PRESS COMMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1926, Page 3

PRESS COMMENTS.

Though the Ministers recently appointed have not revealed any qualities of couiDge or initiative that lead one to expect useful results, they are entitled to their chance, and we should think the appointment of. Messrs Young, Rolleston, and Wright would materially strengthen the Cabinet. They all have more than ordinary administrative ability and they lire men of quite exceptional business integrity.—“ Southland Daily News.” It must be remembered that there is a housing shortage in New Zealand, and no sensible Government will approve of anything that should make timber durer and houses more expensive for the people of the country. In all these questions it should be remembered—but it is not—that the people have an interest which ought to be dominant. As matters arc, tbe different industries, with the benediction of the. Government, are left to squabble over profits without a single consideration being given to the public who will have to pay the profits. One other point we might refer to. What is the Government doing or preparing to do in the matter of winter unemployment? It promises to. be greater and more acute than for some years

n every centre in the Dominion.— ‘Southland Daily News.”

It is obvious that it is of little pro fit to go cm producing commodities for which there is a weakening market, for heavy export will only tend to ;:g----gi.irate the position. What, then, can be done to strengthen rural pursuits and render farming a more assured enterprise? The only answer that presents itself is to turn in the direction that will find certain consumers in our own country. In oilier words, to return to mixed farming hv growing cereals more freely. Next year the Dominion will provide a market for fully nine million bushels of wheat; this yrfir, with an unusually abundant harvest, wo have produced only about uilf that quantity.—Oaniaru “Mail.”

With almnst'every district c "‘.tend

ng for the establishment of agriculture xperimental farms, and with many nxioiis to have an agricultural college Il their midst, there is a danger that he Government may he stampeded ito commit ling it sell to expenditure el, warranted b.v the necessities of the loiuiuion. There is need ol a certain mount of research work which can he c.rformed at an agricultural college, ml there is need of institutions which ill turn out farmers prepared to lake leir coats off and assist the prnducion of the Dominion. The I’lea iade by the Farmers’ Union on heliall i Canterbury Agricultural College

(Lincoln), is timely, and the -Rate would he saved many thousands of pounds if a Clmir of Agriculture were set up at the Canterbury institution.— Christchurch “Sun.”

Little attention appears to he given the problem of unemployment until obtrudes itself, and then relief works of Hobson’s choice, somcing to he applied if there is no other

•thod of meeting the emergency

For the present it appears that work will have to he provided in the haphazard method of past years. The willingness of t'lie Prime Minister to assist in meeting the emergency will, we are sure, he supposted loyally not only bv local bodies hut also by generous calls for more definite and systematic attention than has been given to it in the past.—“ Lv tel ion Times.”

Having promised that work would io found for those unemployed prelared to take if. the Prime Minister ins gone a step further by acting as

the moving spirit in setting up a scheme of organisation to deal with applicants as they come forward. Air Coates has shown the best kind of. sympathy with the unemployed—practical sympathy. Also he has shown that he is specially mindful of the necessitous cases, in which pride causes a reluctance to apply for relief. They are,commended to the care of the committee, which can he trusted to do the host possible for them. The Prime .Minister has taken the most effective course in lending liis aid to deal with the local problem. He has marshalled the local forces, giving them unity of purpose and aim. By doing it he lias advanced materially the cause for which his aid was invoked.—“ Now Zealand Herald.”

With the exception of one or two brief visits by the present Director of Education to Australia, and one, long since obscured in the midst of antiquity. made by the late Air Tlogden when he occupied the position of InspectorGeneral of Schools, there has been a policy of consistent neglect to realise tlie untold advantages of personal observation of 11 io movements in the educational world. Afinislers in charge of other Departments, alert to the value, have insisted on this contact with other countries, and the time is long past when some more convincing method than the complete absence of any method should he adopted for measuring up 'our educational system with those in other countries. Here lies a golden opportunity for the new Alinister of Education to repair a serious error.—” Lyttelton Times.”

Our secondary schools, as at present constituted, are organised too exclusively for the purpose of training students to take up professional occupations. and it is very doubtful whether a large proportion of the young men and women now crowding into legal, educational or clerical work would not do better for themselves and for the country by securing vocational training on other lines in technical colleges. Granting this, we must admit that if the existing secondary schools arc to have attached to them junior preparatory schools, then to save our technical colleges we must have technical schools as well.— Auckland “ Star.”

Tie problem of unemployment in New Zealand is by no means of so serious a nature that it is impossible of solution. If it is not possible to remedy it entirely, it is certainly possible, by exorcising a little foresight, to reduce it to a minimum. Although of a recurring nature, unemployment of any importance is only experienced at certain periods of the year, and the policy of Government and local body employment should be designed to cope vitb such a contingency. Ihe Railway and Public Works Departments are the biggest employers of labour, and in cooperation with local bodies, it should he possible for them, to devise a policy which would absorb most of that surplus labour offering at this time of the year.—“ Alanawatu Daily Times.”

The Government now realises that something must he done quickly for the relief of unemployment throughout New Zealand. Tt is a belated recognition of a need that lias been plain enough for six weeks. But politicians never act until driven by public clamour for political action. Now that the cTv for unemployment relief 1 been raised in tbe main centres of population tbe Prime Alinister, according to a report from Auckland, has decided to tackle quickly the unemployment problem. Afore credit would have been due to tbe Administration bad it got to work on a practical scheme of relief public .works a month ago. Tbe wastage of time is to be regretted, but now that Air Coates ha

gripped the problem it is to be hoped that all local bodies will co-operate heartily with the Government in “getting things done.”—Christchurch “Sun.” We have on other occasions discussed the necessity for providing connecting links between tlw work of the primary, •school and the pupil’s ultimate occupation, and wo admit that junior technical schools of fhe vocational type lire needed quite as much as the existing i junior high schools which arc now providing pupils for the secondary schools,' and are thus acting as feeders for the university. But while we commend Mr Coates’s suggestions for I the devlopment of secondary school training on more practical lines, we are even more emphatically of his opin- I ion that our education system, while it cannot he expected to turn out batches of workers ready trained for all i the mechanical and industrial occupations, should not have the effect of inducing those who have benefited by it to despise manual work.—Auckland “Star.”