The Waikato Independent THE PAPER THAT COVERS THE WAIKATO. SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1922 EDITORIAL NOTES

Waikato Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2491, 7 January 1922, Page 4

The Waikato Independent THE PAPER THAT COVERS THE WAIKATO. SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1922 EDITORIAL NOTES

The Suffat Beet - v ; j Industry. Sugar beet production is one of the subjects discussed in the annual report of. the Department of Agriculture. The report States: "The trials in, the growing of sugar beet at the Ashburton E~j}c£fmcntal Farm, the Central Development Farm (Weraroa), the Marton experimental area, and the subsidised farms at Manaia and Stratford have created a great deal of interest in the question as to whether a beet sugar industry could not be profitably" developed in tne Dominion. The high yields . secured, varying from 18 to 24 tons per acre even under not particularly favourable conditions, and the satisfactory sugar content indicate that so far as tho actual growing of the roots is concerned tho crop presents no more difficulties „than does the ordinary mangold. The especially satisfactory results secured at "the Ashburton farm were largely responsible for the efforts that have by private enterprise in Canterbury to establish a sugar beet growing and manufacturing company. So far, however, nothing tangible has resulted, mainly through lack of adequate financial support." One point with regard to beet sugar production has not previously been sufficiently stressed, and that is the large amount of labour that would be absorbed in the manufacturing end of the business from, say, the end of May to the end •€? September. This would fit in remarkably well with the slack period 'of our meat works, and beet sugar factories located in the vicinity of meat works would be of mutual benefit so far as the labour question is concerned. Closing of "Women's Jails. The closing of the woman's prison at Carlisle, England, because of the decrease in the number of women convicts is typical of improved conditions of female,' delinquency which it is agreeable to note. Women prisoners in England decreased from 3.100 in 1914 to 1209 in October, .1920, and of 100 prisons for their detention in existence a 'few years ago all but twenty-five are reported to have been abandoned. This is evidence of a social'reform the presumptive causes 1 of which are only less interesting than the good results. It cannot be attributed to Prohibition in a country where liquor selling is only partically restricted. It is at least not j directly due to moral regulation. It i| logical to ascribe it to better economic conditions and to social influences. The marked decrease in.the number of'women convicts dates from the beginning of tho World War, and accounted for.by women's fre/i participation in industry and . their op-.. portunities for self-supportjand for ac(tmring the self-respect which is-the

strongest deterrent to -crime: .'■■ It■ is not" unlikely, that war wages,'and better, living conditions continued in ..peace ■■ have done more than anything else to empty the women's jails, in England. It is a prosaic enough influence, but the main thing is its effectiveness. ■ Unproductive , j : /'','■* Railway Works. Another instance of the New Zealand Government's-half-hearted and unbusinesslike methods of railway construction is afforded through the Waiuku branch railway line, opened on Thursday ,last by the Prime Minister. This small line, of'only 12 miles 56 chains, was definitely authorised in 1912, and has thus taken ten years to construct —at tho rate of a mile and a quarter per annum=r-although it is a work that presents no engineering difficulties, the route being through fairly •easy country. N T&c Gfist "of the line was £200,000.'-' Allowing for tie dislocation caused by the war, surely this work might have been completed in at least half the time occupied, in which case interest on the money expended would have been earned years ago, and the outlay have been self-supporting, instead of a drag on the country all this time. The same, applies —though in a much greater degree—in regai'd- to other railway lines in New Zealand. For instance, as pointed out by the New Zealand Herald' in a leading article, on the Tauranga section of the East Coast route between £BOO,OOO and £900,000 has been spent without adding a mile to the open railways. It is surely quite time that the Government displaced more business ability in its conduct of railway construction, and devoted its energy and funds to the completion of/the most important sections—lines that/'would bring in a handsome return as soon as constructed —"instead of dividing the money available into doles among '■ .works in all. parts of the thus causing work of construction to be drawn out inordinately/"%id locking up very large - without any return whatever". The 'present system is largely a result of the Government controK of railways, under which it is thought necessary to spend money in respective districts in order to present dissatisfaction and jealousy. It is inconceivable that any shrewd, capable business man or company would persist in the piecemeal and unproductive meth-' ods of railway construction adopted by the New- Zealand Government —to say nothing on the score of bungling and expense of the works undertaken —and the-sooner'sane,.'sound business methods are adopted in the railway administration of klip country tite Wi'viavoryua'u. -