CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19643, 12 June 1929, Page 15

CORRESPONDENCE.

wbo do not comply with in th. l»nt column of out mi** ***! gr —— fARMBRS and the unemployed. _ 0 m *WTO* OF TH* P*»«. letter of "Only a Parrot mine re farmers and the >* I " P * d completely ignores the »» question, namely, the Da id by the Governsponsible for the large ,«nempl <->ved. 1 will put it JjK way to liim. ''amHy. tho Gov«k <«iiet works way jo UKeneu era®*" 4 fa, tor.v or trust, the •"*3 «-tnch are l*inu paid about p-nt higher wages than any factor* Bi:«h as the farmers can the result being natureveryone who can get a job concern is doiiiß m, | tSTother smaller and weaker rL a re beimt squeezed out ot Mv critic's remark about to crow wheat the way „ ks f„!i Of twitch, J* fcjfpK. I'i» for farmer nowadays put. m first of all cleaning the m well as he can afford to do. iTffilOOO worth of work mentioned Jl. letter is felling li K ht bush clearer iob. fencing, etc though I tear ffL is little chance of anyone taking *Z whilst Us per day can be had * rfnjply filling in time at relief work, (w St to "One of the Single I nemTjj » I tnav say there is plenty of fik be had if m*n will on y leave >u|««ms and look tor it, s i 2*taiii that any single man <vho reKgs and works on relief jobs is a 'gjgtor,—Youro, etc.. C<JCEATOO joM 11th, 192®.

to Tltl KDROft Of THB PRSSS. jjj J would very much like a little your paper to protest against A, ,}>ugiTo remarks about farmers -.A. Hv one signed "L.A.Z.Y." Being dealing with his letter I •would ia* to lav that the on© written by Kokatoo" w ;lfi ono 01 tlle most sen " IkUleiters that has ever been pub"i—i j n your correspondence column TtL ■object. It is quite evident Xk%.A.Z.Y." thinks that farmers ZLijd have to pay 14s per day to any ST that is out of work, no -matter ifAe farm can stand ifc or nat - and L can see that, if the Government employ all hands at that wage fa toners will have to pay it also or 111 the work go. Of course in most MM th« work will have to go undone, ttiwririM the farmer Would have to m no to avoid both the farmers are B w g tlj the labour-saving machinery n "t K° in « in . for .. t '^ (fap of farming that will give them ilfcmt returns, which is generally (!,(! that requires the least outside foftawr A married man with a family no goobt requires somewhere about 14s pr lay to live on now that the cost Fjrnnjt has got so high, but the Sggla man certainly does not. Then vl» has b<"*n tho cause of forcing up tto cost of living? Not the farmers itore all. It has been the workers ttauelvee and no one else. The carMStera plasierers, plumbers, and MMdiyere put the house rents up, (L the painters. Then the bakers, Mdtera, grocers, tailors, bootmakers, He,, had to get an increase in wages Mch ->ther, and the extra rent H weft So it went round, with the realt that alter all very feW are any fetter off and a big lot out of work iltogether, simply because tho spare hhour cannot bo employed at a profit. It w moat unfair to turn round nnd &■» the inoffensive ffirmer for what bad nothing to do with and because I* will not buy something that is too far'for him to use on the farm. The Government may carry out their frarite to find work for the unempfoyed at 14s per day, but I think thai if they are going to pay that *MI to make railways, roads, and IpCM With borrowed money, they will Kit *>on land where the most of farwtn would if they employed all the Jabonr that could be used on the farms •( th» equivalent wage and used borImd money to pay it. TH farmers have to sell what they pcrince in the open market and be ■tafied with what they get, so why Awtld not labour do the same and it wonld be used? —Yours, etc., FAIR PLAY.

June 11th, J<>29. TRS FIFTY-THOUSAND LOAN. TO IB H>ITO» Or TOM TBMS*. Br, —In the amended schedule of lull to be undertaken in the near published in to-day's Pkess 1 m mention of any streets south of •treet. As the majority of these Hurt« »re in an absolutely shocking (MtitioiD, 1 cannot understand their re•#▼*l from the schedule. "Western terH» ifcii morning is a waste of lakes miniature mountains, together with tinge amount of mud. Last night one City Council trucks was stuck for Mirljr an hour in a hole in Eiverview ♦eefc I am well aware that until the sewer connexions have made 'iHll net be economic to rebuild the but surely* something can be to improve the really terrible contine that exist at present. Rates conto rise, and mv own unimproved Wwtton has gone up 66 per cent., ™ck will most likely give them anbump, and still I suppose 1 and the "■» midenta in the district are exJ'W to thank the powers that be for ••fr great magnanimity in allowing us J* ****** Of course we don't happen to y • councillor living in our midst J# H can expect to be treated in the *• *w.—Yours, etc., L. B CROWTHER. 11th, 1920.

