PUBLIC OPINION

Hokitika Guardian, 13 November 1929, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION

JUST A RAMBLE. “It’s part of the ramble’s -glorious inconscequencc that you ‘go at large without restraint or direction,” unhurriedly, unbound to reach any particular spot, unbound, too, by considerations of time-tables for omnibuses or trains (when you’ve walked tor twenty miles or thereabouts the last train may have gone, and what are you going to do in that case?), 'and yet never so far away as to jeopardise your getting back in comfort, nor hot or bothered'and certainly not weary. There is none of the austerity of fixity of purpose about the ramble such as marks the set walk, and almost turns it into a duty. The ramble route, so far as a ramble may be said to have a route, is not the route of the roads. You leave the roads, and their tar and dust, their smells and clamour, and go down the by-ways where no motor-car has ever honked and no tar has ever gone mushy in the sun. The paths across the fields are open to you. You go across the country rather than down or np it. Restrictions are surprisingly few.—“J. AA 7 .” in the “Birmingham Post.”

THE EXTRA ONE PER CENT, “lake- many remedial measures,” says Hie City Editor of the “Morning Post,” “which have to be applied to unpleasant situations, the first consequences of a higher bank rate are not of the beneficient order. Borrowing has to take place at somewhat higher rates, of interest, a matter 'which affects ever the taxpayer in the charges on Treasury Bills, while all who borrow from the banks on loans or overdrafts have to meet the 1 per cent, higher charge. It cannot, however, be too clearly understood that the idea of a higher bank rate involving a contraction of credit is a mere fiction. There is no contraction of credit. All legitmate requirement for loans will receive as much consideration as heretofore, which, so far as trade loans are concerned, the extra interest charge represented by 1 per cent, over a period of a few months plays an insignificant part in costs of production when compared with such matters as the stability of the exchanges and the stability of the commodity prices' generally.”

PRESIDENT, PRIME MINISTER, AND PEACE. “Tt is seldom that the heads ot negotiating Governments have been more anxious for the success of a common aim that the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain in their effort to solve the chief outstanding difficulties in Anglo-Ame-rican relations. Moreover, there is no doubt on either side of the good faith of the other. The prime condition for success in such negotiations, which is confident in the good faith of the ‘party of tli other part,’ is present hero in fullest degree. AATiv, therefore, should there be any delay or miscarriage of plans when there is such absolute agreement in purpose Mid such auspicious circumstances?”—Dr. J. T. Shot.well, Director Division of Economics and History, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in “Current History.” TOO MANY SHOPKEEPERS. “More than a century has elapsed since Napoleon stigmatised Britain as a nation of shopkeepers, hut even today the taunt contains a certain element of truth. A visitor to the ordinary small country town will find that, apart from a few local industries, the main business of the town consists of shopkeeping, so much so, that ho may well he pardoned for wondering whether all the shopkeepers in the town are trying to make a living by selling their wares to each other. Tli is question as to whether the number and variety of retail shops in this country is redundant to its needs is one of considerable economic importance. ’loo many shops with too much competition can be as great an evil as too few. An excessive number of shops means that each one lias too small a turnover out of which to earn its fixed charges, and so means that retail prices rule .higher than they would under an ideal number. If four competing tradesmen are making each morning tbe "-round of a street .which one man co>uld easily cover, that is a clear example of wasteful effort for which the consumer in the long run has to pay. “The Economist.”

DISARMAMENT CANNOT BE

RUSHED

“ Disarmament cannot ho rushed, and should be carried out by a programme* of successive steps extending over a period of years. All the big nations are in the same boat in this respect. Preparations for war have become for them an important indus-

try, providing employment not only for soldiers and sailors, but 'for an army of manual workers of all descriptions. Justice no less than policy requires that if a nation for its own advantages decides to reduce, not to say abolish this industry, it must provide in some way for all these employees, from the -admirals and generals down to the weekly wage-earners. If it is not prepared to pension them all for life which would very much spoil the economy, it- must find them other employment, at any rate for a- reasonable time, and in order to do this it can only proceed gradually with its dismissals.— “Truth” (London.)