TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 133, 2 December 1929, Page 10

TOPICS OF THE DAY

New Zealand has been most fortunate in her Governor-Generals. She has had men who, even with the restrictions imposed upon them, have been able to accomplish great and enduring work. Our present Gover-nor-General alluded to these restrictions in his speech at Gisborne. Comments from him upon issues of great moment were barred, he said. This is so, and in order to achieve something, while not transgressing the bounds of his office, a GovernorGeneral must be a genius, possessed of wide knowledge and consummate tact. If he has these gifts, he can indeed become, as Sir Charles Fergusson has been, a link between peoples,

The Governor-General was sent (said His Excellency) to be a representative of the King; but he also felt that he should be mo;ra than that, and as well should be an interpreter of the people at Home to the people here, and an interpreter to His Majesty of the people overseas.

His Excellency has been eminently successful in this role of interpreter. He has helped us to realise our unity with Great Britain—a unity which is much greater than the political problems which the Governor-Gen-eral may not discuss. Realisation of tm\ unity is the first step towards solution of those problems. Without the interpreter, who is above politics, there would be less understanding and greater difficulty in the settlement of particular issues.

Interpretation, however, is not alone sufficient if our association is to be maintained upon a close and practical basis. It must be supplemented by machinery for intimate consultation and exchange of information. For many years there was a weakness in this respect. It was the result of a gradual process of development. The colonial days, when Governors really governed, were left behind, and the machinery for consultation between Governments was not perfected to provide the close contact which the Governors had given. Imperial Conferences at long intervals did not meet the need, and it was only partly met by the exchange of dispatches which might or might not be studied by busy Prime Ministers. A step towards improvement was taken by Mr. Coates, when he became Prime Minister, by the creation of a Prime Minister's Department, with a special External Affairs section. This was intended to free the Prime Minister himself of some routine work, so that he might have more time for the study of Imperial affairs and to prepare the material for that study. As a further step, a representative of the Foreign Office was sent to New Zealand to work in close association with the Prime Minister's Department. We are convinced that this improvement of the machinery has been of great value to New Zealand, though political exigencies may have hindered the political heads irom demonstrating that value to the people. The lines have been laid down for future development by orderly methods; but we must not rest content with what has been done. It must be followed up, particularly by encouraging the people and the representatives of the people in Parliament to take a lively and intelligent interest in Imperial issues. Parliament particularly needs a 'spur

Mr. Thomas Buckland, chairman of the Bank of New South Wales has assumed the role of Watchman on the walls of Australian finance. In jus speech on Friday last to his fellow-shareholders, he showed how the particular institution of which he is the head, in common with other |banks in Australia, was experiencing the full pressure of demands of Governments (Federal and State) and ot local authorities for the united supply of funds available in Australia. Deposits with the banks in relation to advances made- by them tended to contract, and the legitimate demands of primary and secondary industries, and of commerce, must necessarily suffer. Speaking with the traditional sense of responsibility of the banker, but with the strongest emphasis that he could bring to bear on the point, Mr. Buckland said: The people as a whole will brine about their own undoing if they pursue

the policy of past years with its extravagant and often unrcproductive expenditures. Such policies with their reduction of output—not necessarily the value of output—must bring hard times and force upon us a lower standard of living. When these are combined with a serious fall in the prices obtainable for our chief staple, wool, and a considerable reduction in the quantity of another, wheat, duo to adverse weather conditions, the outlook is hard indeed. Mr. Buckland referred to the balance- ! sheet of the Bank of New South Wales in corroboration of his remarks. . Those in positions as important as that of the chairman of a great bank, like that over which Mr. Buckland presides, as a matter of course must carefully consider every word to be used in giving an account of their stewardship, therefore the Government and the governed cannot lightly regard such utterances. The decision of the directors of the Bank of New South Wales not to pay the bonus of 2$ per cent, on shares has a far greater significance than appears on the surface, and may be regarded as a portent. While Mr. Buckland describes New Zealand as prosperous —and by comparison with Australia this is so—yet the financial connections between this Dominion and the Commonwealth are too intimate for New Zealand to remain indifferent to economic conditions in Australia. Fortunately the tone of the wool market generally has a tendency to improve, and Australia will also have a heavy surplus of wheat for export. New Zealand is not receiving prices for its exports so good as those of last year, but those prices, so far, are payable, and the external trade balance is well on the right ;side,- even though imports increase. Nevertheless, in view of the experience of the Bank of New South Wales and the deductions drawn therefrom by its chairman, his remarks can well be laid to heart in New Zealand, as in Australia.

Nineteen hours to the South Pole and back establishes a new record in Antarctic travel and exploration. One at first is inclined to compare Commander Byrd's performance with that of earlier Antarctic explorers— with Amundsen and his dogs pushing forward a few miles a day and yet taking almost fourteen weeks for the expedition, or with Scott struggling along more slowly still and finally perishing in the snow. But this is not the whole of the comparison. The perils of the Byrd journey were different, but the risks were not less. A wrecked sledge and exhausted dogs would have hampered Amundsen, but not have left him stranded and hopeless. Scott endured privations and perils for weeks before the end of the struggle. But a mishap to Byrd's aeroplane would have placed him suddenly in a plight far worse than that of his predecessors. The miles placed between him and his base by the swift-flying plane would have been miles of desperate disaster had that plane failed. Amundsen and Scott went forward slowly, retaining the means of returning. Byrd went quickly, and if the means of return had failed he would have been isolated. Again, the nineteen hours' flight was preceded by months of careful organisation. The first South Pole conquest must be adjudged a great achievement—with its risks concentrated in a few hours instead of months, and its success depending as much upon the organisers and mechanics at the base as upon those who actually made the expedition.