The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, JULY 10, 1933. IN DEFENCE OF GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 160, 10 July 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, JULY 10, 1933. IN DEFENCE OF GOLD.

For the cause that tavks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance, And the good ihat toe van do.

France has succeeded in gathering around her six other European, States which arc determined to use their financial resources to preserve the gold standard. On the map o£ Europe they make an unusual-looking group, taking in all the western part from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, flanking the Rhine, while across to the East are Poland and Czechoslovakia, determined to overlook geographical separation in this matter. It will be interesting to see how far a combination of this kind, which is made up of: two separated groups, can follow a common policy. How far will it be possible for them to follow one course of action without the co-operation of the rest of Europe? The grouping of States in Europe is always liable to create misgivings in the minds of those who are left out, and it cannot be overlooked that the agreement just reached in Paris covers countries with political sympathies. Together, as defenders of the gold standard, these countries appear to have much potential strength. The claim is made that they have control of more than 40 per cent of the world's gold, or nearly £1,000,000,000. Out of this vast reserve they will establish a common fund, which apparently they are prepared to use as a joint stock for defending their currencies against speculative attacks by non-gold countries. The principle on which such a fund Avill be operated, no doubt, will be similar to that governing Britain in the protection of sterling.

This new move comes as a consecjuencc of failure by the principal nations of the world to reach agreement in London on a united currency policy. In the past four months the United States has been following a path which is repugnant to France. To-day America regards a rise in prices as of greater importance than stable exchanges, but France clings still to the old traditional point of view that the link with gold must not be broken. It is another reminder that France is unable to break with her former conservatism in matters concerning cash, and continues to be, as Mr. Keynes has said, "the last home of the bullionist complex." France and the United States, therefore, arc poles apart in their present aims, and, unfortunately for Britain, they seem to be irreconcilable. The British position is somewhere in between. It. has been made clear that there will be no return to gold on the old basis, nor upon any new basis, until conditions promise a greater degree of stability than at the present time. While refusing to co-operate openly and actively with France, Britain is refusing also to be led into a. policy of deliberate inflation rlong American lines. The Dominions, meanwhile, arc asking Britain to embark upon a priceraising programme to bring about an improvement of 30 per cent, and are nearer the American point of view than is Britain.

REDUCED FIRE LOSS

The deplorable losses by fire in New Zealand have been commented on from year to year, and it is therefore gratifying to learn that last year there was a very considerable falling-off both in the number of fires and the loss sustained. Our record over a long period is shocking. In Germany, France and Italy for the decade 1919-1929 the approximate fire loss averaged 1/6 per head, as against an average loss of 16/5 for the Dominion. In 1930 outbreaks of fiVe in the large cities throughout the British Empire averaged one for every 1350 inhabitants, while the NewZealand average was one for 308, or over four to one. Inquiries into the causes of fires in Ncav Zealand show that the majority of fires are preventable, and the present decrease in this loss may be in part attributed to the reent campaign in educating the public on how to avoid the risks of fire. Fire destroys wealth even when the loss is covered by insurance, and in their own interests everybody should take precautions to reduce the loss which has given us such an unenviable record.

" RURITANIA."

Even in an age that hungers for peace, the appropriate salute to Anthony Hope on his passing is a gesture with the sword. It is something to have given a new word to the language, and that is what Anthony Hope did. All the English-speaking world knows what is meant by a Ruritanian kingdom or a Ruritanian romance, and it is possible that the word has a significance for foreigners as well. Probably Anthony Hope himself put several of his books above "The Prisoner of Zcnda" and its sequel; "The King's Mirror," a remarkable study of the position and mind of a young monarch, is said to have been one of his favourites. He had also quite exceptional gifts as a writer of social comedy. "The Dolly Dialogues" may have no more sustenance in them than tho flavouring in a salad, but they are delicious. The public, however, branded him as the author of the two most stirring cut-and-thrusfc romances of the time. In strict truth, he did not found the huge school of Euritania novels and plays. Stevenson had preceded him with "Prince Otto," but Stevenson's romance is sadly anaemic, and it was "The Prisoner of Zcnda" that achieved the resounding success and set the feet of so many authors on the path to imaginary European kingdoms. Lengthy realism is the fashion in fiction now, and admirers of writers who plough fields with , knitting needles may pity those of the public who can re-read "The Prisoner of Zenda" at regular intervals. The love of romance and a stirring tale does not die, and Anthony Hope may be read with pleasure a century hence.