British Empire heads of government at the Imperial Conference at 10 Downing St, London. New Zealand prime minister William Massey is seated third from left. — Otago Witness, 18.12.1923 Quite evidently the present Imperial Conference, even in the initial stage, is attracting interest unprecedented both in degree and in extent. It is a worldwide interest, of a genuine and spontaneous character, free from any factious or academic element. A London newspaper observes: "Our politicians have remembered Europe and forgotten Britain; let the Imperial Conference forget Europe and remember Britain." The antithesis is not free from fallacy, and we believe that the Conference may be trusted to strike a wise mean in respect to interests and attitudes which are not obviously incompatible. No doubt, the problem of inter-imperial trade, associated as it is with preference doctrines of controversial import, is distinctly thorny. The Daily Chronicle says truly enough that "if the dominions can recommend schemes to improve and develop trade which would relieve the burdens at Home as well as better the conditions in the dominions the horizon would be cleared"; but the "if" carries a weighty significance. Preliminary discussions are inevitably rather nebulous, and there is characteristic sagacity in Mr Massey’s remark regarding the futility of debating the various problems before definite proposals have been presented to the Conference. Mr Stanley Baldwin, who delivered the inaugural speech of the Conference on Monday, set a good example in eschewing mere rhetoric. Though the Conference "opened in a grey drizzle," there is ground for confident hope that the atmosphere at the close will, figuratively at least, be luminous. — editorial Phone charging regime faulted To the editor: Sir, May I crave space to ventilate a country subscriber’s complaint in connection with the new charges? Some 18 months ago I got an extension from my desk telephone to my house, paying the department for the necessary plug-box, bell, and wiring, which I understood became my own property. I am now informed that my desk telephone will cost me £2 5 shillings extra and the plug-box and bell (which are my property) £1 2s 6d extra per annum. These extra charges, added to toll charges, make a telephone prohibitive for most country subscribers, especially when one considers that the only means of communicating with Dunedin is by an overtaxed wire for which one has to wait sometimes over half an hour or else pay double rates. The extra attention required for desk telephones, plug-boxes, etc, consists, in my experience, of a "faults" man appearing once in a blue moon and dropping a few pellets in the battery. — I am, etc, G.K. Graham, Palmerston. Skyline ablaze Bush, scrub, tussock and fern fires are fairly common in the country at this time of year, and the drying winds which have prevailed during the past two weeks have tended to make these something of a menace. Yesterday evening a big blaze on the southern end of Flagstaff was witnessed by city residents. The fire, which had apparently broken out among some manuka scrub, burned fiercely all evening and well into the night. — ODT, 3.10.23 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)
