NOTES AND COMMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 188, 23 May 1938, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

GAOL WEEK-ENDS FOR DRIVERS. The idea that a traffic offender should be allowed to serve a sentence of imprisonment by two days at a. time over week-ends seemed a simple American pleasantry, writes Mr Arthur Mee. Now, however, that Prebendary Carlile has given it his support it can no longer be looked upon as a joke. America has three times Britain’s ■population, but kills six times as many on the roads, and they are worried about it. If a motorist is given eight days in prison he might be allowed to do it in four week-ends from Saturday to Monday without losing his and on the Sundays ho would have plenty of time to think and to keep off the roads where he is not fit to be. We commend the idea to Sir Samuel Hoare’s corning bill on prison-reform; we think his famous ancestor Elizabeth Fry would have liked it.

HINDRANCES TO PROSPERITY. “Our economic organism is not funo tioning so well in these days‘that we ■feel confidence in a continuation of ,ts efficient results,” said Sir Josiah Stain, > in a recent address on hindrances !/• prosperity. “Even a spell of prosperity we enjoy with the reservation 'hew long will it last?’ and like the jes-i----jnlst on an early spring day in lingland we exclaim ‘ we shall have :o pay for this.’ We are over-conscious of the inevitability of reaction and think that every silver lining must have a cloud. Luck is always too good to last. Every bright evening has a morning afto I ', and every up must have its down. In short, it’s terribly difficult to enjoy ourselves. To some extent this attitude is justified, for there are artificial features in trade and industry present all along the line.” Sir Josiah went on to state these hindrances were chiefly imposed by governments obsessed with the doctrine of economic self-sufficiency using restrictive measures against imports, which in their turn reacted against exports.