NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 231, 24 June 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The somewhat alarmist suggestion bae been made that the City Council proposes to add 39 per cent, to the rates for tho coming year on top of the 39 per cent, increase in tho valuation of city property. It would bo n horrifying prospect for ratepayer* if if. were tjue; which fortunately it is not. 'Hie position, as we understand it, is tlinf. it is not proposed to increase any of the city rates at all. It is not necessary to do so in order to secure an increased revenue, for at the old nites tho increased valuations should swell I ho total revenue by about 30 per cent. Bui 30 per cent, is 30 per cent., whether tenured by increased rates or by Increased valuations. and at the present

time the added drain will in many eases bo hard to meet. There is a glimmering hope, however, that the Mayor and • councillors will find that it is not necessary to maintain all the rates at last year’s level. We do not profess to know exactly what will be the outcome of their deliberations, bill even if nt the worst the general rale-is left unaltered it should be possible to grant some .relief through a reduction of the special rates. Is lying ever justifiable? Everybody, except a few disagreeable misanthropes, tells without compunction those white lies of social intercourse when we express a pleasure we do not feel, and welcome those on whom we would prefer to shut the door. Tn every game it is fair to fool the other aide by feinted movements. Tn war the license is even greater, and war ruses are as ancient as wars themselves. Nature herself, in the protective colouring of animals ami insects, was the originator of camouflage, and even the most innocent animals uro taught to lie by the instinct which makes them sham dead. Arguing that lying in wartime is on every ground thoroughly justifiable, sfr. C. E. slontague, in the "Nineteenth Century and After," contends that in the late wa>both sides made but the feeblest use of the enormous machinery modern civilisation provides for the thorough and effective dissemination of lies. If at war with a weaker Power at sea whose navy we desired to draw into the open, wo might, in the opinion of this writer, evoke in our whole Press an irrepressible cry of rage and lamentation some fine morning over the unconcealablo news that our Grand Fleet had struck a minefield and lost half its ships and so on, and so on. It is all very well if no attention had to be paid to our own national moral in war. Nobody in one country or the other would bo able to place the least reliance of any sort throughout the war on auy item in the Press, or if they did the dummy panics intended for. enemy consumption would become too unpleasantly real at home altogether. On consideration the wisest course seems to be for humanity to keep itself as peaceful and truthful as it can. M » ft * Throe objections may be raised to paying full current rates of wages on unemployment relief works. One is that the unemployed to whom relief is given will have no inducement to seek work elsewhere. Another is that in probably the majority of cases the men will be at work to which they are unaccustomed and a daily output below that of a competent experienced man is to be expected. Thirdly, it is obvious that the money available for relief will be swallowed up more rapidly the higher the wajfe is, and the more demand for it there will be. If objection Js worked up against one rate of pay on unemployment relief works and the standard higher one for ordinary public works, what is the alternative? The sources from which the national revenue flows have been drying up; smaller faxes-will bo paid on smaller incomes; and a smaller volume of imports will mean smaller Customs duties. The amount of money that may be looked for in the near future is a doubtful quantity, and if it is insisted that relief works shall pay the full current wages th., only way to do it will bo by bringing down the current wage on public works. AVe do not think that is what the public works employees desire, nor docs the Government want it, hut that is the direction in which Labour spokesmen are pushing affairs.

The Mr. Holland who objects to the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance is the same Mr. Holland who objects to expenditure on "militarism” and'to the maintenance of British naval supremacy. Britain entered into the Japanese Alliance to check possible aggression in the East and to preserve peace in tho Pacific. Everyone recognises that the treaty in its present form is obsolete and provides for a situation that no longer exists. The point is whether Britain and the Dominions are for the future to have a. working understanding with Japan, and if possible with America as well, as to the respective rights and interests of each, or whether the treaty is to be terminated and relations left to drift with any chance current of events. Mr. Holland is for the chance and drift that may as easily run to antagonism as in any other direction. He objects to maintaining a friendship with Japan, and he objects to any and every step taken for the defence of this country or of the Empire generally. It does not eeetn to have suggested itself to him that this line of policy would leave the Dominion of Now Zealand a tempting morsel to any Power with a decent-elzed army and navy. The "social, political, and economic amenities” of which Mr. Holland speaks ar e desirable things, but a necessary foundation for them is a national security that the Holland theories do not provide.

To settle tho controversy ns to the userfulness of aircraft against capital ships, American seaplanes, we are told, sank an ex-German submarine in an air raid at Hampton Roads. No doubt the airmen had an interesting morning’s work, but such an experiment can hardly be regarded as settling a great deal. It took twelve bombs, two of which made direct bits, to sink the submarine. Presumably the submarine was stationary at the time. At any rate we may be sure that no crew was aboard manoeuvring her to avoid the aircraft, and no anti-aircraft guns were in notion from her deck making the effective bombdropping position a most unpleasantly unhealthy spot for the aircraft. Two hits out of twelve bombs when one can aim deliberately and unmolested at a stationary or slow-moving object does not mean two hits, or any hits at all, when the vessel below is steaming at speed on rapidly varying courses and is sending salvoes of shells around aircraft attempting io pass over her. Bombdropping on undefended vessels simply reveals how many hits it takes to sink a given class of vessel. To ‘'settle the controversy” it is necessary, anil not so easy, to know how many seaplanes can get into bombing position against a battleship’s barrage. The German airmen tried for such petitions over British destroyers and light cruisers often enough during the war, but the'North Sea w ns wb«t their bomb* hit. In this, es in

other forms of warfare, Ihe probability is that as the attack becomes more deadly the defence will bo made correspondingly effective. It is a shade premature, at any rate, to say that the Hampton Hoads experiment demonstrates that 'battleships are useless.

If may perhaps be taken as an evidence of a quickening civic spirit that no fewer than three bequests to the Wellington Hospital were mentioned at yesterday’s meeting of the board. The benefactors are the late Mrs. T. K. Macdonald, Mrs. Rotherani, and Dr. Edith Huntley, all of whom have bequeathed fairly substantial sums for the endowment of beds in the hospital. The triple event is somewhat unusual in Wellington, where public benefactions are not as frequent as in other cities.

An indication of the recognition by some Labour unions in Britain of the impossibility of carrying on the industries of ihe country on Hie high warscale rate of wages is given in the acceptance of wage-reductions by the workers in over 50 industries. Particulars of the reductions were given by the Alinister of Labour, Dr. Macnamara, early in sfay, and it was stated that, with one exception the reductions were the outcome of agreements arrived al. by arrangement or after consultation with the workers affected. The total number of workers concerned in these wage reductions at the t ime the announcement was made, was 1,7.50,000. Some of the reductions were made under agreements bv which, the wages vary in accordance with the cost of living index figure; in other cases they have been made in accordance with sliding scales based on selling prices, such as in Hie iron and steel industries; while in others they have been the outcome of negotiations between workers and employers where industries have been languishing through being unable to compete-with foreign nations —such as the shipbuilding industry—or for other reasons. Negotiations were in progress in respect of further large groups of industries, and hopes were entertained of amicable arrangements being made in most cases. The reduction, in the cost of living is, of course, an important, factor in influencing these changes, but the plain fact is being recognised that the heavy cost of production has been crippling British industry and threatening to swell the ranks of the unemployed to ever increasing dimensions. But for the tragic folly of the-coal strike there were good prospects of a revival of British industry under the influence of cheaper production, and an improved outlook for both employer and worker.