TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 135, 12 June 1929, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Instead of the usuaL."your're another," Mr. J. Sutherland Ross's reply, on behalf of secondary industries, to certain farmer-criticisms by Mr. D. M'Gregor Reid, takes the dignified form of a happily worded reproach. Speaking as President of the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association, Mr. Sutherland Ross has no use for the tv quoque except to expose its futility (and incidentally the futility of the general aspersion that might have provoked it):

If I were to stand before the manufacturers and say that the farmers were only scratching the ground and not farming properly there would be an outcry from every farmer in the country. They would be quite right, because I would have no right to say such a thing, and I protest against a responsible official of a farming body saying that the manufacturers are devoid of efficiency. '

Unconstructive criticism is difficult to justify at any time—still more difficult when it is vague or insufficiently specific. To say in a general way that some section of the com-: munity is inefficient is to say nothing ml particular; and as the doubling of nothing does not change minus into plus, any more than two simpletons together make one wis<s mani the manufacturers' president exhibits a restraint that is more effective than any other possible reply. The point will be recognised by any-, body who' lives in' a glass house— and who does not? Considerations of nomenclature as well as geography suggest that this encounter is between; two Scots, and that, national traits will prevent Mr. M'Gregor Reid, as retiring President of. the Otago Farmers' Union, from repeating the of-; fence. There is too much Scottish brain in both manufacture and farming for either to fail, and too much Scottish thrift to permit diffusion of energy in waste heat.

Almost a hundred years ago Carlyle wrote of the progress of man. The "Tool-using Animal," as evidenced in the House of Commons;; "he collects, apparently by lot, six hundred and fifty-eight miscellaneous individuals, and says to them, make this nation toil for us, bleed for us, hunger and sorrow and sin for us; and they do it." To. the mind of Carlyle's German philosqpheiy : Professor ' Teufelsdvockh, the British election was conducted by chance. If he were now to study the result of the 1929 election he would find evidence supporting this conclusion. Labour, .with an aggregate vote of 8,319,892, secured 288 seats, the Conservatives with 8,575,905 secured 259; and the Liberals with 5,247,378 only 58. Simple division gives the votes polled for each member returned: Labour, 28,888; Conservatives, 33,----111; Liberals, 90,472. It is not surprising that the Liberal leaders are believed to intend tabling an amendment to the King's Speech demanding an inquiry into electoral • reform. But what will Labour do? Selection by lot has benefited Labour most on. this occasion. Labour may reasonably expect that it will be some years before the system again becomes advantageous to the other parties. It requires a strong conviction and an earnest: determination to kick away the ladder. Yet if electoral reform is to be introduced, it must come from a party which has gained office u, nder > and largely by the help of, the old system. Will Labour be the party to make the sacrifice, or will it live in hopes of the disappearance of the Liberal Party, making a return to the two-party system possible and electoral reform less urgent? ■ . s ■. ■■ * * «

_ To none in the House has Nature been' so kind as to Mr Ramsay Mac Donald. She has provided him with two tilings of the greatest advantage to a speaker, a fine presence and a beautiful voice. His voice is undoubtedly the best in the House, and in the course of Parliamentary history there have been few^that were finer." This high praise of the Prime Minister as a vocal force —taken from Mr. James Johnston's Westminster's Voices"— serves to emphasise the startling departure which began with the megaphone, and which has culminated in the loud-speaker and the amplifying devices. To carry the human voice beyond its ordinary radius of effect, civilisation now gives it simultaneous delivery over a nation-wide, or even world-wide, field by means of broadcast. Alternatively, or additionally, civilisation preserves the treasured tones in the margin of a film, which cans them for reproduction on any future occasion anywhere. What the great voice once- said only in Westminster is now said to the listenerin wherever he listeth and listenethand months or years later he hears it again from the talking film with the speaker himself gesticulating on the screen. Within the space of. twenty-four hours, or less the new British Prime Minister has both broadcasted to' the listening nation and has charged a film that will go on exploding indefinitely. Once the elector had to go to Mr. Mac Donald to hear the voice; now the elector can hardly in. any circumstances escape from it. Not only has the mountain come to the vote-holding Mahomet; it has become his shadow, never to forsake him save in some desert that is destitute of loudspeaker, gramophone, and movietone, and terrestrially if not cosmically sound-proof.

As part of a library reorganisation plan the establishment of a commer-' cial reference section is highly desirable. Such a section has been mentioned and is strongly supported by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. The Libraries Committee of the City Council is sympathetic; but the difficulty to be overcome is that of providing space at the Central Library. It is the old trouble. Every department of the Central Library i| overcrowded, and ho section can be dispensed with. If there were a',;- complete ring of suburban libraries the lending or children's libraries might

be further decentralised; but as it is this cannot be done. Neither adult nor juvenile borrowers can be pushed out to Newtown, Brooklyn, or Karori. The presentation of this problem emphasises the urgency of extending the central institution. One or two suburban libraries will not remove the difficulty, and the extension of the suburban system is less urgent than the central reconstruction, which would benefit the greatest number of library users. Before the last municipal election the chairman of the Libraries Committee gave an assurance that the Central Library plans would be attended to. At the time we asked for a detailed statement of what was intended, but it was not supplied. If the commercial section is now to be established, thesp plans should be explained in full.