PRESS COMMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1927, Page 3

PRESS COMMENTS.

Broadly speaking, the proposal for a tourist, and publicity hoard is a good one, but the trading interests that are to benefit mostly by the tourist traffic will have to he more modest in tlieir ideas of representation and more liberal in their notions of finance. The scheme is an ambitious one. but it will require much more money than £10,009 a year if it is to advertise effectively abroad, and particularly in AmVriea. where the rich tourists come from and where certain resentment against New Zealand, engendered by recent criticism of tourists, lias to be mollified. To do the tiling tlioroiighlv the stun ol £ I GO.OOO a year should he spent, and it does not seem too much to suggest that half this amount, at least, shuuii' lie contributed by tlmsc whom the tourist traffic enriches.-—Auckland ‘■Sun.’’

ft is a fairly well-known fact that the majority of the motor accidents occur in the country and that often a farmer’s property is damaged without the owner knowing anything about the occurrence until too late. ihe suggestion that all drivers should he penalised on ihe principle that some of tlie guilty ones may lie caught in this way can hardly he entertained seriously, hut a great deal could he done if motorists remembered that there is a duty east oil them to see that the rule ol the road is observed, and that the innocent sufferers from wild driving are helped to bring the offenders to book.—‘'Southland limes.

'Pile Dominion president ol the Farmers’ Union, Mr M. J. Poison, put the position about the Arbitration Court fairly enough when lie said that, without some tribunal to go In. there would be disastrous industrial troubles. It is obvious, however, that the compulsory arbitration system has arrived at a severe testing time, and it would he dangerous for the friends of the systi in to sit back ill the beliel that the principle is secure against attack. One Minister lias already suggested that the Government would sacrifice the Court if the demand for abolition became really strong, and it may be that when amendments become the order of the day the real principle of the Act may he defeated.—Christchurch “Star.”

On the whole, the Trade Union Bill is to some extent in the nature of an experiment. It was necessary that the Government alter its recent conference should do something of the sort. And for that reason we might have expected that the l abour members would take it quietly. The unseemly exhibition of bad temper and bad manners to which they treated the House can only be accounted for as a kind ot admission that they have a had case. But it is not a nappy augurv for the peace of the country.—“Hawke’s bay Herald.’’

People in New Zealand must have learned their lesson. Some evidence to this effect is provided by periodical sales of improved land. \\ bile the nominal value of some areas in the North Island is from £SO to £6O per acre, the land in the open market would probably not bring more than £8 or £lO. That explains what we mean when we say that revaluation should he immediately proceeded with to stabilise values on a basis of production. This would no doubt he at a figure somewhere between the speculative value and a market value depicciated by every possible form of discouragement. Southland “Daily News.”

City populations must he provided for by increased secondary industries. New Zealand is waking up to the importance of encouraging New Zealand made goods as a. means of stopping unemployment and increasing the prosperitv of the country. The census figures arc another argument for national self-reliance in regard to every need of the people in this direction. Auck_ land “Sun.”

Kverv one will agree with the Minister that every child in New Zealand has the right to he aff n ded every opportunity of gaining health and strength, so that it may eventually become an ideal citizen. And it may be said aso that New Zealand has every right to the help of .•all its citizens in an endeavour to make every child (torn here an asset to the State. The babies of to-day. as citizens of the future, are the most precious possession of a country struggling to the strength of nationhood, and it is undoubtedly the duty of the Government and the community to make their conditions such as will enable them to become healthy and useful men and women. — Auckland “Sun.”