WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 8

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

POINTS FROM THE PRESS.

Our need to-day is to recapture, if wo can, the spirit with which they faced and overcame their difficulties. Were not their troubles greater than ours? Individually they liaxl to win for themselves tlic very means of sustenance from a virgin soil, and the resources at their command were little more than their stout hearts and their strong right arms. Less than a. century later wc of to-day pay tribute to their memory under very different circumstances. We live in a smiling country, where food which would have been more than ample for their needs is plenteous; where we have all the advantages of highlydeveloped public services, means of communication that they could not have dreamed of, and social amenities such as no seer could have envisaged a hundred years ago. Yet wo are in trouble. With blessings all around us we are poor and despondent because we have built up false ideas of values; we have been counting all our blessings in terms of pounds, shillings and pence. To-day is our opportunity to change our outlook, and we can do it if only we are willing to remember all we have to be thankful for and allow the memory of tlic pioneers to be our inspiration. —"Taranaki Daity News."

A COMEDY OF WHEAT. The poultry industry —and that includes also every householder who purchases fowl wheat is being victimised in a most unjust manner just now by that astute band of primary producers, the wheat-growers. Although the Government recently reduced the wheat duties by 1/4 in order to cheapen flour and poultry _ wheat, to-day fowl wheat lias actually increased in price and wc are in the absurd position in this country of having to pay more for wheat that is not go.jd enough for turning into flour than for the superior product that is purchased by the millers! In March, 1931, taking Lyttelton as a basis for value, fowl wheat was 4/7 per bushel. The Government reduced the duty operated on the lirst of March this year, yet fowl wheat has actually increased in price, the rate to-day being 4/74 to 4/8. The Government's intention is thereby deflated; the public are paying needlessly inflated prices and a handful of Canterbury holders—because of an extreme shortage of fowl wheat —are exploiting their unique and linassailable position, sheltered as they are from outside competition by a substantial, but in the circumstances, unjust and unnecessary Customs duty of 2/4 per bushel. —"Manawatu Daily Times." BLAMING THE GOVERNMENT.

■ The magnitude of the disaster which would bo the .price of failure should be the measure of our gratitude to a Government which is taking the necessary steps to avert it, but unfortunately human nature is not so made. We are apt to compare present hardships with past prosperity and to blame them all upon the Government, regardless of the fact that these hardships are for the most part the outcome of a world-wide calamity which no Government in. the world lias been able to control, and that the temporary aggravation of these hardships by the sacrifices to which we are asked to submit is the only condition 011 which they can be prevented from overwhelming us. If the man in the street who regards the policy of the Government as sound both in principle and in its chief applications reserves nevertheless to himself the right to grumble when it hurts him personally, it is not surprising that Labour, which is politically opposed to the Government and unsuccessfully fought the general election on these very issues, should he undiscriminating in its attacks. —"Evening Post."

"A FRIENDLESS COALITION." Mr. Forbes, in reply to a newspaperman's invitation to comment on criticism which had been levelled against the Government, said a few weeks ago that "a Coalition Government never has any ° friends." That might have been only Mr. Forbes' way of turning aside the shafts of his critics, but at the same time it contained an element of truth; New Zealand's Coalition Government is certainly the most friendless that this country has known for many a long day; Great Britain's political experiences of the last six months, however, prove that Mr. Forbes was not justified in generalising on behalf of all coalitions. An examination of the leading articles and the correspondence columns of the New Zealand Press reveals that there is good reason for Mr. Forbes, and for Mr. Coates and all other members of the Cabinet, to be conscious of the cold chill of unfriendliness. Nobody appears to bo satisfied with the present Government; it is not, however, its legislation which is the subject of condemnation so much as its method of working.—"Hawera Star." 0 * » • •

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.

It is to be hoped that the Government will realise the danger of leaving women's unions without protection under the Industrial Coneiliation and Arbitration Act and will have the question dealt with by amendment to the bill when the measure comes before the Legislative Council. Even under the existing law it is notorious that the interests of women and juvenile workers have been persistently neglected in those industries in which the majority of the workers are men, and it is certain that the women will suffer if they are deprived of the right to take their case to the Court. . . . We should provide that in all industries in which women workers labour under a separate set of conditions the questions of hours of work and wages for women should go to the Court for decision in the event of the conciliation proceedings failing to produce an agreement. We sannot understand how any members of Parliament faithful to Liberal traditions could refuse to support this amendment, and the Prime Minister, even at the risk of delaying the passage of the measure, should insist on its introduction when the bill is before the Legislative Council—"Christchurch Times." * # * ♦ RECRUITING FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE.

It is a curious anomaly that, although the British Government is offering administrative posts in its Colonial Civil Service to New Zealand University graduates, the New Zealand Government makes no attempt to recruit public servants from the same source, except in the case of the professional division. The Public Service Act, indeed, discourages any such policy, for it provides that appointments to the administrative division shall "as far as practicable" be made from the higher grades of the professional or clerical divisions, the consequence being that in New Zealand the higher officials are almost invariably specialists with professional training. In England the opposite principle is followed; the high official is chosen for general administrative ability rather than for expert knowledge, and the administrative division is recruited largely from University-trained men (and women) by a special competitive examination. This policy has been an important factor in making the English Civil Service the best in the world, and the present tendency is to extend rather than to curtail it. —Chri'stchurch "Press."

CAN WE AFFORD IT? The tax on wages and unearned income for the Unemployment Fund liars been more than doubled, and the first reaction to this has been one of angry resentment, expressed sometimes in a desire to hit everyone else and to shout about the intolerable burden whicji is reducing everyone to the basin of starvation. Let anyone holding these views look round, and see how money is being expended to-day, and quite a large amount of it on amusements. Is this wrong? Of course not. It is good that those who have money should spend, and ke&p internal trade alive, it is advisable, too, to have amusements in these days; but the wrong is to shout starvation when there is evidence on every hand that, providing they have courage, the people of this country can stand up to the demands made on t licin, and to more. The cause of this economic depression lies beyond the limits of this country; the extravagance which has accentuated its ill effects within Nfcw Zealand goes back nearly half a century, and every proposal based on precedent established in pre-war days needs to be weighed carefully in the light of present-day facts.—"Southland Times."