PUBLIC OPINION

Hokitika Guardian, 5 August 1931, Page 5

PUBLIC OPINION

THE DEBT TO EGYPT. “To estimate our debt to Greece, or Rome, or Jewry, is a fifth-form exercise; we have been occupied with it for centuries. Bpt.we have never, as a nation, sat down to calculate how much we owe to the. civilisations of the j Nila. And yet there was available to Moses, before Israel was a nation at all except in bondage, the whole achievement of Egyptian intelligence for more than fifteen centuries since the building of the Pyramids._. Herodotus could have seen in the temple of ’’Zhsey "'fib ted 9?ol AfnTi 5 3 fiWio r 'by : r 25(K s years to those of,the Parthenon, while Julius Caesar occupied In Egypt tlu> seat of a civilisation five times more ancient than the legendary beginning , of his own. There is thus a vex strong presumption that, fot; much of what our three cultural creditors hav lent us, they in their turn were indebi ed to the valley and delta of the Nile.’ —Mr Gerald Crow in the “Studio.”

THIS WORLD. “I do not think the world to-day is any worse than it has ever been. It is going through a very difficult time, but it will gradually overcome its problems. A hundred years hence the greater part of the manual labou of to-dav will be done by machinei \ But the population will adjust itself. It will be much smaller. The worst times in history were from GOO to 110' A.D., when civilisation was detroyed by babarism. Ido not think tha. that will never happen again. Civilisation will master circumstances.” Dean Inge.

IS BRITAIN READY TO ADVANCE? To what extent are‘we prepared t' help or hinder the process of trad revival in Britain when it is prompter as it must, be, by expansion of overseas demand for finished goods? Are wo, prepared to meet- the demand, or d < we expect it to come to us like the sun and the dew, by the bounty of a mere! ful Providence? The answer to thi' question is delivered, superficially, b.\ consideration of costs, marketing arrangements, credit facilities and other similar factors in buying negotiations In the last resort, however, it depend on matters of human nature. Are we reasonable, are we energetic and enter prising; are we adaptable; are wo scientifically, minded ; do we posse.--enough of these qualities to face th severity of modern competition, keene and niore complex as it is than at an; earlier stage in the economic history of the world? These are searching, questions. It is futile and coward! to burke them ; complacency in thesmatters can lead only to tallue- “ Mouthy Review” of the Midlan: Bank.