PRESS COMMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1927, Page 4

PRESS COMMENTS.

In any year the hulk of the Australian surplus of income over expenditure will go towards the support and extension of local industries. Our national figures unfortunately, show all too plainly that the larger our surplus is, and the more freely we are able to borrow money, the larger is our importation of foreign manufactures. On all scores the position .seems to us to he deplorable.— “ Lyttelton Times.”

Our chief needs are land settlement, population and cheap money. The Old Country can supply us with all of those, or make success in such enterprise appear much less impossible. AVe in return can relieve the congestion which creates in Great Britain unsatisfactory labour conditions, and grant the Motherland the privileges of a comfortable Home twelve thousand miles from her own fireside. Co-oper-ation seems to as to be the great specific that "ill cure our ills, and this should be impressed on the various emissaries from England who conic to talk of matters like trade and immigration, as if they could safely have any separate identity in the British Empire.—“ Southland Daily News.”

Whatever opinions Australians and New Zealanders may hold regarding the capacity of their respective countries to absorb immigrants under the existing conditions, they are nt one in agreeing that both countries offer wonderful opportunities to the newcomer who has £IOOO or more in his possession upon arrival—providing, of course, that he has knowledge of some particular branch of industry or commerce, or the ability and the adaptability ro learn and fit his previous experience to the necessities of the different conditions he will find there. There are thousands of families in England who are comparatively poor in their own country, though possessed ol means that would place them, if not exactly in a position of affluence, at least high above the “worry line” in either Australia or New Zealand.— “ II awe r a Star.”

Air Bruce strikes at the root of the whole immigration difficulty when he says that the only way in wliich . a country enn absorb immigrants to its own benefit is to provide them with work which will support them, and which they can he trusted to stick to because it gives them some reasonable return and some prospect of improving their position in life. The trouble with rural industries is that. quite apart from the land problem, relatively few. persons come out to Australii or New Zealand who are really qualified by experience or physique to make a living in the Imckbioeks. Consequently few immigrants stay long in the rural districts, or, in other words, most of them drift to the towns. Auckland “Star.”

It. would 1)0 well it l.ho Empire s groat artists, authors, scientists, doctors, as well as industrialists, could also visit thu Dominon iicriodieully, as, by that moans, an impetus would be given to the development of arts and sciences in the overseas countries. Such adW.iuo would have favourable results in many directions, spreading true culture throughout tho country and maintaining the best ideal of the British race. Tho benefit thus derived would he ol more value than can he obtained Irani American tourists, no matter how H ealthy ( r free-spending.—Greymouth

It is an easy thing to talk of woleom ing immigrants, but when tho practical test is applied till the sweet eloquence of even a. bishop vanishes into thin air, leaving not a rack cf conviction behind AW a.re told that wo should ‘’got together an org'-inisufion to provide a

welcome, a cup of tea, the human touch, and a. job.” The welcome, the cup of tea. and tjlio human touch can he provided readily and cheerfully, but—where is to bo found the job? That is the consideration tint under existing conditions gives us pause.— Oan.aru ‘ .Mail.'’

There is gr 4 it need in Now Zealand ns well as in England, of modern .secondary schools provided with a curriculum “practical in the broadest sense and brought directly into relation with the facts of evercliy life.” It is clear that if such schools are to realise their full oossibilities. they must- be developed independently and not as mere attachments to schoils of a different a,nil more familiar type, committed to wholly different aims.—“AVaiiurapa

!1 ■ o theory will admit the desirableness ol co-operation between the Old Country and the Dominions. Everyone must see that if we do not sup;; .1 i British industry we are reducing the marhi'l for mir cwn produce. But the indivi hi; ) buyer takes what is oli'ered him and rarely inquiries vlm-re it comes from. Vve ought to eiicMinj igo co-operation Imre, just as it is being encouraged at Home, ft is only by the practice of mutual help, and by promoting inter-imperial trade that we can .hope to maintain the strength and prosperity of the Empire.—“Hawke’s It ay Herald.”

It. is rather by good luck Ilian by good guidance that there is not more overlapping than exists already be-

tween High and ’jec.iuical-H.igh Schools, although some degree of overlapping is re.illy inevitable. But there is’more overlapping than there should he. and a good deal of it has crept in ironi the Technical School side. Before the Department builds any more schools, cither Technical or High, in the four eiiies. if should make a redly earnest attempt to define the sphere of each type. Tin’s is one of the problems that might very well he tackled by the committee that has been set up to overhaul our Primary School programmes, and give them i new content and aim. and it is an opportunity also—tho biggest lie is ever likely pi have—for the newly-appointed Director.—Christchurch “Press.”

XY.t long ago, a proposal that liov d Governors-General should be appointed to the Dominions gave rise to a certain amount of discussion in England, hut ultimately was dropped for the time 'at least as impracticable. There is no obvious reason, however, why members of the T’.oyal House should not at reasonably frequent intervals spend months, i list,tad of weeks, in even the most distant Dominions. In view of the undoubted value and significance of the .Monarchy as an Imperial bond, such possibilities well 'deserve practical consideration.—“AVnirarapa Age.”