PRESS COMMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 31 March 1928, Page 4

PRESS COMMENT

The .Industrial Conference can only succeed by concentrating on issues on which it is in the interests of all that agreement should be reached. There are vital common interest if delegates can but agree to seek them. A fair basis lor the adjustment of wages, for instance, offers to wage-earners adequate and assured remuneration, to employers settled and stable industrial conditions, and to farmers and other sections of the community a known and established economic order with which it is possible for farming industry to interlock. It is safe to say that if a purposeful attempt is made to develop the real possibilities of the conference, questions of the strength of delegations and of voting (lower will not become at all prominent.—“ AVairarapa Age.”

It would be a poor nation that would not be ready through a contributory scheme in times of prosperity to help over those who get pushed out of work in times of adversity. So the possibility of instituting such a scheme in this country should he carefully investigated. Needless to say, the details of who is to contribute, who to benefit, and who to administer would need careful handling in a country such as this, where trade union organisation is not carried to the pitch it is at Home. It would also need to he well understood from the outset that the benefits would not be a “dole.” which the workers themsevles have already protested against, but their own attempt, helped by employers and the State, to even out the exigencies of trade fluctuations. In the meantime we should be sure that, every 011014 is constantly made to find employment for people, which will ever remain immensely preferable to any unemployed insurance scheme.— Dunedin “ Star.”

.Motor services are in many directions capturing and holding traffic, but if they are not contributing a'fair, share of the cost of making and maintaining the roads they use it may they are not actually more economical than the railways. It would be possible for the Railway Department to carry out experiments and perhaps ascertain with some accuracy the relative costs of road j and rail transport in some . district) served by a branch railway and a road. The Dominion needs the most efficient i and cheapest transport, | whether it be by road or rail, but the j question of efficiency" and cheapness i will not be ascertained cither by cut- ! throat competition or by the State .-using its power to crush private enterprise.—“ Taranaki Herald.” ' AVe hear a great deal from the politicians and statesmen of the Old Land ; about Empire development and the .rpfebpi’tng of. the empty spares overseas surplus population, but : ; iiM|^^( : Siotliiug about British capitalists inferesting themselves in establishthe new lands in the! SouthiiiS' 'give employment to the migrants. Tf, in place of the Dominion

annually raising large loans to meet the demands for unemployment, British capital were, forthcoming for promoting secondary industries, there would he considerably less unemployment in Nc,v Zealand and a reasonable number of migrants could annually be absorbed. “ The Great Adventure ” has little to commend it just now.— YVanganui “ Herald.”

hhe destiny of New Zealand is entirely dependent on the products of the soil and, under a system of intensive cultivation such as is practised in Denmark, our exports could easily he increased to the £100,000.000 mark in the course of a comparatively few years. This would really make us tlio envied people Air Coates and his colleagues declare we already arc. There would be no necessity to turn any more figurative corners in the processes ol rehabilitation, for tlie revenue would bo much more in accordance with the increased responsibilities the country lias assumed in the past fourteen years. —“ Southland Daily News.”