NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 277, 17 August 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Tn his statement at Auckland Mr. Cantes threw a little more light on the details of the Government’s main roads policy. At present it appears there is a Government expenditure of a’bout £300,000 a year on the four arterial roads to be taken over, which works out at .0150 pbr mile over tho 2000 miles of their total length. This sum will be the nucleus of the fund which tho arterial roads board is to handle. Ihe Minister was non-committal on the rate of duty he proposes to levy on tyres, but said it would ho in. the vicinity of what the Motor Union had suggested—possibly a little more. This looks as if a 15 per cent, duty may be expected, which on an import value of £1,000,000 would yield £150,000 a year. The amount of tho annuel license fee to bo levied on motor vehicles is still a mystery. On the very lowest basis it should yield £50.000 a year, and a contribution of £lOO,OOO can 'be looked upon ns likely from this source. On such a basis tho 50,000 or 60,000 motorists of tho Dominion would be called upon to find about £250,000 a year, making, together with the Government’s £300,000, a grand total of £550,000 for the four roads. The next thing is to discover what tho local bodies are spending on those roads and what is the estimated cost of their reconstruction. It is apparent, however, that the amount now in sight is equal to about £250 to £275 a mile per annum, a sum which with efficient cpntirol should permit of a marked improvement in the four main highways to bo taken over.

Much as China would like support against Japanese penetration in Asia it is doubtful whether she would look with a favourable eye on an invitation to come in under the Bolshevik wing. So many rumours come from Russia since the Bolsheviks nationalised the newspapers that it remains to be seen whether there is anything in Lenin’s reported plan for an Asiatic federation or alliance as a counterblast to the Disarmament Conference. The Chinese are n pretty shrewd people, aud they have a tery old proverb that he who rides on a tiger can never dismount. The United States they regard as a very good friend without any desire to steal away their country from under their feet. American missionaries and American relief workers ore known all over China, with hard on their heels American commercial travellers. Of American generosity the Chinese had experience when the United Slates Government handed back its share of the huge Boxer indemnity. America loves Japan as little as China does, but. the American Government has intimated fairly plainly also that diplomatically it would not touch the Bolsheviks with a forty-foot polo. If China indulges in a flirtation with Russia it will be. a sure way to lose American goodwill, and her statesmen may bo expected to incline to the view that if a choicff'had to be made an Americanised China would be a much pleasanter place to live in than a Bolshevised China. * * * * Australia did not behave itself as well as it might have done when the English cricketers were out last summer, and now a similar deterioration in tho manners of the crowd is reported in England. This sort of thing, once it begins, has a way of continuing, as each side has a tendency to “get some of its own back.” In Now Zealand wc have the Rugby Union busy looking at the gate instead of the game. Altogether it may be said that the sporting atmosphere nil round is only middling at tho present time. The moral of the incidents at the cricket Test matches in Australia and Britain, as far as we are concerned, is that if we desire to maintain a spurting spirit in ths crowd a first step is

to seo that it is shown by those in control of tho game in their treatment of the crowd If this is lacking it will not be long before tho other is also.

South Africa has her railway system in deep water financially. At the beginning of the year the Treasurer was anticipating that by March 31 last ha would have to face an accumulated deficit of a million and a half. This is the middle of August, and now the accumulated deficit has jumped up to £3,000,000, with a loss of £600,000 on tho last three months alone. Last year the Government brought in an eight-hour day, and raised wages all round. Tho system was in a bad way financially before it did this, and although a sharp »rise in traffic rates was made, tho falling away in trade lias sent matters downhill at a gallop. Short time, preference, general retrenchment, and a reversion to longer hours in certain grades are the remedies proposed. South Africa’s railways are a difficult problem. She has a wz.tte population about the same size as that of New Zealand, with about five millions of natives in addition. Our railway system has a total length of 3000 miles, but to serve South Africa’s vast hinterland 9500 miles of line are required. Out system cost us 40 millions, while hers cost 93 millions. Until the country is more thickly populated it can never be profitable, but the South African Dutch view immigration with disfavour, as wjth any big influx their predominance in politics nould speedily be at an end. In tho meantime the mines and the Customs have to keep uio railways going.

In New Zealand wo have talked a good deal about giving the general public a voice in the settlement of industrial disputes. In Cleveland, in the United States, last month a building trades strike in which twenty-five thousand workingmen and their families were involved was settled in this way after several months of fruitless negotiation. It was agreed to submit tho dispute to a board representing equally the organised employers and the organised employees, augmented by the addition of seven representatives of the public at largo. The problem was bow to revive the building industry so as to relieve both the unemployment and tho shortage of buildings, while at the same time reconciling tho rate of pay with the falling cost of living without reducing tho pay below a living wage. The seven representatives of tho public carefully considered the cost of living side of tho question, and made recommendations which the two parties considered so fair and acceptable that they adopted them, and also urged tho formation of a permanent board of experts under a neutral chairman. The principle oOringnig m the public at large in these matters is excellent, for every industry exists only ns a service to the public, and unions which do not like tho Arbitration Court might well profit by this American example in giving the outsiders who pay the bill a voice in matters when the tune is being called.