WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1930, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

ECONOMIC POSITION

REDUCED WAGES

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Feb. 17

Muty employers here, as well as the great majority of the workers, agree with Judge Beeby ot the V ictorian Arbitration Court' that before wages are reduced there should he a substantial reduction in the prices of necessary commodities. Perhaps without going very deeply into the problem, quite a number of retailers when questioned to-day. on the subject, stated that if manufacturers’ and wholesalers’ prices were reduced by a reasonable sum, "as they might he” the retailers would be able to make quite substantial concessions to thencustomers. The manufacturers and the wholesalers, on the other hand, insist that it is the retailers who are prejudicing the purchasers by demanding excessive prices for goods thee have purchased at reasonable rates. Whatever the truth may be, it is certain that the prices of many commodities in common use are disagreeably high. H has been suggested that the increased primage duty is at the root of the trouble, but this is not accepted’• as a disinterested explanation of the position. “ag’in the government. Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues must find it refreshing occasionally to read what the .Reform Press thinks of them. “Inertia seems to have settled on the Administration,” says the local representative of the Opposition. “Not that anyone is pining fur more legislation and regulation, but that there appears to be no guiding policy, no drive, directing national business. Even in a. matter like Imperial affairs on which there are scarcely two voices in the Dominion, the Government appears to lack grip. First-rate questions will be raised at the Empire Conference in London less than seven months hence, yet there is the same lack of decision and executive power instead of the' bracing leadership that would act like electricity to clear the present. • nerveless atmosphere.” This is the kind of criticism that ean.be levelled- against any Government bv any Opposition without occasioning any perturbation, as Mr Massey,: Mr Coates,' and Sir Joseph Ward iii turn have had occasion to observe. ~

THE OTHER SIDE. As a matter of fact 'the members of the present Government constitute one of the most active teams that have occupied the Treasury Benches within the recollection of ~-, people, about Parliament House. . Their activity all may be in the wrong direc-tion-looked at from the angle preferred by their’ political opponests—but they certainly are not lacking in decision nor in executive power. Complaints have been made by his critics to the effect that Sir Joseph Ward is too hasty in his decisions and too impulsive"’in' the'.'exercise of his executive power. He cannot be offending both ways. His illness, which ail parties sincerely regret, necessarily has restricted the sphere of his activities, but in these days a Prime Minister can operate the administrative machine almost as effectually from [Rotorua as he can from -Wellington. As for his colleagues, one would expect them to be charged rather with making too much use of the broom that has come their way than with neglecting its legitimate purposes.

THE NEW EDUCATION. Just as the Hon. T. AL Wilford had desired to become the. High Commissioner for New Zealand in London, so had the FI on. H. A tin ere desired to •become the Alinister of Education in his own country. Air Wilford achieved the more conspicuous goal; Air Atmore the more responsible. They both, while still in the prime of life, have obtained opportunities they ha-ve the qualifications and the will to turn to account. Mr Atmore already has sensed the needs of the Dominion’s education system. “The Government is endeavouring,’’ he told an interested audience in Dannevirke on Saturday, “to give New Zealand the finest education system in the world. Tile primary school age should end at eleven years, or thereabouts, and thereafter the school course should be framed to assist children in following the avenue of .life, for which they were adapted and towards which they were inclined. There should be no hard and fast syylabus and education should proceed on the lines of fitness and discovered aptitude.” The school millennium surely is at hand.