DOMINION TOPICS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 45, 16 November 1940, Page 15

DOMINION TOPICS

Government and Strikes. When the illegal strikes occurred .‘it the 'Waikato mines, clear and reasonable remonstrances were addressed to the men by Hie National Disputes Commit tee. after the settlement, aud they were implored to use the elaborate m-i--chiuery established to settle disputes without stoppages. But even this otherwise admirable statement dodged the fact that strikes are not merely undesirable but illegal and too timidly urged that there should be no more, strikes “until” the machinery had been fully used. Throughout this vexations and trivial but costly dispute the Government had nothing at all to say on the question of the law it has set up, of the deliberate breach committed, and of its own resolve to uphold the law. But. there the Government’s problem visibly confronts it. It must secure industrial order aud continuous production aud has provided adequate machinery for the fair and speedy solution of every labour problem that may arise. It lias prohibited the alternative method of the strike and provided heavy penalties against it. But tlie machinery has been left unused, time aud again, and the prohibition ignored. —“The Press,” Christchurch. Home Guard Enrolment. Full credit must be given to tlie Government for its withdrawal of the requirement that members of the Home Guard should give an undertaking to accept personal liability for injury suffered in the course of training or service. This requirement was so obviously unjust that provision of it must have been due to inadvertence rather than considered intention. Indeed. the Minister of National Service, Mr Semple, has said that in framing the enrolment form the Government bad no thought of influencing volunteers to contract themselves out of legitimate title to compensation. Unfortunately, an impression to this effect was created, and it could uot be removed by an oral statement that the Government would sympathetically regard any genuine claims. Hence there has been some reluctance to enrol, with consequent delay in establishing the organization. The new form now to be prepared will, by removing the anomaly, clear the way for a better response to the invitation to volunteer. —“New Zealand Herald.” Government and the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank is supposed to control the credit aud currency of the Dominion, but in recent years it has been called upon to demand more and more from the trading banks to enable it to carry on. This situation is due, in turn, to the policy of the Government in demanding that the Reserve Bank should create more and more credit for use by the State. Up to the end of 1936, the Government had not resorted to the use of Reserve Bank credit at all, but since then it has received advances for “other purposes” totalling no less than £25,000,060. Two years ago the directors of the bank, appointed by the Government, issued a warning against this method of finance, but in the last year alone these advances have increased by nearly £8.000.000 and there is still no evidence of a check being imposed. These advances to the State, the so-called creation of credit, are the crux of the whole unsatisfactory position of the Reserve Bank and until the policy in this respect is altered there can be no hope of any real improvement. "Gisborne Herald.” Zoned Milk Deliveries.

Whoever has benefited by the elaborate organization built up round Auckland’s milk supply, consumers cannot see that they have gained any advantages. Various sectional interests appear to be very busy safeguarding aud even improving their own position at the expense of the public interest. All parties profess, of course, to be consulting the public interest, but consumers feel they are the last to be considered. Control has beep followed by higher prices, it has deprived consumers of freedom to choose their suppliers, and many of them have to accept late delivery. The chairman of the milk council and the secretary of the Roundsmen’s Union would be better engaged and show their sense of public responsibility if they dropped their present controversy in favour of co-operat-ing to arrange efficient service of an essential community supply. As it is, the principle for which presumably they are wokring—the principle of. rationalization of distribution by zoning—may be discredited and destroyed. In tyring to make points, they may lose the whole argument. The problem should not be attacked from this or that angle, but from the broad base of the public interest. —“New Zealand Herald.” Air Force Training.

The completion recently of the first year’s work of the elementary flying training school at Bell Block serves as a reminder that by the prescience and enthusiasm of air-minded people aided by the New Plymouth Borough Council’ Taranaki has been able to share in the expansion of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, aud in the development of the Empire plan for the establishment of an imperial air force that will be strong enough to enable Britain to take the offensive against her enemies. The Bell Block school was evolved largely from the aero club movement to which the province owes the establishment of the New Plymouth airport. When war began the resources of the club in personnel and material were placed at the disposal of the State, aud iu the continuance of club aud commercial aviation activities the needs of the State have since had first place. Nevertheless the civil activities have not been discontinued. and the relations between the .■lir force and civil authorities have been all that could be desired.— "Taranaki Daily News.”

Challenging Figures. The medical tests applied to determine the fitness for service of men drawn in the first ballot for territoriatra'ining in the Dominion have so far produced results so unsatisfactory a> tv be definitely disquieting. In the case of the four main centres the average of men classed as fit promises, on present evidence, to be not much more than half the number required to present themselves for examination. In other centres less urban in nature the average shows signs of being higher, but yet not high enough to enable satisfaction to lie expressed concerning general health standards in an age group that should be the most vigorous and self-reliant: in the country. It is perhaps too soon yet to speak of tla-e findings with any special emphasis, but the indications are that, when the results of the recent ballot and of subsequent ballots are properly correlated for study, reason will be found for the institution of a searching inquiry into the causes of physical unfitness in an unsatisfactory degree and into methods by which the situation might be improved.—“Otago Daily Times.”

