PRESS COMMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 May 1927, Page 3

PRESS COMMENTS.

Those far-seeing men who drafted the law relating to the education system of me Dominion saw that it was necessary to avoid any possibility of sectarian differences creeping into the administration and work of our schools, and tiie need is as great to-da;y. We have been free from those bitter controversies which have hampered the work of educational institutions in other countries, and it will lie in the best interests of the country if we 'steadfastly determine to remain free from them.—“Lyttelton Timers.” Business failures are not always due to selling at unduly low prices. More often nre they due to lack of judgment in inlying, to giving too much credit, and to genera ihusiness inefficiency. Our o'-ieetion to the recommendation of the Commission that the Government should make regulations to prevent the association operating In New Zealand is, however, based upon the general principle that tiie Government should interfere as little as possible in business. Dishonest trading is already provided against ; inefficiency and recklessness in business invite their on n reward and sooner or later meet it under existing conditions. But the public may in the long run sutler mere through Government regulation of trade than the!,- will gain ]>y it-. There should he some other method ot countering tiie operations of the association.—“ Taranaki Herald.” We have much to barn from the practical and tested experience of America and other countries regarding the relations between employer and employed that work out with maximum advantage to all eoneel lied. To ignore these facts and attempt to force the growth of secondary industries chiefly hv means of high tariff duties would lie a policy worse than useless. Tt is a policy that would impose additional and intolerable burdens on our existing staple industiies, with results seriously detrimental t( the whole Dominion. —“Wairarapa Age.” There is a feeling in the cities that jinv assistance given to the farmers would simply result in a Iwrther orgt of speculation, and leave the working farmer as badly off as ever. Neither laud soeeuhition nor the subsidising of secondary industries by means of tariffs is an easy tiling to tackle, but measures of relief that fail to remove these causes of misery are no bettei than the plastering of a -suriaee sore to cure a virulent disease in the human. system.—‘‘Waikato I imes. The operations of the Arbitration Court, the Customs tariff, public expenditure, borrowing oil the part of the State and the municipalities, and a- few other things affect the costs of production. Perhaps the Arbitration Court award wages based on sentiment and not on economies; and the Customs tariff, which falls most severely on the producer because he is unable to pass it on, are the chief items . in the costs of production. No leader, either political or commercial, has ap- . penred to give the country a lead. It . is obviously futile telling the farmer to . produce more when it is practically - unprofitable for him to do so.—-Wnnga- [ mii “Herald.”