ammunition and instruction in rifle shooting. It, would be worth while for the Government to make a fairly large grant and to thoroughly popularise, and to "nationalise," it the word may be used, rifle shooting trom one end of the country to the other. If necessary, it would be desirable to make practising at rifle shooting compulsory in the cases of youths and young men. If every colonial over the age of 17 years and under the age of 45 years bad a rifle, which he knew how to use, and plenty of ammunition, this country would be' quite impregnable, so far as successful invasion is concerned. ,

Tbe cablegram received last week that the price of choicest New Zealand butter had fallen in the Home tsarkeii to 106s caused some stir in commercial ciroles. As late as January 9th New Zealand butter reached a maximum of 118s. At first sight so sudden a drop in value appears to be somewhat alarming, more especially to those comoanies who have just forwarded butter ,to the Home market. Of the latter tbe number must be considerable as the shipping records show that there is now 159,142 cases and 1,120 kegs of butter between New Zealand and the market. Half the factories of the colony, however, sold the whole of their season's output at the beginning of the season, so they will not be affected. Others again sold half their output, and reserved the other half for consignment, and consequently they will not suffer very muoh. High prices have been obtained by those companies who have been sending all their produoe Home on consignment, and the smaller value of morereoent shipments will not be felt to any extent. The exceedingly high values ruling during the present season may be attributed to many reasons. Consequent on tbe disturbance of local conditions on account of the war, Siberian supplies of butter were short. Then again a considerable quantity of German butter, which, under ordinary circumstances, would And its way to England, was required

for home consumption. All those v things tended to fyeep the price of New Zealand butter as high aa it reached. Consequently the fall in price has been more apparent. It may be pointed out that 106s per cwt. in a higher average than any of the February prices for the last ten years. Even looked in its worst light the decline ought hot to cause any great concern in the colony. The reason given by the High Commissionel in London, for the collapse of the market is the larger supplies of "Amerioan renovated and mixtures," ooming forward, and the demand for these compositions is stated to be due to the high price that was attained by Colonial butter, a cheaper article being thereby rendered neoeseary.

The question of whether the Mas terton and Wairarapa districts shall be represented at the aproaobing New Zealand Exhibition is one that should certainly be carefully considered by the townspeople and settlers in the districts mentioned. At a meeting held on Monday night last, in Palmorston North, at which there was a large attendance, it was decided that steps should be taken to have the Manawatu district represented, and an Executive Committee was appointed to convene a meeting of exhibitors aud others to carry out the project. Mr Munro, one of the Executive Commissioners, was' .present at the meeting and stated that there were some blocks of space at the Exhibition. 140 ft by 21ft wide, and he suggested that the Manawatu axbibitors should secure one of the spaces. Already Oamaru, Marlborough, and the West Coast had expressed the intention of exhibiting, and he hoped/to bear soon that many others had decided' to come in. Mr Munro de-,. tailed, the various attractions which the Exhibition would afford. He J intimated that the various Government Departments would each be represented with some speoial attraction. The charge for space would be two shillings per square foo'j covering the whole period, and lighting wouid be free. The estimated attendance was two million people, and an excellent opportunity would be afforded to those wbo wished to advertise their districts, products ,or manufactures. The Manawatu Daily Times, referring editorially to the movement, remarks:—"The several bodies who have the matter in hand have decided to tackle the project in real good earnest, ao that the word 'Manawatu' may be writ in large letters across the face of things when the Exhibition opens at Chriatohurch. The promoters realise that they 'have taken on a big contraot'; that there is a heap of good solid organising work ahead of them; that a considerable sum of money will, require to be raised to do the thing properly; and that, now the irrevocable step has been taken, all classes of the community, but more especially the manufacturers and producers, will require toco-operate in good earnest for the suooess of the enterprise and the credit of the distriot." Reasons similar to those which have influenced the public spirited action of the townspeople and settlers of the Manawatu distriot, apply with equal force to the advisability of the Wairarapa generally being represented at the Exhibition. j