The Menace of Sea Mines. Another sharp reminder that the war is upon our own doorstep was given on Friday night when two merchantmen were mined in Bass Strait. Raiding minelayers must occasionally slip through the cordon in the North Sea, specially as they have now tlie shelter of the whole Norwegian corridor. Once they are out aerial reconnaissance enables them to keep clear of British naval units, and they are able to sneak up in the dark and drop their mines along the tracks of ships in the most distant seas of Empire. Only by constant vigil and ceaseless sweeping have the losses from their dropped cargoes been kept down, and only when the story of minesweepilia around the Australian and New Zealand coasts can be told will there be a real appreciation by the public of the dauntless energy, skill and the knowledge of the minesweeping squadron. Because mines can be timed to rise to the danger level at any pre-deter-mined date, perhaps weeks after the raider’s visit, the discovery of the fields is a matter of the greatest difficulty. An area may be swept clear today and tomorrow, without any intervening visit from a mine layer, it may fairly bristle with death, just far enough below the surface to be invisible.—“ Auckland Star.”

The Navy League. Though affecting only the Wellington education district, the decision of the board to reverse its former decision aud to permit Navy League speakers to address pupils in schooltime for one half-hour a year will be generally and warmly welcomed. The board's ban on Navy League speakers caused a considerable stir and was taken up by the Returned Soldiers’ Association and the Wellington School Committees’ aud Educational Federation. In fact, tlie attitude of the board, specially in the light of present-day events, was roundly condemned. The Empire today is deeply indebted to the Navy, to the courage and resource of its matt power and to the strength and efficiency of its ships. And had it not been for the Navy League, which through tlie years and often in the face of prejudice and hostility has toiled manfully to inform and inspire public opinion on the need for a powerful fleet, it is safe to say that the Navy today would not bo the effective weapon it is in protecting the Empire ami beating back its enemies.—"Taranaki Herald.”

Co-operation. Co-operation does not necessarily imply complete agreement with all that is proposed. Constructive criticism makes for efficiency aud often points to the better way, but there are certain broad principles about which there can be no uncertainty and no withholding of co-operation. The desire is that the people of New Zealand should think constructively and not destructively in every matter that is leading to the prosecution of the war. It is the duty of the Government to spread the burden as evenly as possible on shoulders able to bear it, aud when that is done the good of the country demands that everyone should bear his share and take care that he is not placing any obstacle iu the way of a fellow burden-bearer. The people of Britain are a remarkable example of a nation that has been shocked into the realization that for the time being the civilization it represents depends wholly on the success of a united effort to win tiie war—“Waikato Times.”

Prayers in School. The Otago Education Board four years ago “permitted” school committees to open school five minutes later than the usual opening hour for the purpose of allowing time for devotional exercises in all cases where teachers voluntarily offered to conduct them. Yesterday, in the conditions of war time, the board passed a motion “recom. mending” the performance of such exercises, to the extent of the recital of the Lord’s Prayer, where the practice is not already followed. A month ago the Wellington Education Board directed or instructed that schools be opened with the Lord’s Prayer, “subject to the approval of the school committees and head teachers concerned.” The Education Department has objected that this instruction exceeded the powers of the board, and has no force accordingly.... It is too late to call the practice in the schools an innovation. Both in the schools and wherever else it is adopted voluntarily the practice will do only good if it encourages a more serious note in our national life, and, on the part of those who follow it, a sense of responsibility to something beyond themselves. —Dunedin “Evening Star.” Denial of Opportunities.

The time is approaching when there will be poorer opportunities in the recognized professions than there are for trade union leaders and political sycophants for whom the Government has been creating jobs carrying salaries of from £1250 to £2OOO a year. As it is in the professions, so it is in the major industries which have been brought under the licensing system—which is merely a euphemism for monopoly. Already there is a long list of industries which are closed to newcomers except with the special consent of the State and, to some extent, the approval of those already engaged in th" industry; and they naturally oppos. any encroachment on their preserveThe first result is the restriction o' competition and this must lead to in efficiency for which the public mus pay. More important, however, is th. fact that there is again the denial • ■ opportunity to the workers in the ii dustry to tit themselves b.v diligeniability, and initiative to become ir.d pendent and to launch out on their o" account. They must be content to r< main employees all their lives.—“G:borne Herald."