*B* apprenticeship system. *• **» KMTOB Op TBK PSl*93. outspoken remarks concemJl tt* apprenticeship system made by J* Ik J ones, M.P., as reported in toUarae, show that our labour laws " kicked a vicious stage. The limiy* •' apprentices means conserving ttaion privileges. The resultant it frequently enables such to dictate their terms to the Some may say that is not i« always the Arbitration "J* to appeal to. Thirty years' ex J™*?** ka« taught us the Court is a ntaehine. There is already a S* IMn t started in Auckland (as reto fonr paper the other day) ask- • til# removal of the present Tl»« idea of a Court fixing a i2 ot the value of ser--811 * B J" Btcm f hat no trade would subscribe to if he had *4bMit tlM> P*y mastt ' r - Moat parents y **pect soma opening for their for a boy to be hold ''No adhere," "Xo admittance *b injustice that needs wipThe idea of men being dis- *• ®*ke room for boys is begging What employer would dis- ** tL*° 0( ' man for a boy? That is No doubt there are. trade nig *** that need scrapping!— Tours, , D.N. 1829,

SUPERANNUATION FUNDS. TO IH* IDIIO* OW TBX PUSS. The letter signed '' Economist" in your issue of Saturday, the Sth, on the subject of superannuation funds, which are becoming a serious drain on the finances of the country, deserves the attention of the community. This is a heavy annual drain to support the civil servants, who as a class are weil remunerated for their services while employed by the State. I have a vague recollection when the scheme was initiated, and some £400,000 had been placed by the State as a subsidy to the fund, e were then told that most probably the scheme would be self-sup-porting. No insurance scheme could keep itself financial by paying out such retiring pensions compared with the small premiums paid in. Take a youth with his smaller wage who pays only a small premium. As he rises * to the higher positions, probably he is in a position commanding a good salary for j the last four or five years of his ser- J vices. Of course he pays the higher premium for those four or live years, j and his pension is assessed on such payments till his decease. We have a Party holding that promised no increase in taxation. Political promises evidently don't count. —Xours, etc., A.B. June 10th, 1023.

FARMERS AND THE SECONDARY INDUSTRIES. TO THB EDITOR OF THE PajSSS Sir, —In a letter to The Press, a copy of which reached me from a friend to-day, Mr F. L. Hutchinson, vice-president of the Canterbury faeturers' Association, replies to a statement of mine at Masterton that increased protection to certain industries in this country must impose increased costs upon the primary producer. In his endeavour to show that I am wrong Mr Hutchinson makes use of special sets of circumstances in Australia and England. I do not intend to follow him so far afield as England, and I do not admit that the conditions in Australia are identical with those in New Zealand, but I am content to accept Australia for the purposes of this discussion. Mr Hutchinson appears to base his ease on the opinion of the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at Sydney University, who has apparently come to the conclusion that retail have risen a little less in his country than in New Zealand. The Professor overlooks the fact that protection against wheat, for example, which Australia grows, must affect the comparative cost of living in New Zealand prejudicially, and in truth does do so, and that he can hardly reconcile the fact with his argument. But we fortunately do not need to rely upon any purely academic opinion in support of the statement that in this country (and in Australia since Mr Hutchinson quotes Australia), protection is not achieving what he apparently claims for it. Fortunately the question does not admit of doubt. A very able and independent Commission selected by the Imperial Government at the wish of the Federal Government has been investigating conditions in Australia. For Mr Hutchinson's benefit let me quote from its report (January 7th, 1929): —

