NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 105, 28 January 1929, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

Motorists who patronised the Wellington Racing Club’s meeting last week complain of the snail-like pace at which the long procession of cars was forced into on; the return journey to the City. At times the speed along the whole line was as low as ten miles an hour, and it was only as the cars neared the City that anything like the fixed rates of speed were possible. The result of this state of affairs was that there was a greater number of cars than usual breaking from the line and rushing along past the great body of slower-moving vehicles. The slow and ultra-cautious driver is as great a nuisance on such occasions as the speedster.

In spite of all that has been said about Women Police during the last year or two it is very difficult to make out a good case for women in the capacity of police officers. That does not mean that there should not be women, attached to the staff, for at times their services are absolutely necessary. The Army, and even the Navy, during the war Th 6 . US r e ,° f the services of hundreds of women, but nobody ever talked of them as if they had joined the Army. It is the same with the police force of any country. Fundamentally the police have been created to see that law and order as laid down bv Statute, is not broken 1 hey are there to protect the public from actions that constitute nHrn C A h I S of , tho^e law s- Strongly-built men are selected for the purpose, and nobody can deny the soundness of this judgment. At caoacitv m° U d m< ? St cer , ta ’" ly be adv antageous to have women in a attached to T of / ba P erons ; all means let us have them attached to the. police staff, but do not put their work in a false perspective by calling them Women Police. *** . ♦ Lady Houston’s attack on Trades Unionism, as cabled, is too sweeping. She was on sounder ground in her New Year message to the miners, when she expressed the opinion that the men had been the victims of the mischievous activities of irresponsible leaders. “Think for yourselves,” she urged. “Let your New Year resolution be to send all traitors to the place where bad people go.” By traitors she apparently, meant those who betrayed the interests of the workers by promoting industrial strife. The principle of Trades Unionism is sound and commendable. Its weakness lies largely in the fact that too often the great body of workers follow blindly the lead of agitators who live by fostering discontent, and who do the preaching of class warfare. “Think for yourselves” is quite a good New Year motto for more than the rank and file of Trades Uniomsts. The thinking, however, so far as industrial matters are must take cognisance of the need for a new relationship between Capital and Labour—a need that is finding wider recognition by both employers and employees A cablegram this morning reports Lord Melchett, who has been active in seeking to bring about a better understanding between Capital and Labour, as remarking that the relations between those engaged in industry in England to-day were better than in any country he knew This had been the result, in part of the Mond-Turner Conference between Labour and Capital. Many Labour leaders have come to recognise that the future betterment of Labour depends, not on hostility to the employer, but on mutual co-operation between Capital and Labour and a recognition of common interests.