Mr Lang's Latest Default.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20308, 6 August 1931, Page 10

Mr Lang's Latest Default.

That ther® is no end to political ignominy in Now South Wales is shown in 9. eable message from Sydney wMefc reports to-day that the Premier «nd frwawre?, Jft? fcang, has initrHfitei} the heada of State Departments to suspend payment of public servants, other than those engaged in industrial cervices. Thia means that My Img saves himself from the wrath of e&se OR pixty thousand workers on the tramways, and other un'jWflMUt State undertakings, and pwhapa he has ropre reason to fear them thaw the clerks and typists, and policemen, His latest act of default and repudiation will affect about ten thousand teachers, almost as many other public, servants not engaged .in State industrialism, and three thousand policemen; but they cannot have been quite unprepared for lie shock. The Government's desperate plight has been ap ? parent for weeks, and it has been impossible not to foresee that the people would have to pay a heavy and bitter price for the Government's want of principle and for a succession of financial failures, which belong to the level of political roguery. In the legislative Assembly last month Mr Lang admitted without shame that unless Mr Scullin came to the rescue with #BOO,OpO th«s> State could not pay salaries and wages, The Loan Council approved the issue of Treasury Bills to meet New South Wales obligations, but received no thank? from Mr Lang. On the contrary it was coolly informed by the impecunious State Treasurer that he would require £2,000,000 more for August,and then £1,000,000 in September. Moreover, on the tenth of this month over £4,000,000 o£ New South Wales debt matures and, so far, no definite arrangement has been made for its conversion, Mr Lang has simply stated that the §tate could not pay off any portion of the loan. He hair promised, however, to aocept the Australian rehabilitation plan and practise administrative economy in order to secure further help from the Loan Council; but the most concrete expression of his idea of economy appears in a constant demand for economic relief. And in the midst of the disgraceful muddle lies the wreck of what at one time was the greatest savings bank in the Britiph Empire,

Divorce and Publicity. In a divorce suit in Wellington yesterday in which the Chief Justice found it necessary to forbid publication of the evidence, he expressly included in his order the "publication "of any photograph or sketch of the "parties or witnesses," and suggested, without "expressing an opinion on " the matter," that it perhaps amounts to contempt of Court in any case to publish photographs or sketches without consent. Whatever the position may be in certain classes of cases, itis to be hoped, not only that the Chief Justice is right in connexion with divorce and other matrimonial cases, but that the law will soon put liira i right if his opinion is not firmly enough supported already. One of the private measures now before the House, Mr Fraser's Judicial Proceedings (Regulation of Reports) Bill, has in fact this object, and it is a pity that it is not likely to get serious consideration this session. For although there are obvious objections to any such interference with publicity, tho objections to the present state of affairs far outweigh those, or any others that are likely to develop. Mr Fraser's Bill is described as an Act to regulate the publication of judicial proceedings in such manner as to prevent injury to public morals; and thousands of people who are not Puritans believe that there is injury now. But the law should do more than protect the weak and immature. It should give as much protection to all sections of the community as is consistent with social safety, and it is impossible to believe that society would be endangered if'only the legal outlines of matrimonial proceedings were made public. No law will end vulgarity and indelioacy. But it would be a great gain to the community if vulgarity could not bo so readily exploited, and if the innocent victims of human weakness and failure had the protection from the State that they already have from every decent citizen.