ECHOES of the WEEK

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 126, 25 February 1928, Page 17

ECHOES of the WEEK

PRESS OPINIONS ON ;; NEW ZEALAND TOPICS

There are waste spaces all over New Zealand unfitted for farming, but well adapted to growing certain varieties. of trees. Returns from this undertaking cannot be looked for at once, but it is good building for the future, and will relieve immediate necessity. It seems to be the only direction in which a practical opening for giving work to unemployed has, and by the time the afforestation and other work created for the contingency comes to an end, the natural progress of the country will, it may well be anticipated, take up the unemployed surplus of genuine workers, always provided that in the meantime that surplus is not kept up and added to by a continuation of the mistaken immigration policy hitherto fostered by the Government. —"Wairarapa Age.”

Recent statistics reveal a remarkable power of adaptation and adjustment to changing conditions. But there remains a very considerable stagnant population, unemployed, and without immediate hope. The stagnant pools of labour are a problem urgently demanding attention. A similar problem is confronting the New Zealand people; and the comprehensive scheme of afforestation just announced by the Government—together with the proposal to turn many hands now idle to the work of restoring deteriorated lands and bringing them into a state of productivity—is to be welcomed as an admirable frontal attack on the problem.— “Jlarlborough Express.”

Year after year we have pointed out that if labour is to be absorbed in anj' quantity it must be by the secondary industries and not by the farms, but the secondary industries have been starved, penalised by taxation, and thwarted, white the Government has concentrated all its efforts on the encouragement of the primary industries, and even those have received no benefit from its policy. There has been no attempt to extend settlement or increase production. For years, indeed, since the war ended, we have looked in vain to the Government for any display of statesmanship or for any intelligent understanding of the economic problems. We cannot lay all our shortcomings to the blame of the Government, but we can and do say that the record of the Reform Governmens has been one of continuous extravagance and administrative incompetence.—“Dyttelaon Times.”

The action of the Meat Producers’ Board in practically vetoing any sale of freezing works to overseas concerns was prompted by a laudable desire to prevent a valuable industry from falling under the control of operators who might exhibit small respect for the interests of the producers. It must be acknowledged, however, that it has actually had an effect that is extremely embarrassing to those who are engaged in the industry and require capital for the prosecution of it. To pretend that it is not so, as the Meat Producers’ Board and the. Minister of Agriculture do, is simply • futile.--“Otago Daily Times.”

The fact is that we are not creating enough wealth to keep our population employed. It is only begging the question to say that too many immigrants have been and are being allowed to come in. There is plenty of latent wealth in the Dominion to provide a good living for a vastly larger population than we have at present. Policy must be directed to developing these latent resources on systematic and economic lines. There is money enough to be had, but too much is being spent upon luxuries and unproductive works, and the unemployment agitation has accentuated this, many works being put in hand to provide temporary relief without sufficient thought as to whether the expenditure will permanently help . the situation. Now is the time to institute better methods, before winter comes again and brings with it acute unemployment which must be dealt with in the first way that conies to band.— •“Taranaki Herald.

No fair-minded man will withhold his sympathy from the present Government when it "is blamed for economic troubles that are entirely beyond any Government’s control, but even amongst fairminded men they are too few who rea. Jise the significance of the fact that the Government does thus come in for unjust criticism. What it signifies is that the democracy has grown so accustomed to looking to “the State” tor health and wealth and happiness and ease that it believes that everything that happens is the result of what is done by Parliament, the Government, and the vast machinery of the public Departments, and what this means is that one of the most urgent needs- of the time is a policy directed steadily towards the encouragement of local and individual self reliance, and this policy necessitates an abandonment—necessarily gradual, but still as rapid and complete as possible—of "the States’s'’ unsuccessful and inconvenient attempt to be an earthly Providence.—Christchurch “Press.”

If the deplorable lack of interest invariably manifested in municipal affairs is an indication of the general attitude of the great mass of the people, in regard to their own affairs, there is no proof that local taxation, if such an unlikely change in the financial policy of the Government in relation to the provision of funds for education were contemplated, would create and sustain local interest in education, so long as laymen who evince an interest in educational progress are denied the exercise of administrative control of the schools in which their children are taught, and for which they provide the funds, whether through the national purse, or by means of local rating. A complete overhaul of the swstem of control of education is long overdue, not that the way may be made for the introduction of an American system, but in order that New Zealand might evolve a system designed to meet the country’s peculiar needs.—Tiniaru “Herald.”

