NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 170, 6 April 1923, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Though th© Railway figures for the full year are not yet available,’ the returns are sufficiently up to date to make it clear that the pass year’s operations much‘more satisfactory than was anticipated. The increase in rfrenue compared with the previous year has been small, a little more than £13,000; but the reduction in expenditure has been over three-quarters of a million. This means that whereas in 1921-22 the balance of revenue over expenditure was only £405,864, this year it will be over £1,100,000. In the circumstances, this must be regarded as satisfactory. At the same time, the fact must not be lost sight of that there is still a good way to go before the Railways will be paying their way on a business footing. In 1921-22, the credit balance of £405,864 represented a return of only 1.07 per cent, on the capital expenditure on working railways, which means that the railways did not earn interest on their capital cost. This year's earnings, in spite of the substantial increase recorded, jvill probably amount only to something approaching 2i per cent, on the capital expenditure. Tho balance required to meet the interest charges on the capital sunk in tho railways will require to be made up out of revenue from other sources. With better times ahead, however, and the exhaustion oi' tho accumulated stocks of dear coal, railway prospects for the current financial year aro distinctly good.

Most people in this country who have given serious thought to the matter, will agree with the new president of the Canterbury branch of the Navy League (Mr, J. J. Dougall) that the Dominion is bound in the near future to increase its naval contribution. .Conditions in which the people of the United Kingdom are paying six times as much per head towards the cost of the Navy as the people of New Zealand obviously should not be allowed to continue. The question, however, is one that cannot well bo effectively handled in this country until after the next meeting of the Imperial Conference. The position formerly existing has been changed by the conclusion of the Washington treaties, and is affected also by the relatively increasing importance of aerial defence. No doubt the whole problem will be. in clearer shape after it has been discussed by the Imperial representatives.

Although schemes of Empire migration are making rather slow headway, there does not seem to be any doubt that the United Kingdom at present carries a greater , population than it has any prospect of supporting in comfort. Labour members of the House of Commons are generally hostile to a policy of emigration, but they appear to have no reply to such facts as were stated by Dr. MacNamaba (Minister of Labour in the late Coalition Government) in a recent debate, In the "boom” period, before the war, Dr. MacNamara pointed out, there were 200,000 unemployed in the United Kingdom, and he warned the House that unless care were taken there would be a problem far beyond that measure when good trade was once more restored. At present, ho said, the unemployed included 300,000 young men under thirty. He urged, in effect, that the,remedy must be sought in oversea settlement. Mr. J. M. Keynes, the well-known economist, has frankly adopted the view that the problem of unemployment is already in part a problem of population. His opinion, broadly, is that without great improvements in the technique and intelligence of trade and industry it will be impossible for the United Kingdom to support its increasing population at existing standards except at the very top of periodic booms.- Even taking account of the relief that may be expected from the progress of science and other factors tending to higher industrial efficiency, Mr. Keynes thinks that the standard of life in the United Kingdom may decline. .Such speculations should help to direct practical attention to the. fact that the overseas. Empire offers a much more promising field than the overcrowded Mother Country in which to work out improvements in economic organisation.

Turkey’s reply to the Allied proposals for the resumption of negotiations interrupted at Lausanne will be awaited with a great deal of interest. The' position obviously is that the Allies are offering every possible concession. They propose even to modify the exceedingly modest demands made at Lausanne .with regard to judicial safeguards for foreigners and the protection of foreign property and investments in Turkey. Though further delays may occur, it seems hardly possible that serious friction can arise over such settlement terms as the Allies suggest. What docs give some ground for uneasiness is that Turkey will be very little under- control except where the Straits and Gallipoli arc concerned. The Allies, for instance, have abandoned the idea of limiting the permissible strength of the Turkish forces in Eastern Thrace. The danger thus remains in plain siglit that the Balkans may again become a breeding ground of future war.