The Press Thursday, January 3, 1929. "Applied Common Sense."

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19508, 3 January 1929, Page 8

The Press Thursday, January 3, 1929. "Applied Common Sense."

| The public may be grateful to the Hon. Mr Stall worthy, the Minister for Health in the new Government, for his remarks on the Mental Defectives Act, because, although they will amuse every friend of clear thinking and concrete speech, they are a reminder that thin Act is now in operation, and that as introduced it was a very perilous measure indeed. As a result of the protests of The Pbess and other newspapers the really noxious parts of the Bill were withdrawn, but Mr Stallworthy's statement, which was no doubt largely framed by his Department's officers, suggests that the minds which framed the original Bill have not given up their intention to turn their rash iHoag into law. For he commenced his statement with the soothing assurance that the policy of the Department will be the development of " such plans and " machinery as will progressively give " effect to the provisions of the Act in " the wisest possible way." The problem is a very simple one: "the " due reconciliation of the equally "sacred rights of personal liberty on "the one hand with those of social " stability and progress on the other "; that simple problem which men began to fumble with as soon as they came out of the jungle and which they are fumbling with still. The new Minister does not admit its simplicity: he says it is "a complex and difficult "one," "calling for sagacity, patience, "and sacrifice." And he is right. It does call for those three virtues. "However," Mr Stallworthy is optimistic : " however, the ultimate exercise "of these virtues will make for pro"gress in both the human and the " economic sphere." And the Minister concluded by saying: It is encouraging, and it gives confidence for the future, to reflect that in past achievements we have ample demonstration of the moral fibre and the capacity of New Zealanriers in worth-while undertakings. Success m the field of social readjustment must depend in the end not on mere legislative enactment, nor on theory, bat on applied common sense, founded on experience, enlightened by vision, and fortified by faith and hope.

Tn every coon try the more cautions and thoughtful students of polities are uneasy when they hear a politician tying t.hi« kind of language. It could be translated into sound English and might look sensible and true. But one distrusts the fluent use of such a phrase as worth-while undertakings; one distrusts the smooth rejection of " theory " la a afaiglit word; and above all one is put on one's guard by such a phrase as " applied common sense." What looks like "common sense" to the ordinary politician or ordinary Departmental head may be most terrible error. And what he calls " applied common sense " is almost sure to be quackery. Mr ! Stall worthy, of course, has no responsibility for the Act or for the parts of it which were dropped before it could get through Parliament. He has, perhaps, never even given the subject any thought But we judge from his remarts that he is likely to be quite sympathetic towards any well-sounding notions that hjs Department can bring to He can best serve the country, during his term as Minister, by making his Department stick to its plain job and leave "applied common sense" alone.