To obviate the difficulty of a surplus of teachers, the Education Department has evolved a plan of restricting _ the number of probationers anil training college students according to the requirements of the service, but it will be some time before its effects are apparent. The state of affairs as at present existent demands some, remedy. The difficulty has been obvious for years past, and it is hard to understand why some modification of such an unsatisfactory system has not been made long gre this.—Lyttelton “limes..'

Mr. Amery has proved .himself the possessor of the kind of temperament that is most valuable in an ambassador of Empire. It is conducive to confidence in the maintenance of the best Imperial relations to have had in our midst the representative of His Majesty's Government who presides oyer the Department in the conduct of which New Zealand is particularly interested. It would be advantageous to the Empire and helpful to its advancement along the lines of present-day policy, which aims at a closer measure of cooperation and mutual support among the countries which compose the British Commonwealth of Nations, if it could be arranged that members of the Home Cabinet could make more frequent visits to its widely-separated parts.—“Otago Daily Times.”

The Arbitration Act has become an instrument for dictating wages and increasing wages without reference to the service rendered, and it operates to the economic hurt of the Dominion by overpaying the incompetent and dull workers out of the real earnings of the skilful and industrious. The result is that the country gets nothing extra in wealth and service from the inferior worker, and gets less than it ought from tlie good worker, who gains nothing from giving of his best. This, involves a continuous loss to the nation. A further source of loss is the injury which is inflicted upon the Dominion by the • discouragement of the primary producer, who is the ultimate bearer of the burdens which the Act places upon industry. Unless the Parliamentary Committee faces these and kindred questions with perfect frankness, its deliberations will be worth very little. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to expect that the committee will face the real issue. It is not only that our politicians are not accustomed to look clearly at economic principles and economic facts, nor very well equipped by Nature to do so. They .are also, as politicians, hardly capable of forgettintg what the opinion of the voters will be. —Christchurch “Press.”

Economically our industrial system is quite unsound, and the present condition of the labour market is but a symptom of that unsoundness. We are being called upon to pay the price of our infraction of the economic laws, and until we deal with the root of the trouble we will never get very far. Unfortunately there is no one on the political horizon at present with the ability or the courage to stand up and tell the country what is wrong with it, or devise means for altering or abolishing the present inelastic system of wages control. Only economic pressure will awaken the public to a realisation of the hard facts that as a country we must work harder and do with less than wc have been accustomed to in the past, and that the wide disparity between the earnings of the producer and the worker in the sheltered industries must be reduced before prosperity can be permanently established.—“Taranaki News.”

The traders who supply the public with the ordinary necessaries of everyday life would be singularly accommodating if they were to look on, without concern and without protest, at the growth of a system under which, whoever .may profit by it, they are almost certain to suffer, cither through the loss of sales or through the creation of bad debts. It is small consolation to them, moreover, to be told, as probably they may be told, that the hire purchase system is advantageous to the industries in which it is practised, because the demand for the goods produced in these industries has brought about a reduction in the costs of production and has thus furnished a stimulus to trade.—“Otago Daily Times.”

The country lias now had over three months’ experience of the operation of the Summer Time Act and is in a position to express its judgment r.n the merits and demerits of the innovation. Two or three correspondents have taken advantage of our columns to state their views on the subject without, perhaps, offering any original contributions to a subject which in present circumstances is or very great interest, and we mayexpress the hope that many other persons, particularly those whose experience of daylight saving would be of v<ue, will participate in the il’scussion that has been opened —‘ Otago Daily Times.”

There is nothing har.-h or unfeeling in suggesting that assistance for those in distress should be organised on business lilies. The ultimate result would be to the benefit of them all. Those who ask most would not find it so easy to obtain most; those most deserving would not run the same risk of being overlooked. Nothing elaborate is demanded. Where relief is sought on the grounds of unemployment, evidence that the breadwinner is on the official register of unemployed should be ieciuired. Then an exchange of lists Lyttle institutions would, without any mjusticc to the distressed, help to pievent overlapping. Again the private organisations should keep closely in touch with the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. This is espeically necessary. It bandies public funds, raised by taxation, and is entitled to full assistance in assuring that they are expended to tiie very best advantage. There is plenty of evidence for those who seek 't that in the combined social problem of unemployment, distress and relief, system and organisation are. becoming dailymore essential.—“ New Zealand Herald.”

Allowing for all the difficulties attendant on the breaking-in of this country so long neglected, admitting that, it is a task for united rather than individula effort, ,it is time, nevertheless, that the decision to link its development witll the unemployed problem recreates an opportunity similar to that lost when the New Zealand Exped-'tionary Force was being demobilised. That the Minister of Lands and bis Department now propose to put their hands to the work is perhaps the most hopeful augury which could greet the new year.—“ New Zealand Herald.’’