IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 226, 24 September 1934, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

THE MONETARY REPORT. AN ENGLISH PARALLEL. (To the Editor.) Having just finished reading the Monetary Report, I can sincerely recommend it to anyone who is anxious to understand more about our financial system and its problems. The report has received ample abuse from the chambers of commerce and other so-called financial authorities, but it will be remembered that the report of the Macmillan Committee received just the same cliillv reception in land four years ago. On that occasion Lord Bradbury shook his head wisely and recommended doing nothing, and was the only member of the committee who refused to any portion of the report. On this occasion Mr. Downie Stewart adopts the same role and declines to take any part in either majority or minority report. And while the Macmillan Report has been accepted throughout the world as an authoritative statement accompanied by weighty recommendations, it may be accepted that our own report, dealing with simple problems on a smaller scale, will very shortly he recognised as an excellent description of our existing system, coupled with lucid explanations of the difficulties involved both in improving it and also in using it to mitigate the evils of slumps and booms, while the recommendations must be recognised as sound if not going as far as some would wish. ' PROGRESS.

HIGH EXCHANGE.

Wo Have hoard too much about hi«h exchange benefiting the farmers. It is too common and too bad a fallacy always to explain that the farmers (producers) are exporting practically all our produce and are enjoying therefore a 25 per cent premium, while they are buying only a portion of goods imported. The farmers do not export or import anything at all. The whole of their produce (cream, moat, lamb, wool, pork) is definitely and conclusively sold on the local market only. Every "jus dispondendi" is legally and irrevocably passed once and for ever to exporters (factories), who are the sole buyers (for cash) from all the farmers. Exporters may increase or abase their local prices in obeyance and in proportion to the ruling rates, but there is no possibility for the producer to feel the exchange directly. It is reflected upon him through business channels only. Further, in going over the present accounts of every producer, you will probably find that his receipts scarcely equal his expenditure (in dairying they are much lower, in sheep, meat and other" farming they are a little better). Suppose, for the sake of simplicity, that the whole income is £100 per year and the whole outlay not £150, as it is, but also £100. Please add, riot only 25 per cent exchange, but 25 per cent both ways. <l You would not move his balance and—or his economic position an iota, becausc the exchange you will write on the left page of the ledger has got to be entered on the right-hand page as well (plus a little more). The fact of the matter is that while selling at local prices only (quite different from London ones) the producer is 'buying at local priccs (quite different from London ones, too). Briefly, it" is not the producer who enjoys the high exchange. Were his outlook and leader broader in mind, the producer would certainly reap the benefit of the high exchange by exporting his product himself. But a 6 it stands to-day the farmer is led to believe that the whole trouble, is quotas, and nothing else, and that there is no necessity to bother about organising new exports and exploring new markets. ALEXANDER S. TETZXER.

» KOBE COLLEGE. The illustration published in Saturday's I "Star" depicting various portions of Kobe College was of more titan passing interest to me. For it was at this fine school that some three hundred and fifty refugees from the appalling earthquake which completely destroyed Yokohama and- wrecked the greater part of Tokyo in September, 1923, were billeted by the relief committee upon their arrival at Kobe in the American liner President Wilson some two weeks after the disaster. I was one of those foreign refugees from Tokyo, and shall always carry grateful remembrances of the extreme kindness we received from Miss Charlotte B. Deforest and all members of her staff. All the girls voluntarily vacated their dormitories in favour of the homeless refugees and either went to their homes or to those of their friends, and for over three weeks we were boarded and lodged at the college. I had managed to save a valuable set of lantern slides dealing with microscopy and prehistoric animals, and at the request of Miss Deforest I had the pleasure and the unique experience of delivering two illustrated scientific lectures to an audience of SOO Japanese, girl students in tlie fine lecture hall of the college. A Japanese teacher of English acted as interpreter, but his services were not often required, as the girls had attained such proficiency in English that they were able to understand practically everything I said. Your, cablegrams do not state whether Kobe College has sufl'ercd from the recent disastrous typhoon, and I sincerely hope it has not, for it is one of the finest girls' secondary schools' in Japan. G. A. RAWSOX. THE SHORTHAND-TYPIST. I think that after reading Mr. Hutchinson's letter few parents will have a desire to get their daughters trained to be shorthandtypists. Employers, he says, require their juniors to write shorthand up to 150 words per minute. If this is required for juniors, what will be required for seniors? This will be news to tlie principals of shorthand schools, who consider a junior rather good who writes 90 or 100 words per minute. Again, where are the heads of shorthand colleges who will undertake to prepare their pupils to write 150 . words per minute in a year or at a fee of £25? For the average girl, it is a three-year course. When a girl has expended this money, time and labour, where are tlie good prospects? There are score*, perhaps hundreds, of girls in Auckland who began as juniors three or four years ago and are still receiving 20/ per week. As they have no union the employer increases their wage when he thinks it desirable, and . that generally is never. Few of them are able to exist without help from their parents, while girls in factories or who work as shop assistants can support themselves. The position of shorthand-typists seems, therefore, to be & good one to keep away from. I speak, of course, of the average girl, and not of the shorthand geniuses who can reach a speed of 150 words per minute in a year, as stated by Mr. Hutchinson. OBSERVER.

TENEMENT FLATS. In the proposed Wellington flats, how is a man and his wife and, say, four children, two boys and two girls growing up, going to live ill two bedrooms, according to our New Zealand ideas of decency?. In my mind it will not be much better than *oine of tlie old slums in London and other Old World places. At least three bedrooms are required. These new flats aro supposed to lie very up to date. 1 might eay I am not impressed with the idea. SLUM.