WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 8

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

POINTS FROM THE PRESS. THE MODERN EXAMINATION PAPER. The complaint is often made that education keeps out of touch with the realities of life: that the problems- of' the modern world get little or no consideration in our schools and colleges. A glance at the papers set in the recent annual University examinations, however, suggests that at least in some subjects students are required to be very up to date. True, the classics still pursue their age-old wonted track, and history is just history, and there is little modern in mathematics. But other subjects come very close to the life of to-day. A bookkeeping paper, for instance, introduces Mr. Jones, a sheep farmer, who agrees to keep books to suit his mortgagee and the stock agents, and. the candidate is asked to outline a suitable system for him. Alas! in true modern manner it is of 110 avail, as we find lie has not enough income to pay interest, money to the stock firm, requirements for living expenses, and his instalments on his hire-purchases; and the question concludes by asking the student to report 011 how he can meet the situation. Another question is about a bankrupt radio manufacturing company. The unemployment charge and the levy figure in the accounts submitted, while it is excellent to see .that a (solvent) retail grocer whose books are examined is keen enough to give two guineas donation to the Y.M.C.A. Not only in the bookkeeping, but also in several of the law papers, the matter of hirepurchase agreements crops up in various connections; nor is one surprised to see candidates asked for "tho important points in the law of distress." Motor cars figure in no less than three questions in a paper on accident insurance.—Dunedin "Evening Star."

DEMOCRACY UNDER A RECEIVER. Un trussed in trade by Any quota, but merely bowed, down with the consequences of inflation, Newfoundland lias to face a situation in which she must default or must accept a reconstruction commission of seven persons (including a Governor) appointed by the King, three of 1 them' being Newfoundlanders. The links in this chain are (1) external borrowing, (2) inflation, (3) irresponsible local control, (4) depression, and (5) loss of local control. The third factor may have loomed over-large in Newfoundland's case, but it is a factor which is by no means confined to Newfoundland. On the other hand, Newfoundland's exports (principally cod fishery products) have not so far been singled out for quota restriction —a device which restricts not only the competitive factor of an exporting country, but also its capacity to pay interest on external loans. It is impossible, of course, to draw any close parallel between any two countries, but the extreme remedies advocated in the Newfoundland report should impress the farmers of the Old Country with the fact that a letjding policy is inconsistent with the loss by the borrowing country of the export trade balance with which the debtor pays his way. One of the oldest responsible Covernments in the Empire meets with a jolt through mistaken policy. No matter whose the mistake niay be, this jolt is a warning that a creditor-debtor relationship carries mutual risks which, if neglected, become political misfortunes.—Wellington "Evening Post." ».» » » MOTORING DANGERS.

For the creation of legal impediments it would bo difficult to find anything comparable in the statutes of New Zealand to that provision under which, in a claim for damages under the compulsory insurance scheme, the victim of a hit-and-run motorist has to prove that the vehicle that struck him was fitted with a number plate of the current year. The vehicle has vanished, and it would be almost as reasonable to ask the injured person to prove that the number plate was not a counterfeit of the year's issue as to prove that it was a current number plate at all. This provision should be struck out of the Act. In fact, a general widening of tlie compulsory insurance benefits is desirable in the interests of the public. It is a nice question whether negligence on the part of every motorist should Ibe assumed until the contrary is proved, for on that line we are Hearing the stage when it would be as reasonable to compel the pedestrian to insure himself against accident and collect damages whether negligence was proved or not, as to single the motorist out to insure negligent persons against their own folly. If there is a weakness in the present system it is the .creation of an insurance pool organised to defend every action with resources that are not available to a poor man. Nor would the system of the Admiralty courts; finder which damage is assessed according to the degree of negligenee on, the part of two or three parties, be workable. Civil juries are by no means equal to the task of following the intricacies of a problem as to the degree of negligence exercised by different parties to an accident, and even the simple questions that judges submit to juries sometimes make confusion worse confounded. Probably it will be necessary to take motoring cases entirely out of the hands of juries, and although when that is done a certain partiality to the popular side will be removed, it is probable that litigants with a fair claim will be in a more advantageous position.—"Christchurch Star."