The taking over of practically all the primary products by the Government is an experiment, which, tried for the first time last year, has proved to be on the whole distinctly successful, and if prices alone had to be considered the farming community could be put down as being in a particularly fortunate position.
Since the beginning of 1915 the Government has gradually taken over the control, first of the meat; then of the wool, and lastly of the wheat, cheese, and butter.
In spite of many forebodings, the schemes by which the prices of the various commodities have been fixed, have worked well, very much better than could reasonably have been expected, and the only case in which anything like trouble has arisen, was in the alleged exploitation of the New Zealand meat producers in the meat released for sale to the civilian public at Home and in the handling of the wheat question.
The first-named trouble seems to have been explained and settled to the apparent satisfaction of producers, and after a number of conferences and oceans of talk, it would seem as if a fairly satisfactory solution of the wheat question - so far as price and the details of handling are concerned - was in sight.
Farming record
Mr Duncan Sutherland, well known throughout Otago, and particularly in North Otago, has put up an interesting record. He has just finished superintending his fiftieth year of shearing at Omarama.
During that period 2.2 million sheep have been shorn in the Omarama sheds. Mr Sutherland, it may be mentioned, had for some years the management of the Morven Hills and Ardgowan properties, and during that time quite a million sheep were shorn.
Registering aliens
The Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. G. W. Russell) told a reporter that the registration of aliens under the Act of last session is proceeding rapidly.
Already the Internal Affairs Department has recorded the names of 3300 aliens, and many other names are in the hands of the police for inquiry. It is expected that when the police reports are received after the holidays the number of registered aliens will be substantially increased.
The Aliens Registration Act is very wide in its scope, and the term''alien'' includes any person who is not a British subject. The enemy aliens included in the list are chiefly Austrians, whom the Government has not thought it necessary to intern.
- ODT, 28.12.1917.
