NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 251, 18 July 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Differences between the House and the Senate have held up the United States Naval Appropriation Bill for several months. The Republican Senators—the irreconcilable opponents of the League of Nations and the advocates /if a 100 pgr cent. Americanism—wanted a 500 million dollar vote for the Navy. The House of Representatives fixed a figure in the neighbourhood of 400 million dollars as its limit. A cable message this morning states that President Harding has signed tho Bill in its final form with an appropriation of 410 million dollars. The Navy Department favoured tho higher fixture, land the Administration also sought to impress legislators with the need for preparedness at s?a. Agreement >n the end on tho reduced figure is a good augury for tho forthcoming con ference on disarmament.

Appeals are made to the Government for assistance in all sorts of directions, but tho oddest on record for some time past comes from Gisborne. Au Australian aviator. Lieutenant Briggs, of Melbourne, proposes to attempt a flight across the Tasman Sea. A young man at Gisborne becomes possessed of a desire to have a joy-ride across in Lieutenant Briggs’s machine, but his request is declined by the airman. There, one would think, the matter would end. Lieutenant Briggs’s reply is to the point. He is going solo, and he prefers reserve supplies of fuel to passengers. However, the member for Gisborne has taken up the request of Mr. Wilson, the local aspirant, and suggests that New Zealand would gain honour by inducing Lieutenant Briggs to carry- Mr. Wilson and forgo his petrol.. There are all sorts o f ways of acquiring honour, but wo have yet to learn that forcing an unwanted passenger on an airman in a risky flight is one of them, and wo hope the Minister of Defence will not baok Jip this extraordinary request. If Gisborne wishes for distinction in the air it will scarcely gain it by hanging on behind somebody else’e aeroplane.

Australia’s great cities are growing at a rate altogether disproportionate to ths increase in the rural population, and each succeeding census seoa a further concentration of citizens in tho big centres. Melbourne, for instance, has increased by 30 per cent, in ten years, while the rural districts have gone up in population by only 5 per cent. Several causes have contributed to the movement of Into years. T’ho protective Commonwealth tariff, with its heavy duties, has been especially designed to encourage manufactures, and has resulted in the development of new manufactures and urban industries. This development is to the good, as it means that instead of obtaining manufactured articles from town workers in other countries they ate supplied on the spot, and the wages and profits kept in the country. Lavish expenditure in and around the cities by the State Governments has, however, been too big a factor in causing population to drift cityward. The Labour Governments have been especial sinneis in this direction. At present between ■4O and 50 per cent, of tho population of Australia is concentrated in six cities. Only two of the States-Queonsland and Tasmania—have under 40 per cent, of their population in their capital cities. One—South Australia—has 54 per cent, in its capital. In Europe, accoifling to tho latest statistics, Denmark heads the list with 20 per cent, of its people in Copenhagen, while Italy is at the other end with 1.64 per cent, iu Rome. The present depression should provide a test of the economic soundness of Australia’s packed towns and empty countrysides.

It would bo a very excellent thing if tho great shortage of clergy now reported led to an overhaul of the financial side of the Church of England in Britain. Clerical stipends in the Old Country on an average are meagre in the extreme, and as often as not it happens that the vicar in the tiniest parish will have the biggest income. The •anomalies have their roots so far backin the past that the task of rectifying them would be so tremendous that nobody seems to care to attempt it. In the United States the churches seem to Be suffering the same financial embarrassment in face of tho higher cost of living. Church-goers in their contributions to the collection-plate apparently do not recognise that where they gave sixpence before the war a shilling is now required—or the equivalent in cents. The result is that it is common nowadays to find clergymen seeking employment during tho week while endeavouring to fulfil their duties as clergymen. Bishop Lawton, of Massachusetts, in his address to his diocesan convention last month, dwelt at length on the position that was arising through clergymen embarking in business during the week. Under such a system, ho declared, respect for Holy Orders must decline on all sides. It was noticeable that the Bishop, while deploring tho position, was not fruitful in suggestions for remedying it- * #

Another improvement in the employment position in the United Kingdom is reported to-day. 'The latest return shows a reduction of 50,100 in the number of unemployed registered at the end of the previous week. About GO,OOO moro workers are now in employment than when tho industrial depression was at its worst, and in view of the progress which has been made in readjusting wages and other working costs the improvement should continue, and its rate should be accelerated as time goes onprovided always that industrial peace is maintained. The reduction thus far made in the volume of unemployment is, of course, slight in comparison with what remains. Male and female workers still unemployed number 2,120,201 — that is to Bay, moro than one-sixth of the 12,000,000 workers insured under tho Unemployment Insurance Act. Account has to be taken also of those who are working reduced hours. At a recent date well over a. million workers in the United Kingdom were registered as working systematic short time in such a manner us to entitle them Io benefit under tho Insurance Act or the out-oi- , work donation scheme. The probable effect of the coal strike settlement in expediting the revival of trade and industry is perhaps indicated to some extent in the fact that in March last only about 1,200,000 British workers were unemployed. During the period of the .

coal strike the number of workers unemployed in other industries than mining almost doubled, and now that the mines are again producing coal the effect upon industry and employment generally’’ ought io bo pronounced.