TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 88, 14 April 1930, Page 10

TOPICS OF THE DAY

In Auckland the Hon. W. A. Veitch, interviewed concerning his unemployment relief proposals, stated that "the main principles of his scheme would be somewhat similar to those recommended by the Special Committee, although the details might diverge." If this stateme.nt is correct, the Minister's scheme will be at least one to command respect. It will not be a mere scheduling of public works (State or municipal) to which men shall be allocated irrespective of their condition, circumstances, and ability to perform. It will not be a mere series of devices which Mr. Atmore, eighteen months ago, used to call palliatives. A scheme somewhat similar to the Unemployment Committee's scheme will present many knotty points, and may not command unanimity; but it will be at least an attempt to get away from palliatives and down to bedrock. No more serious statement has been made yet by any Minister than that quoted above —if, the Minister means it. A glance at Australia should convince anyone that New Zealand cannot go on meeting unemployment out of loans, regardless of where the interest is coming from and regardless of the value of the asset produced. Nor can New Zealand local bodies go on piling up rates until the rates become, in bulk, like rents. This form of confiscation of the value of property in boroughs' has already gone further than most people observe. If unemployment charges fall more in [the form of direct taxation that can be directly felt, the sooner will the position be recognised. Almost any | scheme of unemployment relief finance should be better than the present. Does the Government really mean to get into this fight, or will it withdraw at the first gunfire?

Circumstances sometimes cause fatal accidents, especially motor driving or aeroplaning accidents, to strike the imagination deeply. In this way may be created an impression that such accidents are occurring with very great frequency—an impression that may not be borne out by available statistical evidence. But there is another impression that abides—an impression that most ipeople are driving much faster than they were a couple of years ago. I Parallel with this comes the British legislation to remove the speed limit from light motor vehicles, and to rely on penalties for "careless driving" and "dangerous driving" as a means of preventing abuse of the new freedom. It is as yet too early to judge the no-limit method by the test of experience. But in order that the test may be applicable at all, it would be well that the inci-. dence of accidents should be given as much study as the incidence of disease. For a long time the main diseases have been intensively studied by the Health Department and have received careful and detailed notice in the Official Year-Book and other publications. In the course of years points of weakness in the statistics have been found, and some effort has been made to remedy them. The statistician's business as applied to health matters and diseases has to be alive and progressive. And there is just as much need to specialise in modern accidents. Perjhaps it would be found that avail-

able statistics do not tell nearly the whole truth. And if correct comparisons are to be made—as, for instance, between speed limit and nolimit conditions—the statistical basis should be a sound and uniform one.

In the Old Country recently attention has been drawn to the crowding of hospitals by accident cases due to the motorisation of the roads. It has been alleged that the ordinary type of patient has been elbowed out by the motorisation type; and that the latter is not always the best payer. A study of the position in New Zealand, from the hospital point of view, should prove interesting. There is a feeling abroad that a good many things happen that are hot correctly reflected in any cur-' rent statistical records. Some cities prepare their records much more elaborately than others, and the knowledge of certain discrepancies suggests that there may be others. Again, on the penal side, the law is much more strictly enfbrced in some cities than in others, and a comparison of penal statistics is in that case also misleading. Owing to the virility of modern man, accident may come to occupy a more important place relative to diseases than it has occupied hitherto. "Virility" is the best word we can find for it; some people would write speed mania. But the desire to wear out rather than rust out is not altogether to be rebuked. Men will motor, and men will fly, and it would be a poor country that would be without either. According to Auckland adv^es, the air picnic will now take its place alongside the motor picnic. Yesterday eleven .Auckland - aeroplanes made a day trip to and from Russell, where they were entertained. On return, twilight landings were successful. By and by aeroplanes may roll home at 11 p.m. as unconcernedly as the picnic bus.

Following on the New South Wales Government proposal for a tax on wages and salaries of 2d or 3d in the £ comes a Queensland Government proposal for 2d. What could be niore symbolic of the great gap between this year's thought and last year's—what could illustrate more completely the new psychology in Australia, which is not without fts lessons for ourselves. When deflation comes, real deflation, with retrenchment, somebody's wages must, of course, suffer deduction. Why not (say the Governments concerned) everybody's wages? Admittedly, there can never be abstract justice. In a strike-shattered industry like New South Wales coalmining, many of the miners have been the architects of their own wagecuts. On the other hand, the deflation complex will, through taxation, involve many wage-earners and sal-ary-earners who have always done a fair day's work and who have not drunk ot gambled with or speeded on their earnings. But for those inequalities, inequities, and iniquities, there seems to be no cure. Strikes against longer hours and shorter pay would make things worse. At the same time, the New South Wales Council of the Railwaymen's Union is objecting to the Government's new hours and wages, and there is a suggestion of trouble on the wharves, though the import trade there has the poorest of outlooks. Its outlook might brighten if in London, where the bank rate remains low, they could find some means of reopening to Australia the loan market, which Mr. Scullin says he will enter when circumstances permit.