NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 245, 11 July 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Yesterday tho Massey Administration entered on its tenth year of office. It. came in im-Tuly, 1912, witW a team new to office. Before it was through its first full session it had tho prolonged waterside strike of 1913 to deal with. In 1914 camo the war, and thence onward until 1919 war and peace-making problems were tho principal pre-occupations of tho Primo Minister. Last year saw tho Ministry busy with reconstruction in the midst of tho post-war boom, and this finds it facing tho post-war slump. No previous Ministry in our history has been called upon to meet such stormy and uncertain years and to undertake such heavy responsibilities New Zealand went into the war convinced of the justice of the Empire’s cause and of tho imperious necessity t>f defeating tho German bid for world domination. It was fortunate in having as its Primo Minister at such, a time a man of Mr. Massey’s dogged and withal buoyant disposition to give expression to ite determination to carry on tho struggle unwavering to the end. Mr. Massey entered. Parliament 27 years ago at the ago of 38. He is a different Mr. Massey from what he was when sworn in as Prime Minister in 1912. Great responsibilities have been thrust upon him, and he has risen to them with a broadened vision and has developed unsuspected. qualities of leadership. In domestic legislation opportunities have been restricted in such' unsettled times, but the Government hns a solid record of creditable and useful work, and it will be the hope, of one and all that the return of more normal conditions may before long give it a fair chance of carrying on with the developmental work needed to send the country ahead. * # * *

Hospital and charitable aid expenditure in New Zealand has jumped from about half a million a year before tho war to a million or more to-day. Local bodies everywhere are restive under the ever-iricreasiiig burton. and only last week it was stated at the Akitio County Council that a fifth of tho ordinary county revenue was swallowed up by the hospital levy. Many useful recommendations for reform are . made in the report of tho Hospitals Commission published this morning, but it is not clear to. what extent it is anticipated that the expenditure can be reduced by the economies proposed. In 1914 the expenditure on hospitals and charitable aid was 10s. 6Jd. per head of population. It rose to 12s. Will. h.V 1918. « ncl ln ]919 camß e jump to 16s. Bd. in d single year. The alteration tn the basis of the Government subsidy recommended should result in relief to unduly burdened rural districts such as Akitio, but will presumably mean still heavier rating for urban areas such as Wellington City. A grove defect of the present system Is tho absence of any check on extravagant boards—they simply make their estimates as they please and sent notice of tho levies to the local todies, who have no option 'hut to pay. The commission urges that power should bo given to the Minister of Public Health to refuse the Government subsidy Yo boards presenting extravagant estimates of expenditure. So far the Public Health Department, as watchdog, hns been able only to bark in its annual reports at hospital waste. It, is high time it had the chance of following (hat bark by. a bile.

New Zealand as she grows to nationhood must from the nature of things find her future more nnd more on th'’ sen. At present, as Lord Jellicoe remarked in his speech to tho Port Nicholson Yacht Club on Saturday, we are not imbued with the sea spirit as strongly as we might bo. The cause is doubtless to be found in the fact that liners carrying our produce overseas, and, in the past, the warships on our coast, have been floating bits of Britain Tathor than New .Zealand. They have been manned mainly at the other end of the voyage, and the conditions of life and pay have represented a standard with which the more' fortunate New Zealander has ceased to bo content. On the naval side the recent creation of a New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy is a first stop to altering this, and there is a growing feeling through tho country that tho Dominion must identify itself more with the control of the mercantile marine linking it with its markets abroad. Mr. Massey has spoken his mind plainly on this subject at the Imperia] Conference, and o.s time and opportunity offer the country will solidly support application of the principle that New Zealand interests must be paramount In tho management of New Zealand shipping services. If wo read the signs aright, this generation will see oversea liners owned and manned in New Zealand, and let us b.opo tint, with our ironfields opened up, the next may see them built here.

All Mr. Lloyd George’s genius for compromise will be needed if tho truce in Troland is to bo converted into a permanent peace. Although the basis on which tho negotiations are proceeding has not been made public, yei. it is a great step forward in itself to end even temporarily the reign of bloodshed and violence that has afflicted the country for so long Somebody has said somewhere that the great tragedies of life are in the conflicts between opposing sides both of which aro in the right. From its own point of view each side in the Irish question is in tho right, and in their attachment to

an Meal —mistaken and mischievous in its effects as it may to thought by those who do not sliaro it—a great body of the Irish people over many weary years have not hesitated to risk their all. in a struggle that on the plane of physical force was hopeless from the first. Now that tho ton is liftoj and men can go about their business without fear of murder or arson no ouo will willingly desire to bring tho truce to an end until. every possibility of settlement has been explored. If Sinn Fein is prepared to forgo its full demand for an Irish Republic, and! will concede to Ulster tho autonomy it demands for itself, Britain can afford to he litoral in concession on her side.

When a labour deputation interviewed Ministers on Friday, one of its members, as he is reported, said that "a reduction of hours under the present conditions would assist in spreading the available worliT” The reservation made is encouraging as suggesting an abandonment, so far as normal times are concerned, of the discredited fallacy that a general shortening of hours would permanently broaden the scope of employment and .Better conditions generally. But if it fs recognised, as it must bo, that in ordinary times a reduction in working Sours entails a reduction in the amount of work, and, what is perhaps more important, ,In tho amount of wages, offering, how is it to be demonstrated. that in times of depression a reduction of working hours will better things? It may spread employment, but it means short-time employment and short-timo pay, and will not increase production. In a country like this where, with inconsiderable exceptions, the length of tho working day is adjusted on n reasonable basis, the effect of shortening hours is to limit production and make it more costly, and. as a consequence to limit the trade in goods and services which is tho real measure of employment. The workers whoso hours are shortened either suffer a reduction in their own purchasing power, or profit at the expense of worcers in other industries. In any case tne total purchasing power of tho community is reduced, and it- is this purchasing power which constitutes and determines tho effective demand for labour. The only way to climb out of trade and industrial depression is to cheapen production to the point of stimulating a brisk demand for goods and services. In this way and in no other way tlio field of profitable employment is extended, and may to extended indefinitely. Carried out logically, the idea that available work may be “spread” by shortening working hours leads to tho strange conclusion that if no ono did. any work there would to plenty of work for everybody.