ENGLAND REVISITED

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1922, Page 6

ENGLAND REVISITED

SIR R. STOUT’S TOUR. THE INDUSTRIAL OUTLOOK. SITUATION IN IRELAND. Sydney, Dec. 29. Passengers for Wellington by the Marama to-morrow are Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice of New Zealand, and Lady Stout, who reached Sydney from England yesterday by the Wiltshire.

Sir Robert Stout took the opportunity. while in England, to represent New Zealand at the historic gathering at Oxford of representative figures in university life in the Empire, and also took part in proceedings of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The general impression o-f the atmosphere, so to speak, in which these distinguished jurists deal with all the ramifications of the law of many lands, is quite a wrong one, it seems. One of the deepest impressions which it left on Sir Robert was its democratic simplicity, alike in procedure and in its setting.

“The Judicial Committee,” he remarked to an interview’er yesterday, “as the final Court for the Dominions, and for certain cases in England also, is certainly the most democratic Court in the world as far as appearances are concerned. Picture four or five men, without any robes and in their ordinary clothes, sitting round a table in what is simply a big library room. There are no policemen or .officers in uniform, and a complete absence generally of any of that ostentation or display which might in the mind's eye be associated with this great body. There are two messengers to bring in any necessary books, but that is all. Its simplicity of surroundings is in fit- keeping with its procedure, which is the simplest in the world. In the Court in which I sat were Lord Hoklane, Lord Phillimore, Lord Parmoor, Lord Carson, and myself. Viscount Cave and others were also busy in other Courts, two o-f which were sitting at once on Indian cases. In all, ten members of the committee were sitting at the same time—• five in each room. When I left there were still 3'6 cases on the list, including some Australian eases.” THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM. Sir Robert was questioned in regard to the industrial outlook in England, and he emphasised the seriousness of the unemployed problem there. The general feeling, as far as he could learw, was that the people intended to do their best to improve the position. The people seemed to be hopeful, but, Sir Robert added, they needed to work hard and to be careful in Hot wasting their means. The effect of; the great coal strike, for illustration, was still perceptible, and would be felt for some time to come. It meant, he added, that the products of the mines had been reduced more than one-half. While, in short, Britain’s production of cool had been going down, the production in the United States had been going rapidly I up. He thought that to export the coal ! from the British mines was simply to | destroy British capital that could not be replaced. < I England, added Sir Robert, had no water power, except by the utilisation of the tides in the south-west, and there was also the point stressed by the Coal I Commission which sat 12 or 13 years : ago, and which pointed out that the I whole of the English coal that could be mined for industrial use would cease in 1400 or 500 years, and that Scotland’s coal would end in about 150 years. ( Scotland, no doubt, had more water power than England, and could use electricity. Ireland, too, had a considerable water power. England should conserve her coal.' To sell it outside of England to her industrial competitors was not, he thought, good policy. Recalling the effects of the coal strike, and referring to the stoppage of all kinds of industry on account of the non-production of the coal, he said the upheaval even prevented fishing trawlers from going to the herring fisheries in the north.

EXPENSIVE HABITS. “The people,” he added, “got into expensive habits during the war, when, of course, everything was high. And you cannot expect industrial life to be promoted if that is the feeling. They will have to make much sacrifice if England is to get back to normal. The world wasted millions, billions of money. How is it to be replaced? We cannot get on without capital, the state of Russia ought to be a warning to us. Compared with my previous visit, however, in 1909, I saw very great improvements in all the towns I visited. They were cleaner and better kept, the death-rate has fallen very considerably, and more attention is being paid to gardens and parks and the beautifying of towns. What impressed me generally was the greater regard for the aesthetics.” As an observer of events at Home, Sir Robert Stout was questioned regarding the Irish position. “The British people,” he said frankly, “are always forgiving; they are always anxious for conciliation. That is the British attitude. But it has been said that the Irish people were lucky that they had to deal with the British nation, and that if they had had to deal with Germany or other nations in Europe they would have found it a different matter. I have no doubt that Mr. Collins and his colleagues are earnestly anxious that a spirit of peace and of brotherhood should prevail, but my own personal opinion is that it will probably be some time before we see that spirit manifest in Ireland. ' The pity is that there could not have been some arrangement in regard to Home Rule in Gladstone’s time. At the same time, we have no right to say that Ulster should be forced out of the union. Ireland will no doubt be hard hit materially as a result of the unhappy events there, for hundreds of thousands of tourists and holiday-makers who would otherwise have visited Ireland have not included it in their tours.” UNITY OF THE EMPIRE. The interviewer recalled to Sir Robert Stout a speech which he made at the Royal Colonial Institute, and in which he expressed the opinion that with Imperial federation it would be necessary to have a written constitution, which would reduce the Dominions to the level of the States within the American Federation. “The way,” he said, “to bring peace and brotherhood as between England and her colonies is not, as I pointed out. to pass statutes, but to love one another. The British people are not fond of federation. That is proved by what I said here at the inauguration of the federation of Australia. 1 said it would not be long before you had attack on State rights. A lot of

people now want the State Parliaments abolished.”

At the University Conference at Oxford, Sir Robert Stout was chairman of the committee which dealt with finance. The conference, he said, must nave gooa results, for it enabled university teachers -from all parts of the Empire to meet and to discuss many matters and problems of common interest. Sir Robert Stout was disinclined to discuss the future of the British Labor Party on the ground that he had not been" in England long enough or often enough to make a close study of it. He had, however,, been impressed by some of the Labor men in the House of Commons—Mr. Clynes, Mr. Henderson, and several others.