51.—But in the carrying; out in detail of a policy of protection, a task of immense difficulty, there is much room for human fallibility. Protection, as its very name implies, is designed for the weak, and the weakness may be that of infancy, that of temporary ailment, or that of inefficiency. It may well be expedient to give artificial assistance from the public to a promising infant industry, though, since its output must in the early stages be small, such assistance is in our judgment better given by way or bounty, the cost of which can be exactly Measured, than by way of a protective customs duty which will raise, to an extent difficult to compute, the cost to the community of the whole of its supplies of the commodity for which the infant industry is designed, but is not yet able to sufficiently produce. But it is to be observed that infant industries are apt to take a long time to grow up and to be ready to dispense with their a-waddling clothes, and the P™' cess of reaching maturity tends to be further delayed when the costs of the products of other industries required by the infant industry are increased by measures similar to those which have been adopted in its own case. It behoves the State, therefore, to keep a very careful watch upon the whole range of protected industries, end to be sure that protection or bounties are not continued so long or given so freely that their cost outweighs the benefit to bo derived by the community from the establishment of the industries in its midst. 52. —An instance of temporary ailment would be afforded if an established industry were assailed by a campaign of dumping from overseas. In such a case it would De reasonable to afford protection while the trouble lasted, but the protection might well be reconsidered when the cause for it has been removed. . . . 53. —The protection of tho inefficient is something which, we imagine, no one would be prepared to defend, but it is in practice not easy to avoid it; for the case _for a measure of protection for an industry is apt to be based on what is needed to keep the weaker of those engaged in it olive. And protection itself tends to have, 'I 1 ?"® .. _ xloes not always have in fact, a debilitatuig influence, and to promote habits of dependence npon Government assistance rather than of reliance npon individual energy and effort while Governments, always exposed to interested political pressure, are prone to give that assistance rather than to see industries disappear, their capital lost and the workers engaged in them forced to seek other employment. Thus protection tends to grow and to cover an ever wider field, its own growth being productive of the very conditions which le»d to its fnrther growth. Something of this kind has. we think, taken place in Australia. We believe that the policy of protection has, in some respects, been unscientifically carried out; that it has been extended to cover some interests at least which do not deserve it; that the total burden of the tariff has probably reached the economic limits, and that an increase in thi-j burden might threaten the standard of living. Again on page 20, in a Summary of Conclusions and Kecommendatioris, we read: —

12.—Most and post important of all Australian questions is that of the cost of production, with its effect upon export industries and of the combined effects ©I the Tariff and the Arbitration Acts. IS,.—Their effects, and that of the jSavigpations Acts, have laid an unduly heavy burden on unsheltered primary industries which have to export at the world's price, and on the States principally concerned with such industries. vis.. West Australia. South Australia, and Tasmania. j4.—There is ground for the common complaint of a vicious circle of increased prices due to the tariff, and of increased costs of labour due to Arbitration Awards, and it is urgently necessary to break the vicious circle without lowering the standard of living, i.e., real wages. . 18. —Efficiency should be a condition of protection, and protected industries should be liable to furnish the Government with the fullest information as to their prices, coats, and conditions generally. 19.—A full scientific and investigation should forthwith be instituted by the Commonwealth Government into the whole question of the effect of the tariff and incidence of Its duties. Pending this enquiry there should be no avoidab.e increase of duties.

It is, I think, not necessary for me to add anything. The very restraint of its language gives added weight to the plain warning it contains. But I do not want to be misunderstood. I have the greatest sympathy with Mr Hutchinson. T am anxious to see secondary industries soundly established in this country, and to have the standard of living maintained and improved. All Mr Hutch* son and I disagree about is the method of doing it. I believe the subject wants scientific and practical investigation. I am anxious to see such a step taken, and would be glad to have Mr Hutchinson helping in that direction.—Yours, etc., TP. J. POLSOX. Stratford/ June 6th, 1929.

CHILDREN'S COURTS. to T rrK editob or tct rassa. Sir, —There hare just been published in the Press replies by a number of Magistrates to a questionnaire sen* out bv the Minister for Justice dealing with the conduct of Children's Courts. The answers are intensely interesting, but as they are by no means unanimous they will not. therefore, be of the same value in arriving at definite conclusions on the subjects involved. Besides, the Minister apparently has not consulted the women Justices, althougli they aro specially <jualifie<l to express opinions. This, in our judgment, is a grave omission. Bv way of comment upon the matters dealt with, we should like to point out that in England it is admitted that special qualifications are required by the Magistrate called upon to sit in Children's Courts. May it not be that th*? very answers produced by this questionnaire are criticisms of the fitness of those making them! We make no apology for asserting that Children's Court cannot possibly fulfil their proper functions apart from the help of qualified psychologists. Mrs Holman, who is visiting the Dominion, and whose experience as a London Magistrate is both extensive and valuable. says: "I don't see how you can hope to reduce crime much in New Zealand while you are still so utterly without all psychological help. - especially with your young offenders. Experts are abundant in London and can be called upon to aid in Juvenile Court work."

