PRESS COMMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1928, Page 4

PRESS COMMENT

It has been a special point of inter est and amazement to many of these visiting anglers to realise that tin magnificent fishing they have enjoye is wholly man-made; that New Zealand, with no sporting fish native t< its inland waters, lias yet been able t: provide such sport within a eompara tivelv short period of years. All thes; features combined serve to make tin lakes and trout streams of the Domin ion one of its most powerful and permanent sources of advertisement in al parts of the world. The sea anglinc of the northern coasts has come to the fore recently and rapidly as a means of making New Zealand known abroad The trout fishing, without any sue! sensational rise to fame, is an older established, alul may yet prove to ho i steadier, attraction to people of means and leisure prepared to quarter tilt globe in search of recreation. Its pos siliilities arc such that the maintenance of its qualities should be the subject of sustained efforts.—“ New Zealand Herald. ”

To pass over the point that there arc moro ways of achieving speedy transport than by increased speed rates (b\ eliminating stops, for instance, and reducing shunting), there is a seriom question to be asked and answered be fore the public will confidently assen to all that may bo implied by a speed ing-up policy. That question lias two branches: who there tlis schedule of safety speeds is a schedule of maxima, which can: only be exceeded at grave risk, and whether the public has any effective guarantee against the exceeding of such safety maxima. New Zealand wants to travel fast; hut it still moro positively wants to travel safe. Now, at the time of the Orongorongo railway disaster, there was a great deal of public anxiety about rates of speed, which nothing officially said then did much to relieve; and this anxiety was founded also on the experiences ol Main Trunk travellers and on the Tim aril accident, ft is likely, there fore, that the public will require some very definite reassurance before it is quite easy in mind over the Department’s present intentions.—Christchurch “Sun.”

British Labour lias persistently objected to compulsory arbitration on the ground that it takes from the worker his only effective weapon, the strike. Strictly speaking, it does not, for New Zealand experience shows that while compulsory arbitration lias made for industrial peace, it has not completely abolished striking. The truth is that the right to strike cannot he completely taken away. The law may declare striking illegal, but there is no guarantee that it will always be observed. The difficulties in the way of enforcing such a law against a large body of men are obvious.. It was a great advantage that in New Zealand the law of compulsory arbitration was passed by a Government that represented and was sympathetic towards organised Labour. In Sweden the Governmanb ( isi legislating against the wishes of Labour, and jn such circumstances , the prospects of success are poor.—Auckland “Star.”

I If the three physicians appointed to the Tuberculosis Inquiry Committee had been asked to report on the treatment of tuberculosis in New Zealand with direct reference to the notorious inadequacy of sanatorium accommodation, they would have had their energies directed towards the true problem. Not that there should be any need for this form of inquiry. As lias been said previously, the Department should have all the necessary data now, and should not need any further information before attacking its real'duty of_grappling with a posiI tion that is iio credit to the Dominion. .Still a report by men of such standing in their profession might have helped to open the eyes cf the public to that need for action which the department lias so long ignored. As it f s, the inquiry, with the limited scope indicated, for it, may not even produce that degree of useful result, and will certainly postpone still further the fashioning and implementing of an adequate policy by the Department or Health—‘‘New Zealand Herald.”

While, it is necessary to avoid haste and heat, the time has esme for a reconsideration of the who’e problem of riiillary training—not so much on its financial and political sides, since cost is secondary if safety is involved, and fanatics of all schools should be, ignored but on the side of its effectiveness. If the same or better results could be obtained by spending all the money now available on a smaller number of men, especially men who would undergo training voluntarily, it would of course lie better to abandon compulsion. But the problem has really had very little serious consideration by the right people, and the first thing to be done is to get it lifted put of the atmosphere of religious, political and sectional bitterness. —Christchurch ‘ ‘Press.”

It is nearly seventeen years siqce Sir George Fowlds was a member of tlio and in tTie circumstances it would be idle to regard the bestowal upon him of a title as due to

lvis political services. He has, liiowevor, abundant claims to the recognition that has been, accorded to him in the record of honorary public service with which his name is associated. His interest in education has been most actively and valuably shown and it was in acknowledgement of this that ho was appointed first'chairman of the Board of Governors of the Massey Agricultural College. In many other directions moreover, Sir George Fowlds lias been a highly useful citizen, not least of all in his earnest promotion and support of causes and movements that are directed to the inculcation of ideals of citizenship.-—“Otago Daily Times.”

Mr Sterling suggests that if every man. in the service increases its business by a halfpenny a day and saves, or discovers the means of saving, another half-penny, the revenue will be increased by £22,000 a year. Something more substantial than that is required to establish public confidence in the financial condition of the railways. Counting the gift of £1,327,54? with which the separate budget was introduced and the annual subsidies, the Department lias received from the taxpayers of the country no less than £2,588,000 in the last three years, and £1,045,000 of that large sum has been extinguished by its losses. In the last year alone, it required to balance its budget, not 15,000 pence a day, but £2200 a day. It drew nearly £I4OO a day from the Consolidated Fund, and Uiq remainder from its dwindling reserves. Mr Sterling’s halfpennies may be only symbolical, but they will have to be multiplied many times before public confidence is fully established.— “New Zealand Herald.”

It is not a very serious matter so far as it goes, or has gone yet, that the Council of Education is divided on the question of open air "schools. It is of course disappointing when progress is checked by prejudice, and annoying when prejudice is more than a little mixed with ignorance and complacency, hut the council has at least admitted the success of “the adaption of the principles of the open-air school in Canterbury,” and recommended the Department to “investigate thoroughly this principle” when considering it' general building policy. Indeed, if advocates of open-air schools knew nothing at all about the Department they might be expected to rejoice that their campaign had been so strongly supported. It would be very encouraging if the Department really would investigate the question thoroughly, and leave it to the decision of carpenters and other laymen. Christchurch “Press.”