The Government has decided to close the office of Trade Commissioner in Shanghai, and dispense with the services of Mr. E. 8. Little and the whole of his staff. As might have been expected, Mr. Little did not escape venomous attacks, which even impugned his honour, but in the course of debate.the Minister made it clear that the Government had not found the results hoped for from the Commissioner's activities, and had decided not so much to dispense with the services of Mr. Little as to do away with the office altogether. The Minister for Trade and Customs declared that he had nothing personal against the Commissioner, and he was satisfied that the accusations that he was financially connected with another firm, having Little as its name, was not justified, the similarity of names being merely a coincidence. The Government, he said, had decided that the best way to develop trade with China was to subsidize pri-vote shipping companies, and he left it rather an open question as to whether the services of Mi Sheaf would be retained. How ever, it would not be so easy to dispose of that gentleman, as he was appointed, not by the Commonwealth alone, but in conjunction with the States, and before he can be dispensed with all the States will have to come into agreement. It is a curious fact that the reports of Mr. Little upon the wretched way in which Australian exporters have treated the China markets have found their counterparts in reports from India. That the exporters have been greatly to blame is beyond question, but it seems highly probable that their disgust at the exposure is to a large extent responsible for the rather unexpected action towards the Shanghai Commissioner.
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES, The great primary industries are all facing a prosperous outlook; even the fruit producers are taking steps to reform their enterprise and make up for their neglect of everything except the quantity of output in the past. In the pastoral districts shearing has commenced, and it is noticeable that men are offering for work on the terms of the award against which they held out last year. In New South Wales and Victoria, the first Staies to start shearing, the work is going forward without any hitch. Throughout all the States, except Queensland, the pastoral country has had ample rains, and it is expect-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.