We must insist that Children's Courts are not. and should not be made, miniature Courts of Justice. They are not so much Law Courts as I Courts' of Consultation which, in the ! words of Mr Barton, S.M., addressed to the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Howard League for Penal Reform, "were designed to be parental rather than official: protective and aclvisorv rather than punitive or disciplinary.'' In every instance the future i life of the delinquent is of paramount importance. It is necessary to know not only what the offender has done but what be is, physically, psychologically, and socially. Dr. Cyril Burt, psychologist in the Education Department of the London County Council, says of the juvenile delinquent: "The whole question is one not so much for a legal and moral code but . . for scientific investigation. A crime is not a detached or separable fact self-con-tained and self-sustaining. It is only a symptom. It is a mental symptom with a mental origin and there is now a definite body of ascertained knowledge tracing mental symptoms to their causes, just as medical knowledge tracks down the sources of bodily disorders. To whip a boy, to_ fine him, to shut him up in a penal institution because he has infringed the law, is like sending* a patient, on the first appearance ot fever, out under the open sky to cool the skin and save others from infection." Similarly, the publication of the name, the presence of uniformed police, and other paraphernalia of the ordinary Court cannot be any guarantee of the future good conduct of the delinquents. The questionnaire contained no_ reference to flogging, but the Minister states that some Magistrates urged that they should have power to order birching. We cannot help feeling sorry for these seven men The days of flogging are fast disappearing, and in another decade or so the advocates of this method of "correction" will be viewed in much the same light a3 those persons of the last century who advocated hanging for theft!' We read in Fenner Brockway's book, "A New Way with Crime," that "since 1918 Mr Clarke Hall (the London Magistrate) has abandoned the sentence of whipping, and he remarks that he knows of no circumstances that would induce him to resort to it again."' In conclusion, we emphasise seven, essentials for the efficient working of Children's Courts:—

1. They should be conducted in a building completely separated from any Courts of Law. In Christchurch the Education Board's office is used. 2. They should be absolutely free frcm tliie ordinary Court "atmosphere." 3. Specially-trained Magistrates should be in charge, who should act as wise "parents." 4. Uniformed police should be carefully excluded: it probably wouM be advantageous to dispense with all police. 5. A very thorough investigation of every case should be made, prior to the Court proceedings, by a psychologist and trained social workers, and a comprehensive report laid before the presiding Magistrate. 6. Upon no pretext whatsoever should the proceedings of the Court be published. 7. Women Justioes or Magistrates (specially trained) should be appointed to conduct or be present at eacn Court sitting.—-Yours, etc., E. HUNT, (Acting) Dominion Secretary for the N.Z. Howard League for Penal Reform. June 11th, 1929.

SCOTTISH HOME RULE. TO TBX EDITOR C» THE P3883 Sir, —"A Scotchman/' nnable to answer the letters of Mr Armour and myself, has recourse to a weapon dangerously like a boomerang. The "Weekly Scotsman" has been called by English readers the finest daily in Britain. Nevertheless, for reaiionjj obvious to those deeper in Press-craft than your correspondent, it is pot yet able to subscribe to Home Rule. H© appears to be quoting a policy paragraph against it which requires much more context to square it in any way with the present facts of the situation. What does the writer mean by "Socialism'; P Is it Marxian, Christian, Fabian, plain Anarchist, or plain Labour ? Hazy propagandists here and overseas lump all these meanings under one heading, oblivious of the fact that we have gone quite a few steps on the Christian or Fabian line ourselves, and are liked the better for it. "A Scotchman" will not scare many with a call to alleviate distress in the coalfields, or to push on with arbitration and consequent disarmament. Am I uncharitable in suspecting your correspondent of trying to swim away to safety under the cloud of cuttle-tish ink that always pours forth at mention of nationalising land or services ? That cloud i 3 friendly to many discomfited warriors, but it hardly covers the hoped-for retreat as touching the present aspects of Home Rule in Scotland. Probably there are even some extreme Socialist Home Rulers, and certainly the Scottish Labour Party are for the measure, along with some Scottish Conservatives and a majority of Scottish Liberal members. But the leading feature of the Home Rule campaign during the past year has been the forming of a Nationalist Party, which, wisely or unwisely, as the sequel may prove, has poured contumely on the alleged slowness and Party predilections of Conservatives, Liberals, and especially the Labourites, who have originated the latest Home Rule Bills thrown out yearly at Westminster. The Nationalist Party comprises most, though not all, of the strong men in the movement; naturally it has not the Rev. James Barr, who has twice presented the last Home Rule Bill. Still more significant, as divorcing the principle of Home Rule from the more aggressive forms of Socialism, is the fact that Mr James Maston. M.P.. leader of the "wild men of the Clyde," is publicly opposed to it. That Home Rule for Scotland and Wales means "the disintegration oi three Kingdoms" is a pretty phrase that gives atfay the source of origin. I do not think that "integration"

would continue to have charms for ' A Scotchman'' if it meant that in his own bouse he could not so much as repair his own front gate without a number of humiliating and expensive journeys to some far-off Dives, who might in ten years allow him to use some of his own money for that object, instead of commandeering it for carved on tbo Dives estate. 10 secure the "disintegration" of using their own money for their ovra good, and conserving their own time and resources is certainly the common policy of Scottish and Welsh Home Rulers. But ''A Scotchman - ' will not scare many New Zealanders with such a bogev. —Yours, etc.. JESSIE MACK AY. Cashmere Hills, June 11th, 1929.

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