The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1929 A MAN TO MEET !

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 729, 31 July 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1929 A MAN TO MEET !

THERE is no reason to suppose that in New Zealand just now there is any less interest in French politics than in those which happen at the moment to give the Dominion a very poor political reputation. France at least enjoys a livelier Parliament with a higher standard of general ability, and possessing the sort of mercurial temperament that does not hesitate to dismiss mediocre Governments. That difference explains to a great extent why there is no more remarkable a politician anywhere than M. Aristide Briand, the Premier of France. For the twelfth time in his entertaining career, he has formed a Ministry and ended still another crisis in French polities. There are two good reasons for anticipating a notable addition to his premiership record: He is only sixtyseven year" of age, and party politicians in France precipitate crises in the Chamber of Deputies almost as frequently as they get their hair trimmed. Indeed, it has been said, with that exaggeration which marks political life on the sunny side of the English Channel, that there have been politicians with beards longer than the administrative terms of some Governments. .In more ways than one France is a land of Samsons. M. Briand does not himself claim to be a great statesman. L nlike some famous politicians we all have known, he has never once on twelve occasions been called upon to construct a Cabinet because of skill and vaulting imagination in making colossal promises politically to make a new heaven and a new earth. He does not traffic in wizardry. The secret of his success is modesty together with a clear recognition of a fact too often overlooked that a statesman who makes no promises at all frequently secures the best record of achievement. Then there is the greater advantage in the opposite direction: If such an administrator merely succeeds in doing nothing he can point out with shining truth that lie did not undertake to do anything. Not that M. - Briand is a do-nothing Premier. His achievements would fill a stout volume and make interesting reading. He has described himself as “a mender of broken crockery” in politics. That, perhaps, is as apt a description as any, but he also has been and still is the master plumber in politics, which burst as easily as waterpipes in Northern European frost. It is a beautiful study to see him solder a bad break in a political pipe. So the call in every fresh crisis in France for years has been: Send for Briand! And his reward naturally has never been less than the precarious position of Premier. He always assures journalistic friends, whom he dines and wines well without any expectation of reciprocity or undue publicity, that he would much rather grow roses in his country home garden than mend broken crockery near the Quai d’Orsay, but in his heart he must really love the smashing of political chinaware or else he would not hold the present world record as Premier. Most people at a distance might well wonder why the administrative life of Governments should be so short and hectic in France. The thrifty peasants and keen business men of that attractive country have less love of political extravagance than that held by the inhabitants of most other countries, and yet they have to suffer many more changes of Government. This is due to the fact that the Chamber of Deputies is very different from other Parliaments. It comprises 605 representatives, each now drawing 60,000 francs a year (their honoraria were raised to that figure at a night sitting last year), hut they are more divided than any similar house in the world. The Chamber is not composed of merely three parties, which elsewhere is looked upon as a curse, but contains a dozen or more groups which (as a Parisian commentator has noted) can be shuffled like a pack of cards. And those groups which do not obtain the aces or the highest honours do not lose much time in demanding another shuffle. So each crisis promises a fresh opportunity for securinga good hand. In ord?r to bring a Government down with a crash, it is only necessary that one or two of the opposition groups should change sides. Then, in addition to many jealous and eager groups, there are several bands of clever young men who are in a hurry to become Ministers and secure all the advantages of opportunists. For these reasons politicians are suspected in France, and while such suspicions last, inevitably much crockery will continue to be broken. Fortunately for France, there are statesmen like M. Briand, who is an expert mender at home, while being able at the same time to make and keep friends across the Channel. A man to meet, a man to ponder over! THE UNIVERSAL PROVIDER ALTHOUGH no golfer, Mr. T. Bloodworth is a firm believer in municipal golf links. Although no dairyman, he considers a municipal milk supply the ideal. And although no banker, he is satisfied that a municipal bank means the financial emancipation of both the corporation and its ratepayers. This singleminded faith of Mr. Bloodworth’s just shows the distance a true believer can be carried on the wings of bis enthusiasm. With the memory of the municipal fish-markets, the corporation trams and other unhappy civic enterprises in mind, we venture to suggest that if the present council went to the length of establishing a bank there -would be a general evacuation of the city, or. alternatively, ail effort to have the area brought under the control of some peaceable and innocuous local body like the late lamented Tamaki Road Board. The supreme difficulty about Mr. Bloodworth’s ideals is that the Auckland City Council as constituted in the present year of grace could not be trusted to handle them. On points of abstract pi mciple the schemes may be separately and severally applauded. But t! applause would turn to grief if the admired principle in each - use were subjected to the bruising that the admired fishmarket ideal suffered a few years ago. The principle is a good one onlj for so long as it remains detached from the unfortunate associations of civic enterprise in Auckland. Probably Mr. Bloodworth did not expect even the members of the Advertising Club, to which he expounded his theories yesterday, to take his proposition about, a municipal bank very seriously, but the milk supply question is admittedly in a different category. Municipal milk has on the whole been a success in Wellington, though even yet there are a number of people, including a large grout) of suppliers, who dislike the system intensely. Municipal golf links have paid handsomely in nearly every centre that has had the enterprise to start them. On this’subjeet it is to Wellington again that Auckland must turn for a lesson. The Berhampore course at Wellington was originally laid out as a small experimental nine-hole course, which soon became so popular that some rough country across the road had to be utilised to complete the eighteen holes. In spite of the arduous character of the country, the enterprise has been a success from the outset, and in proportion to outlay has paid the Wellington < ity ( ouncil a better return than any other investment. Around Auckland there are several areas which combine the essential requirements, the first being that the area chosen should be within easy access. If one of these areas were well laid out it would soon be paying its way.