NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 93, 13 January 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Economic conditions vastly different from what they were a year ago are disclosed in the quarterly banking returns published to-day. The advances by the banks to their customers show an increase of nearly 14 millions, equal to 43 per cent., and IF is> the first time for many years that such a movement has been recorded. The moral of the figures is that now more than ever is it necessary to exercise economy and wise caution. The excessive importations whiefi have been secured nt high prices must lie liquidated, nnd while traders will naturally endeavour to avoid losses, the indications are that the upward movement of prices has touched its highest level. Any further pressure for loans must force up rates hTghtlr, and dear money will not help enterprise, although it may prove a corrective for extravagance. The situation, though not. satisfactory, is not serious, and with courage nnd confidence and due caution we should soon overcome the difffculties in restoiitig a more 1 normal balance in trade and finance.

Weight is not given to the. allegations concerning the Jutland Battle in this morning’s messages by the circumstance that th6y come from Lord Alfred Douglas. Editor of a now defunct literary weekly, and a minor poet with a niim’bei of volumes of light verse to his credit, Lord 1 Alfred Douglas's flashes of brilliance have been overshadowed by Ins erraticness and his taste for controversy. There may be something in his remarkable story. The probability is that there is not a. great deal capable of being substantiated. So far as we can discover, Lord .Alfred Douglas has no firsthand knowledge of the Battle of Jutland, and it would l>e interesting to know' whether his allegations generally arc based on first-hand, third-hand, or«sixtbJiand information. The whole story boars a strong family' resemblance to th? terrible tales that awed old ladies used to whisper to one another over their cups of tea from 1914 to 1918 on the strength of what the charwoman’s brother-in-law’s niece heard a man in the train say. * * * * Mr. Coat'es has promised a Main Roads Bill this year, and there is urgent need that such a measure should find its way to the Statute Book before the New Year comes again. The chaos and waste of present methods are in evidence on all sided, and a striking instance is the difficulty now being experienced by the Hutl County Council in renewing two bridges on the main road through the Hutt Valley to the Wairarapa. The cost is estimated at £5200. Tlv> county council has asked for contributions from the adjacent local bodies in whose territory most of the traffic over the bridges originates. The contributions have been, refused, and a commission is now sought to assess liability. The new bridges are urgently required, but one of them is the centre of a bend—at Stokes Valley—that will have to lie straightened once road improvement is properly taken up. Present hand-to-mouth methods will probably end in placing this bridge in quite the wrong spot. A Royal Commission the other day estimated that the annual cost of a modern, water-bound macadam road, tar-sealed, would be £345 per mile for interest, sinking fund, and maintenance. In Hutt and Makara counties tffiere are two arterial roads extending respectively to Waikanae and the Rimutaka summit, with a combined length of about.7o miles. To modernise them, on this basis, would involve an annual charge of about <£25,000- This is some thousands more than the tbtal revenue of the two counties. If it is to come from the motorists within the area, town and country,', it would mean an average fax of about £5 per annum per motorist. Are the motor-owners prepared to pay, and if not who is? * * * * Sydney’s housing problem appears to be more acute than that in New Zealand. According to the “Sydney Morning Herald” the only way to acquire a house is to buy one in course of construction from a speculative builder, or else to have a house built to order. Fiveroomed cottages that cost £6OO before the war to-day call for an outlay of £l2OO. Complaint is made here that the Stale does not. build workers’ dwellings rapidly enough, but in Sydney the Government does not appear to have got further than sending a circular letter to builders asking them to submit plans for cottages to cast £6OO. As an instance of how wages have gone .up, it is stated that bricklayers who used to get Is. 6d. an hour, now have an award rate of 2s. 3d., hut their ‘actual pay ranges from 2s. 9d. to iHejlld. per hour. Carpenters’ wages, however, have only gone up to 2s. 3Jd., and painters’ only to 2s. 2d. It appears that the reason lor the specially high rates for bricklayers arises from the absence of apprentices. Employers as a rule have engaged the bricklayers for a particular contract, and then dispense with them, and each has left the training of apprentices to the next man. The upshot is that for some years there has been little new blood in the trade. Practically no one is building houses in Sydney for renting, and any house becoming vacant is rushed by would-be tenants, who find they are too late. It is evident that the Reform Government in New Zealand has l>een dealing in much more practical fashion with the housing question than the Labour Party in New South Wales.