ECHOES of the WEEK

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 291, 8 September 1928, Page 17

ECHOES of the WEEK

PRESS OPINIONS ON :: NEW ZEALAND TOPICS

The circular in which, the local branch of .the New Zealand Labour Party is asking members of trade unions to subscribe to the lighting fund of the Party—is a very instructive document. It shows, to begin with, that the Labour Party is now almost wholly political, and is putting pressure upon trade-unionists to support the political organisation of the Socialists. The Labour leaders are not so foolish as to believe the fairy tale In the circular, and one may doubt whether any of them would personally commit himself to a promise that the working man with a wife and three children would receive £2685 if the Labour Party were put in charge of the country.- But the Labour Party, as an organisation, does not shrink from misleading the-workers with preposterous arguments and promises which could not possibly be fulfilled. — “The Press,” Christchurch.

The resolution of the Canterbury College Board conferring on Mr. A. W Bickerton the distinction of Professor Emeritus will, recall to the minds of the older generation a, dynamic personality and will serve to turn the thoughts: of the younger generation to one of the “makers” of the College. The time may well come when his tremendous cosmic generalisation will find universal acceptance. He has lived, unfortunately perhaps, in an age of statisticians, to whom no scientific generalisation is true unless it can be proved by logarithms. In another age his declaration that the universe could not die except to be reborn would have won him a name and fame greater even than that of the enunciator of relativity. When he is dead, maybe, he. will be praised as the ■mnn who demonstrated tho immortality of the universe, and while he is still alive it is well that we should present such little tributes of faith and affectlot. and recognition as are in our gift. » —“Lyttelton Times.” ,

To have the future of the Maori discussed by Sir Apirana Ngata is to have one of New Zealand's problems handled with authority such as no other public man can claim. Sir Apirana, on himself and his career, proves what- an individual member of the •race can become, what material there is in its ranks awaiting development, lie advocates the use by the Maori of . the cultivable land still :iu-his possession, and quotes the spread of. dairying us an encouraging sign, which it certainly is. Here is a possibility of development with which everyone should be able to agree. Dairying is in many ways a new thing for the Maori. His ancestor was not a pastoralist, but w : as possessed of a system of agriculture all his own. To go baek to the land as a pastoralist is a

change, but the measure of success already gained justifies hopes that the Maori may eventually play a part in the leading industry established in the years of European cdccupation of New 'Zealand.—“N.Z. Herald.”

The chief lines on which the reorganisation of the-educational system may be expected to proceed have already been described in Mr. Wright’s statement, made when the two reports on revision of the primary schools’ syllabus were issued. The Minister is on firm ground when he suggests that, in the past, too narrow, a view of “culture” may have been taken, and that “a constructive piece of handwork may have a more potent influence on the development of character and on the formation of high cultural ideals than has the translation of a perfectly good piece, of English prose into somewhat indifferent Latin.” It depends.on the pupil. So “equal opportunities for.all” is proclaimed by the .Minister as an object of bis education system, with a meaning different from that which it has borne in the past. It does not mean that all .children arc to have the fame opportunity, irrespective of their worldly position, of obtaining some sort of education—that is already the case —but that all children will have an equal chance .of receiving, the education that is best suited to their'apti--1 tides. That is. a noble ambition, and we wish the Department success with IL—Dunedin “Star,”

The* public will have noticed Jhat the churchmen of Christchurch deplored the prospective arrival of the .Southern Cross on Sunday, but apparently-they would not have objected at all to their arrival on Monday, since the programme of reception had been designed to benefit the Vnemployment, Fund. Had the original plans of the airmen been carried out triumphantly.' the guardians of Christian principles would have overlooked or generously forgiven the fact that, in order to arrive early on Monday afternoon, the flyers would have bad to insult the Christian community in Australia by leaving on Sunday evening. Must it be inferred that so long as the flyers did not interfere with church attendances they could fly on Sunday, if conditions favoured Sunday flight.—Auckland "Sun."

The education report is interesting (ns It enunciates the views of the present Minister who bad hardly taken up the reins of control when the previous report was compiled; moreover, within the period covered by the report there has been a change in the office of Director of Education. It may appear that the Minister lias several big problems to face, but in view of the fact that a complete overhaul of the education system Ims been discussed. and advocated for twenty years, the present Minister, who has been but a few. months in office, may lie excused if be decides to look over the whole system of education between the infant classes and (for some) the doors of the university, and (for the great minority I the entrance gates to the hard school of the world outside, before he makes up bis mind as to the course to pursue to meet the educational requirements of this young And developing ‘Timaru ller®kl.” »

The value of the Industrial Conference has been deservedly emphasised in the admirable statement of its purpose and its achievements made by the Prime Minister .in presenting the report of its proceedings to Parliament A return by the conference to the discussion of defects of the system, in the light of the voluminous data now at its disposal and the views incompletely ventilated, should result in a workable solution. On this, admittedly the most, difficult of the subjects it was called to'consider.- enough was initially done by the conference in a spirit of amity to encourage the hope that a further exchange of views will produce the improvement which most of its members, notwithstanding their alien points of view, are commendably seeking/—“N.Z. Herald.”

