DRESS COMMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 April 1929, Page 8

DRESS COMMENTS.

The general elm meter <;!' the University l iuriiaments can only lie described as athletic. There are debates, hut in most (uses they have proved so completely out of keeping with the spirit of the occasion that it has heen proposed to discontinue these forensic competitions in punlic, and to confine the programme to events of a deliniteiy sporting” description. Usually tennis and hockey, rowing and hexing, basket-hall and the ordinary track amt held contests make up the programme which expresses most emphatically the devotion that the rising generation in New Zealand everywhere manifests to every Kind of athletic pastime. And. in our opinion, no one who has arrived at any rational conception ol education and its meaning can object to the importance that physical culture and training have aciniired **i our academii curriculum. The wise old maxim which connects sound minds with sound hodie. is as true now as it was in the days ol tne ancient Romans, and the achievements of our young people when the.' are subjected to intellectual tests certainly do not suggest that their alachment to athletics has heen allowed to interfere seriously with their aca-l-etnie education.—Auckland “Star. ’

The Minister of Public Works’ statement is a welcome acknowledgement tnat farm work should be manned before Stale relief works, and will, it may he hoped, be 10l lowed by definite action to prevent the diversion of la hour fr.m rural industry There has. indeed, been a hint from the Prime -Minister also that, while he still regards railway building as “the only effective way” ol dealing with unemplovmcnt. its use should be more limited than he originally intended. In earlier statements, Sir Joseph \\ aril announced tlmt work would he found for 10,000 to 1. r >,00() men on new railwavs; now he states that such work will absorb 5000 to 10,000. These numbers may have heen used merely as a generous measure ol the Government s anxiety. They have, however, created the impression that work is waiting for all-comers and that impression will remain until the Government issues a fuller interpretation of its policy than Air Ransom’s statement contains. — “New Zealand Herald.”

It is to lie gathered from observations that have heen made by Air Taverner, the present Commissioner of State Forests, that the activities of liis department will he restricted in future to areas that are not suitable ior settlement, and that, with this end in view, a coninreliensive classification will be undertaken so lluit those suitable for agricultural and pastoral purposes and those suitable for forestry may be defined. This is a desirable policy. Tt is a matter of common knowledge that inferior and waste lands can be profitably employed to produce timber. When there is so much idle and waste land available which is practically useless for agricultural purpises hut. almost as valuable for growing timber as first-class agricultural 'and would he. it would he very unwise on the part of the State to devote good land to forestry. And it is difficult to believe that there arc experienced farmers who are s<> indifferent to tnoir own success as to adopt any policy other than that which the State Pow intends to pursue.—Otago r I itne.s.

The more tire university places at the disposal of all classes, both the methods of study and the results of research, tnc more readily will he the claims for material aid ho acknowledged. The proposed union of students will serve a valuable purpose in promoting interest in the work of the university by cultivating among the people ol the Dominion the sense of obligation to this instrument of State advancement. What can he done by the association ot alumni is most marked in the United States, where pecuniary aid is afforded with a goodwill of which wo have little conception. Ihe university colleges of the Dominion are deserving oi much wider public interest than they receive at present.—-“Lyttelton I imes.

.Neither the Liberal Party nor Labour has much, if any, sympathy with safe, guarding and derating as magic cures for unemployment. These are condemned by them as extravagant <piack medicines. The Liberals, whose leader by the way, lia.s just been likened to “a very active wasp beneath an inverted tumbler,’’ intend or promise, to spend money prodigally—a real Liberal art-on unemployment remedies. They have so many schemes that it has been necessary to embody them in Green. IVown. and Yellow Books. Labour has discarded the violent red hue ol one of its wings and has adopted a soft oink shade as a more attractive colour for its programme of nationalisation of almost everything.—“ I hi' Sun.” Auckland.

Tt has been suggested, generally, that the attempt, to remove the real hardship against which the introduction of compulsory third party liability is directed may be the means ol nrnuueing fresh evils, sii-h as an inc rease in tlu* numhor ( ,j dish, nest and exaggerated claims, and. tier ugh the ignoring of safeguards which term part oi idle ordinary insurance' polb-y, ol ollerjng an encouragement t » recklessness and incompetence and of producing an a. uition to. rather than a diminution ,o. ihe number of accidents that occur. Dismal lurch 'clings ol this charactor. however, are hardly '-aleulated to shake* confidence in the soundness of the principal. and, whatever modilieation ot the scheme may he dictated by actual experience', there should be no very seri1111s reason to suppose that the new law canni.t he made to operate satisfactorily and beneficially in this country.--“Otago Daily Times.”