RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Apart from a radio licence, a Ashing licence, a duck-shooters' licence, a driving licence, and various regulations and by-laws that are so few in number as scarcely enough to take up more than about five shelves of annotated Statutes, New Zealanders have a relatively free life, and it has always been a wonder to some people that the civil servants have not persuaded successive governments with a series of recommendations to issue many more licences. As many people would testify there are many other aspects of our communal life for which a licence seems necessary. No-one should be allowed to play the bagpipes without a licence—and those who are learning should be segregated in the Te Anau district for some

months in the preparatory period. Penalties should be heavier for breaches than for motoring. A man intoxicated in charge of his bagpipes can cause tremendous damage, as anyone who remembers New Year's Eve in Dunedin can testify. Typewriters for private use should be licensed. No-one knows what harm a man with a typewriter can do until he has worked for a publisher, and the world might be saved a lot of trouble if licences could be cancelled for the speechwriters of the Eastern and Western World. A man and especially a woman ought to be issued with a licence to carry an umbrella in a crowded street, first passing a strict test in Colombo street on a Friday night. Schoolteachers should be licensed, very carefully.

Think what harm might be done to the nation oy dangerous teaching of Standard VI. and barmen should be licensed, after first passing a test to ensure their suitability for the job, just as plumbers are. The opportunity is there for some splendid empire-building within the Civil Service with miles of Grade IV jobs, including inspectorships, and the number of laws that would be needed to put all these ideas into practice would keep the Law Drafting Office and the Government Printing Office busy for months ahead, probably even including overtime. It Just doesn't seem right that living should be uncluttered as it is these days. But probably we are making progress compared with 55 years ago. Give the civil servants time and they’ll get round to it.