If the world’s greatest interest is international peace, then assuredly the greatest interest of. each individual country is industrial peace. This is the reason for the conference of employers, unionists, and economic experts a ■ few months ago. As to the precise character of the work done by the conference, we agree with Mr. Coates that the preliminary discussions. Involving an honest attempt to investigate the conditions out of which industrial disputes have arisen here, are of more importance and value than the decisions ultimately reached, and we may congratulate ourselves that our attempts to solve our economic problems are taking the form of amicable discussion rather than of mutual distrust and antagonism. The policy that we have adopted here is closely parallel to the system of conference now established at Home, where the unions, rejecting the frantic follies of . the “class war." are now earnestly cooperating with the employers to secure and maintain industrial peace.—Auckland “Star,”

Although an indecisive series of Test matches between two countries, in any sport, usually is satisfactory only to a side which expected to lose, that which ended at' Cape Town on Saturday has finished in a peculiarly fitting way. On the international aspect of the tour, it may be noted' that, although New Zealand could gain from a little salutary medicine; it would have been unfortunate if South Africa had won a majority of the’■ Tests, for before the final match the “die-hard element in Great*' Britain was being heartened by' South Africa s successes in the old-style Rugby—Christchurch “Sun.” -

The most interesting portion of Die annual report of the Prisons Department is that which reflects the presentday policy of employing prisoners on utilitarian works. .It is shown that considerable progress has been made in the industrial activites of the Department with results that must be considered distinctly satisfactory. . . The policy of-the Department-in employing the inmates of the prison institutions in activities which help to supply its own requirements and keep down the cost of prison admnistraton is not of economic benefit to that extent only. It operates to the advantage of those thus engaged in healthful and useful activities. The day has passed for the utilisation of prison labour in a useless and unprofitable mannerv—“Otago Daily Tinies.”

Wc know that the perfect . demo-* cracy of which. ,in our idle moments, we dream has not. been attained, and is probably not attainable anywhere on earth; but our machine works in this all-important respect—that it is never, for any length of time, anybody but the people themselves who rule. The nearest we occasionally .come to losing this result is when.we allow permanent officials to usurp the functions of Parliament: or to use Mr. Stewart’s own phrase, when the amateurs* surrender to the professionals. . When that happens. democracy, even in British 'communities, is a delusion and a snare, and deserves all the hard things that "advanced” as well as .reactionary thinkers say about-it. ■ But it need not happen in, British communities, since our Parliamentary system, in spite of the complexity of the problems with with all legislatures nowadays have to deal, remains perfectly simple, and permits public opinion to express itself whenever the amateurs keep the professionals in their places.—Christchurch "Press.”

Apart from the value of publicity as. a deterrent influence the judicial authorities in New Zealand recognise as the Minister virtually allowed in the discussion on Mr. Fraser’s Bill, that the Press of the Dominion, may be depended on as a whole to exercise a wise discretion and a just discrimination in what it publishes. In all countries there may be. a -ortain abuse of the powers of the Press in respect of the reporting of court proceedings. So far as anything of the kind may obtain iu New Zealand it is certainly deplored by the proprietors of all reputable journals, and the existence of an abuse that is an exception to the Vule does not necessarily constitute justification for the institution of a system under which there would be a suppression of publicity through the medium of newspaper reports that could not be expected to prove to the advantage of the community as a whole.—“Otago Daily Times.” ,■ ■ «

The Country Party is entitled to accept whatever assistance it can get in what hitherto, has proved an uphill fight for political recognition. The mvsterv is whether the Farmers’ Union has decided to abandon its attitude of neutrality in polities, to sponsor the Country Party, and to work amicably in certain electorates with the Labour Party; if so, when that decision was made, and by what majority. The only people who can properly demand an explanation are members of t lie Farmers' T'nion who may not be fully in possession of the facts. It is to be hoped the explanation will speedily be sought and given. Otic* mystery at a time is <|tiite sufficient in an election campaign: the sooner the two now existing are cleared ip the better—“ New Zealand Herald.”