PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18055, 15 January 1927, Page 8

PUBLIC OPINION.

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING.

Lessons in Swimming. The Government’s vote of £2OO toward the cost of teaching school children this valuable accomplishment cannot be expected to arouse any enthusiasm on account of its size. Auckland's share is £2O, an amount grotesquely small in vipw of the number of its school children and the presence of conditions making such tuition desirable. As an acknowledgment of the accomplishment’s value, the vote is utterly inadequate, however excellent may be the principle it embodies. There is no other accomplishment so conducive to health and physical development. It provides, moreover, an inestimable precaution against loss of life itself. That it should have a recognised place in every school curriculum is so dear that argument should be unnecessary. Every summer there is painfully impressed the danger to which children—to say nothing of adults—who cannot swim are exposed. They can, of course, be protected from it by being prevented from going near the water; but that is a way that no sensible parent or guardian, in a country such as this, would prefer to take. Indeed, the attraction of water is so great that many parents have learned, to their sorrow, that it is a way impossible to take. You may warn children of the vasty deep; but will they heed.' 1 Sooner or later the forbidden water is entered, and then woe betide the child that cannot swim. Parents themselves would be spared untold anxiety if this art were efficiently taught oo their boys and girls. There is much to be said for the contention of a correspondent that something else in the syllabus might be dropped, in order that lessons in swimming should become compulsory in every school.— “ New Zealand Herald.”

Employers ind the Court. A good many men agree with the criticisms of the Arbitration Court that the president of the Auckland Employers’ Association has formulated. Mr Spencer objects to the raising of wages, arguing that, in order to help industry, wages should be stabilised. On the other side, however, we have Labour criticising the Court for not giving still higher wages, and probably the best proof that the Court is right lies in the fact that at a difficult time it ; pleasing neither party. In the first days of the Court the employers were suspicious. Then they became favourable, because they found that the Court did not give Labour all it asked for, and because it exercised a peaceful and ste .dying influence. It did not prevent strikes altogether, but sensible men knew well enough that without it there would have seen much more trouble. Employers who are dis posed to agree with Mr Spencer should bear this in mind. They should re ; fleet that the Court is still exercising this valuable influence.—” Auckland Star” v A Belated Discovery. Last year, ere yet unemployment had settled on the Dominion like a virulent social plague, we were the first to call attention to the impending evil and to urge that measures should be prepared for dealing with it effectively against the hard days of winter when it was certain to press most heavily upon the workers. That warning was repeated here again and again, but for a long time it fell upon heedless or apatheticears. Reform was in the throes of auto-intoxication over its astounding success at the polls, and was too busy blowing bubbles of hot air to give consideration to a matter it had rather dodge than tackle at any time. Liberalism was, as it unfortunately still is, in a Parliamentary sense, largely inarticulate. Socialism seemed to have lost its force and fire after the bursting of its ridiculously grandiose dreams of political dominance. This year we again urge, as we urged last last year, that this problem be taken in hand forthwith, and that a few obvious reforms to be carried out. One is that until our own unemployed be absorbed into the ranks of labour, there should be an immediate and complete cessation of all assisted immigration to the Dominion. When we make this appeal this year it may be listened to with more respect, for the tragedy of the winter made such utter nonsense of the defence put up by the Government and its press organs last year that it is not likely to be heard of again. Mr M’Leod will not be heard denying its existence, and suggesting that political malice rather than unemployment causes the trouble. The press may for very shame’s sake cease repeating the silly and irrelevant dicta that there has been unemployment in other years, and that it is seasonal—as if these statements disposed of the difficulty; and the egregrious Mr Nosworthy may be made to realise that the evil has become too much even for members of his own party. It is pleasing to see that even is arriving to-day at conclusions reached by us a year ago. Let us hope the result will be the tackling of this grave social ill in a manner creditable to the commonsense and honour of the Dominion. —-"Southland Daily News.’ *