NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 17, 14 October 1921, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Public uneasiness will bo only partially allayed by the result of the recent inquiry at Victoria College. The inquiry, however, will hnvo served its purpose if it clears tho air and leads to a removal of whatever grounds may have given rise to tho widespread feeling i.n the city for some considerable time past that t'ho institution bad n .superheated political atmosphere of strong extremist bias. Professor Hunter, at the College Council ineeeting on Wednesday, declared that the inquiry would do crave injury tx> tho reputation of tho college. Such injury as tho college’s reputation has sustained dates from before the inquiry, anil the report of tjjo chairman should help to give it a needed rehabilitation. It is difficult to understand Pro. feseor Hunter's marked hostility to tho Minister and tho inquiry, nor is it easy

to SOO that his general attitude on Wednesday will' help to improve tho state of public feeling towards the college. Professor Hunter hotly resisted a motion that college professors and societies should not give recognition, to any organ, isatious known to encourage revolutionary socialism. The chairman in his report saifi t'hat this year a practice had been introduced at some of ..tho ordinary debates of'inviting In two outside speak, ers, and ho suggested that the council should consider whether the debates should not in future be confined to the students, A motion to this end was lost, however. Tho number of occasions on w'hidh Socialist speakers from outside participated in the debates this year does not appear from the chairman's report. Mr. Levi, however, voiced his own misgivings on Hie wisdom of allowing this participation, and those misgivings will bo widely shared by the general public. n * * « If tho interests of tho public, aro considered in the matter, short, shrift will be given to tho Bill introduced by a Labour .member of tho House of Representatives to provide for the registration of electricians. Should the Bill become law only persons registered by a board to bo set up will bo permitted to undertake electrical work. The member tn chargo (Mr. Sullivan) said that tho principles embodied in the measure had been approved by employers’ and employees organisations. This may well ba believed, for the effect of the Bill would bo to set up a close corporation in tho electrical trade with no more justification than could bo urged in the case of any one of dozens of other trades. It is, of course, rFguh that only competent engineers or outer qualified persons should be allowed to undertake the hig4«,r branches of electrical work, and this seems to be ensured as matters stand. So far as tho wiring of dwelling houses and other simple jobs is concerned, Mr. Sullivan’s plea that his Bill would afford necessary protection to the public is nonsensical. Any protection the public needs in regard to work of this kind is or easily might be extended under tho present arrangement, which relegates to local bodies the duty of licensing wiremen. The training and examination of those who take up the higher branches of electrical work is of course bound to devolve upon university schools of electrical engineering and similar institutions of recognised standing. Tho only important effect of creating an expensive board to examine and register tradesmen doing the lower grades of electrical work —tho kind of work that a schoolboy experimenter will do reasonably well after a few weeks or months of study and practice—woUS bo that the public, would speedily find itself paying for such work "through the nose.’’ Even if tho country were rolling in money instead of being in the throes of trade and industrial depression, such a proposal would be diametrically opposed to the interests of the general community.

In ths past The Dominion has moro than once directed attention to the unpleasant and insanitary dirtiness of much of the paper money in circulation. At the time wq thought it possible that it was by inadvertence that many of the notes were left so long in circulation, and that tho matter would bo rectified on being brought to notice. That expectation has been disappointed, and tho paper money in circulation today is, if anything, more offensive than it was a few months ago. In Parliament on Wednesdhy eventing one cf tho members declared that our banknotes were tho dirtiest in the world. That is perhaps too sweeping an assertion, but it seems fairly safe to say that unless pressure is put on the banks to change their ways, tho notes verysoon will be the dirtiest in existence. In pre-war days people who objected to unclean paper could always obtain gold'. To-day we are all compelled, without alternative, to accept paper money, and under these circumstances it is no moro than reasonable that, some Governmental authority should insist that the notes must be clean. If tho Health Department would send round to tho various banks and securo samples of current paper money, ono would imagine from the odour and appearance of much of it that they would capture a big enough population of microbes and germs to warrant further action. It seems futile for the City Council to try to keep us germ free by putting milk in glass bottles while we aro forced to carry upon our persons this tainted money. * * * Twenty years ago the British Cabinet was known jocularly as tho “Hotel Cecil,” in consequence of tho strong predominance of that famous political family in its ranks. To-day Lord Robert Cecil is aspiring to live up to the traditions of his name, but ho lacks weight for a party leader, and the day of political families is practically at an end. Lord Robert Cecil is an idealist, and he desires to give Britain something better than the opportunism of Mr. Lloyd George. In a letter to tho Press ho urges that an administration should bo formed, with Viscount Grey at its head. Lord Grey retired from active political life because of an affection of his eyes which resulted in tho almost total loss of his sight. While Britain has known Mind Ministers of the Crown before today, blindness is a heavy handicap for a party loader in tho United Kingdom to bear in these troublous times. Before ho went to tho House of Lords, Sir Edward Grey attained front rank in politics by his extraordinarily competent handling of foreign affairs, and everyone who has read the State papers knows that he took every conceivable step in 1914 to find n way. out for tho various parties that would' avert war. In trying to work up a demand for Lord Grey as Prime Minister, Lord Robert .Cecil is barking up the wrong tree. As things stand in Britain, it is a, man with tho qualities that Mr. Lloyd George possesses who will best keep tho country together and firidgo chaos with tho plank of expediency.