PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1925, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

SOCIAL INSURANCE. “The one great argument for State insurance is that it can take a general view of trade and commerce and can vary the rates and conditions of insurance not in accordance with the risks j in a particular trade, hut in reference to the requirements of national policy. National policy demands, let it he agreed, the establishment of this new system of insurance. If this Government does not carry it. out. its successor will, and in any case there can he no question of its abandoning a pro- . jeet which it: has once taken up. A bandonment. or even postponement, would rollert the gravest discredit oil it. But if to proceed with the project in its present form would he to inflict grave, it might he fatal, injury on certain industries. which are vital to the country's industrial welfare, clearly there is only niie thing to he done. The conditions of the insurance must he varied in their favour.”—“Scrutator.” in the : “Sunday Times.” . ! - A PICTURE OF DEAN INGE. “Dean Inge is gloomy only In outward appearance and in uewsaper reputation. Actually, he is one of the great Christian geniuses of our generation. whose deep, incisive thinking into the problems of our day and whose nut - spoken convictions are doing much to lay hare the truth of the Christian • religion and its application to the actual world in which we live. The Dean revealed his humorous vein as well as Ids spirit of humility hv saying that he could not see why lie was brought all the way across the Atlantic to speak when all that he knew and more he had put into a few inexpensive hooks . which any one could secure and read in an armchair fortified by such cron- , lure comforts as our laws and tn-a.os . allow," The Rev Hartley J. Hartnian. an American divine. A REPOSITORY OF SUSPICION, f! “The reason for inquiring into food I i prices is not that there is any .special ; reason io suppose that, food importers j , and distributors are more inefficient or ' mole avaricious than other people, >.ut ; that food prices are more important than other prices. They are so important that perhaps Hie public would lieV- ;< .■I- acquiesce in them unless they were, so to speak, hall-marked by some independent tribunal in which it had confidence. The Food Council should at least he able to act as a guarantor, the next time there is an outcry a unit profiteering, that the food distribu o.v of the country are not simply plunderers. But whether it will he able t" reduce Ihe price of bread or meat is \ another matter, about which a certain ; , scepticism may he allowed.” “Manchester Guardian.’-’ , i BAYING I'DR HEALTH. “It is for the general practitioner to ' - keep us free from disease rather than to treat us when we are ill. It looks 't as if we were getting round to the method that is said to exist in some countries of paying the doctor lor good health and (easing to pay for illness.” • Liverpool “Post.”