PRESS COMMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 23 January 1928, Page 4

PRESS COMMENT

One feature in connection witli Dnminio manufactures is the comparative absence of stoppage of work through lockouts and strikes. What proporrtion is due to the working of Hie Arbitration Court must he a matter of opinion hut it seems obious that it would he folly to wreck the present system. The conference that is to ho held before the next Parliamentary session to draft, reform proposals will note the progress of the Dominion’s secondary industries, coupled with the übsone of active dissension between employers and employed. It would be foolish to interfere unduly with a sy--Icm that has brought such happy results.—" Grevmouth Star.”

A clear distinction must he drawn between measures of immediate relief and a permanent, solution of the unemployment problem. The State and local bodies can relive distress by providing relief work. and. no doubt, will he called upon to do so in the conditions now developing, but the ultimate remedy for unemployment is a better more methodical and more enterprising organisation of the industry. However necessary they may he at the moment, public relic! works usually end conditions which give rise to unemployment. On the other hand it is undoubtedly open to the people engaged in industry in this country, by pulling together and setting progressively higher standards of efficiency, to move rapidly towards conditions in whimi unemployment would have no place, or at all events would he reduced to quite inconsiderable proportions. Wairarapn Age.”

If New Zealand butter was allowed to enter the Commonwealth at the present rate of duty (threepence per lb.) it could he sold more cheaply than tlu* Australian article, now tout- it is proposed to raise the bounty to fourpence as from the New Year. By excluding our (butter, as they will do by raising the import duty to sixpence, tlie Austrralian Government is not only acting against the interests of the grerat majority of the Australian people, but it is adoping an untriendly attitude towards this country, which must have it effect upon the future relationships between the Dominion and the Commonwealth.—“ Manawatu Standard.”

When a sport comes to lie commercialised and no longer is played for its own sake, it ceases to be a sport, and liecomes a business. We in New Zealand are proud that this evil has not made itself felt among us, and perhaps in no country in the world are games played in such a fine amateur spirit. But while the great numbers who take part in some athletic recreation is a matter for congratulation, there are still too many lookers-on, and it is a question of national importance that all of our young people, at least, should devote some part of their life to healthy outdoor exercise.—" Lyttelton Times.”