PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 June 1927, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION.

THE LUCKY DAY OF REST. “The question of one day’s rest in seven (and by rest I do not mean recreation) is of the utmost importance. not only to the physical but to the mental condition of our people. I agree that Labour is more interested in this than any other section of the community. \Yo are getting altogether too superficial and too thoughtless, and unless we can pull ourselves up and accustom ourselves to getting Inspiration from the deeper silences that lie within us, neither as individuals nor ns a nation shall we be able to face the great problems that modern civilisation places before us.”—Mr Ramsay MacDonald.

THE BUILDING SOCIETY. “I know of nothing which is so likely to create savings which would otherwise not exist as the psychology set up by the desire to possess a house, and the arrangements made to accomplish that desire. The facilities offered for house purchasers by building societies compared with those that would lie available through the ordinary channels of mortgage, callable at short notice. and leaving the possessor where he was at the end of a long period of years, must have been an attraction to many a young couple, and therefore to have advanced the possibilities and the date of matrimony. Well, this movement is ultimately based on certain human qualities—first, character, and second, psychology. The individual is committed to a standard of saving which he creates the habit of maintaining, and which he certainly would not have attained left to the whim and counter-attractions of day-to-day life. He is also given the stimulus to possess, and the fact that he has estimated his capacity to save rather higher than he might by later experience have desired, the fact indeed that his goal is set, means that more is saved in this way than could possibly be put by if left to annual personal volition.” —i Sir Tosiah Stamp.

-THU WOULD CRISIS IS HERE.” "The World Crisis is nut past; it is now. If this is not realised, the monumental work of Air Churchill may prove to be but tho history of a prelude to the eventual collapse of the old civilisation of Christendom, and the sacrifices which it celebrates may come to seem sacrifices made vainly against one enemy while the West prepared to succumb to a more insidious foe. At huso rends Mr Churchill’s hook without pondering these things will find its true significance escapes him.”—'‘Yorkshire Post.”

PUNNING TIIIC EMPIRE. " The daily miracle of running the British Empire is done mainly through one set of men, the higher ( ivil Servile. In the first division or administrative class of the service there are perhaps Sl),') or 1000 men of all ages from 2.'! to ('l, of whom possibly MU come into close and continuous < (intact with their Parliamentary chiefs. As .Ministers are the links between Parliament and executive, so these hundred men. and to a less degree their immediate subordinates, are links between the Cabinet and the hundreds id thousands whom the Government employs. It is they who make the will ot tin- Cabinet or the Prime Minister elective through the whole vast and e inplicated machine which touches me daily life of millions at a thousand points; and to the question. ‘ flow is it done!'' the shortest and truest reply can he given in two words; by team work.”—A ” Civil Servant,” in the "Sunday Express” (London).

BUSINESS COMBINES. ‘‘There is apparent in Britain at the present time a distinct tendency towards large scale amalgamations. These are necessary to enable it to deal on terms of equality with similar organisations being formed on the Continent and already formed in America. It is not unnatural that everything should lie forming into much larger movements and forming much more rapidly than ever .before. But we cannot discuss hig problems of industry with other countries until our own industries are organised. The combinations of industry taking place'arc being literally forced upon us.” added Sir Alfred Aloud, ‘‘and although many people may not like them, they will have to come if Britain is to maintain its place in the commercial and industrial future of the world.”—Sir Allred Aloud in a recent interview in Die " Daily Mail.”