NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 May 1932, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

OPINIONS OF OTHERS

MOST PROSPERUS COUNTRY

“I find myself moving 1111 cosily between a cautious optisinism when J consider the position of this country and a very helpless pessimism when J look abroad. Great Britain to-day is decidedly the most prosperous country in the wor.d, and here the trend seems to me to be slightly in the right direction. But this is not saying much,” said Air J. Al. Keynes in a recent speech.

‘•Tlie pro war gold standard worked beenii.se it was in' truth a sterling standard. / 'When gold went off sterling'last September it doomed itself as a currency, at least for tlie time being. AYc have been "forced, it is true, to step down for i!lie moment from, tlie position of international leadership in finance.

But our place has not- been taken by anyone else, and 1 feel confident that, unless we lack the pluck, we shall soon be strong enough to resume our old position with the heightened prestige of holding it in virtue of having surmounted present- difficulty:.”

A JUDGE ON JUSTICE. ‘T do not think that sentences to-day are too severe,” .said Air Justice AlcCardic, at a meeting of the Royal Society for the Assistance of Discharged Prisoners. A good deal of -the increase of crimei is due to the persistent criminal. I have records that would astonish ntuny, of men bound over for the first offence., gifting six months for the fifth, and a’ similar sentence for the tenth offence.

The result is that; men get to believe that crime is worth while, and society gets no protection. I say public’y that a great deal of injury is done by giving 11 man who has committed lii-s tenth offence of housebreaking no greater punishment than that given to the man who has committed lii-s second or third offence. Stern though I should be if the interests of society demanded it, I have never lost —and I do not believe any judge will ever lose—faith in the possibility of human nature.”

UNEMPLOYED WOAIEX

Though of committees and commissions there seems to be no end, the appointment of a ,semi-official committee to organise relief efforts on behalf of unemployed women will be generally acceptable. Social workers throughout the Dominion are aware that the proolem is one of ‘Some moment. Now that women in employment or in receipt cf private income are liable for the unemployment tax there is justification for tlie claim that relief measures for female unemployed should receive proper attention.

The coifimit-tee’s first duty is to ascertain exactly what efforts for the relief of women and girls are being made, and to co-ordinate and improve them where possible m order to prevent overlapping or abuse, With ah such efforts the question of ways and means is the first consideration. Presumably jt will be: for the committee to recommend what allocation of the funds raised by the unemployment taxes, if any, should be made for the relief of women.—“Taranaki Daily News

LABOUR AND FREE TRADE. “Let nobody .imagine that Socialism as such can feel any enmity of Protection,” writes the Marquis of Crewe in the “Contemporary Review.” “Individual members of the Labour Party are Free Traders, but that is partly because they survive from the days when trades unionists were the left wing of Liberalism, partly from dread of food taxe« and of the exploitation of the workers by capitalistic employers profiting by import duties. But from the days of Bastiat the kinship of Protection with Socialism was a commonplace of controversy. Ant! 'surely not without reason; a system of government controlling all the operations of finance, of domestic production, and the sale of commodities ) can hardly leave the importation or goods from abroad to be a- matter of individual! concern-

FOR A PUZZLED PUBLIC. It is too much to expect that the busy individual should follow the proceedings of Parliament so closely as to enable him to fully understand the position in which be stands with relation to taxation. The movements in connection with taxation of recent months have boon kaleidoscopic to nn unknown degree, and the demands made by statutes are ,«o numerous that many fail to grasp the responsibilities that have been placed on their shoulders. The official notifications, speaking generally, are couched in involved language that docs not make direct appeal; the use of legal or offiI rial phi'rseo’ogv D more confining than | illuminating to the “mail in the I street.” We believe the Government would confer a favour on the people speaking generally, and receive abundant reward if it were decided [bat there .should be published in the Press of the Dominion a clear, concise, and lucid explanation of the position as jt exists to dov.—“Tiniaru Pod,.”