ECHOES of the WEEK

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 257, 26 July 1930, Page 21

ECHOES of the WEEK

PRESS OPINIONS ON :: NEW ZEALAND TOPICS

The South’s Link with Australia. It is unfortunate that the question of providing that much-needed amenity, a shipping service between Australia and South Island ports, should have aroused so much righteous agitation—■ on the wrong side —in Auckland. The Auckland press seems to have made of this matter a political issue, one manifestation of which was given recently in the expressed opinion that unless the Government cancels immediately its contract for a South Island service its professions of economy will be proclaimed as insincere and incapable of withstanding any test.” This is an attitude that smacks too palpably of provincialism. Until the Government and the shipping company concerned have shown the practical nature of their intentions towards the South Island through the inauguration for a stipulated period of such a service, they canot expect to be credited with entertaining that consideration for the interests of the people in the southern portion of the Dominion which they have professed. In steamer services, as in other matters, it is easier, of course, to destroy than to build up.—“Otago Daily Times.” Native Art.

In a young country art and the love of art develop slowly, and the very best incentive to individual effort and to public appreciation is the study of works of acknowledged artistic value. The material problems of the day so persistently demand attention that the refining influence of the arts is not given the consideration that its importance warrants. We look forward to the time when there will be temporary exchanges of pictures between the leading art galleries in the Dominion, and it may be at some future date we may be able to arrange for a loan collection from the larger. Australian galleries and possibly from the Mother Country. —Christchurch “Times.” An Error of Judgment.

The president of the New Zealand Rugby Union, Dr. G. J. Adams, has thought it necessary to make publicly some very strong remarks about the football match Britain v. Combined South at Timaru. We do not ventur to pronounce authoritatively about the facts and incidents to which reference has been made, though we may remind our readers that there are always two sides to a question. But quite apart from this, we think that Dr. Adams has committed a grave error in judgment by permitting himself, in his official capacity, to make such charges against the players and the referee in this way, and publicly to cast such aspersions upon New Zealand football. These comments, with the authority of the President of the New Zealand Rugby Union behind him, will be circulated throughout the world, and they will produce an entirely unjust impression of this country and its people which may take many years to obliterate. — “Auckland Star.” Educational Progress.

There is nothing new in the Education Committee’s report, for each of the changes suggested has been advocated at some time or another by educational organisations in the Dominion, but that fact does not in any way detract from its great value, and its adoption will undoubtedly be one of the milestones on the path of educational progress in New Zealand. Mr. Atmore and the committee are to be congratulated on the thoroughness with which they have done their work and the wisdom shown in arriving at what are destined to become far-reaching findinds.—“Christchurch Times.” Value for Money.

The fellow-citizens of the unemployed are glad to be able to furnish them with an opportunity of obtaining work, but even the most modest of relief work is a burden on the community, and while it is one that is borne'without the slightest hesitancy, the obvious duty of the unemployed is to earn their money. /There are very few of them who would fail in that duty; but there are probably some who will have to be watched. Any slacking on the job should be followed by immediate dismissal so that men more worthy of help can be given work. —Christchurch “Sun.” The Great Rugby Battle.

Making all allowance for the truth of the saying that a team will play only as well as its opponents will allow it to, there was something in our kinsmen’s play in Auckland on Saturday that suggested staleness. Clearly this was not the teapi that defeated New Zealand in the first test, nearly won the second with fourteen men, and delighted Southern crowds with its enterprise and speed. Everyone will hope—even those in Saturday’s crowd who applauded Auckland most frequently and loudly—that oui’ guests will profit b.v a week’s rest. The public should not overlook the effect of continuous travel, and also the fact that the team has suffered very serious losses through injuries. And that Auckland beat Britain is no guarantee that New Zealand will win next Saturday.—Auckland “Star.” A Civic Responsibility.

In deciding that Sunday concerts should not. be permitted in future except for charitable purposes, the Christchurch City Council was probably intent on preventing abuses and overlooked what is now regarded as almost a duty on the part of the municipality to provide or encourage some form of Sunday entertainment. Christchurch has tried organ recitals, but they have failed because they do not provide the sort of music that the public care for in large doses. Nevertheless, an .effort should be made to provide some form of after-church musical entertainment, and as we have an Entertainments Committee on the City Council, it might very well direct its attention to this interesting problem. — Christchurch “Star.”

The New Police Commissioner. The appointment of Mr. W. G. Wohlmann, Superintendent of Police at Auckland, to be Commissioner of Police, is for good reasons popular with the force and with the public, which means that it is entirely satisfactory. There was no need for the Government to go. outside the force for a Commissioner, and in Mr. Wohlmann it has made an excellent choice. He stands first in seniority, he has had a long and varied experience of police work, and he has the sort of disposition without which even unusual gifts of administration may come to grief. If the public has felt a little uneasy of late about the force, we believe that it will be reassured by this appointment.— “Auckland Star.” A Lost Opportunity.

The tariff has not been used as it might have been to build up New Zealand’s own manufacturing industries. Assuming that the Government needs to raise this additional revenue through the Customs, it had a wonderful opportunity to kill two birds with the one stone by taxing heaviest those imports that compete with the output of our own factories. This opportunity has not been exploited as it could have been, and should have been. Australian trade is not affected in any way by the new duties, and it is satisfactory to. see the beginnings of a tariff understanding between the tw’o countries. — Christchurch “Sun.” The Late Sir Robert Stout.

There may be some difference of opinion whether Sir Robert Stout should be described as a great judge. The legal profession regarded him as a competent, but perhaps hardly as a profound, lawyer, and it may be that he lacked something of the dispassionate balance of temperament which characterises the very highest judicial qualities. His conscientiousness and devotion to duty were faultless—unless it might be thought that he carried the virtue of industry to a fault, —and in point of dignity, urbanity, and humaneness he was an admirable Chief Justice. Itmay be allowed, perhaps, that in trying criminal cases he was too much inclined to give rein to his homiletic disposition, and that the difference between the roles of bench and pulpit was sometimes insufficiently observed. No doubt it was a pardonable foible, related to worthy ideals of social service, and it certainly does not detract from the prestige of a distinguished judicial career.—“Otago Daily Times.” Taxing the Motorist.

Whether motorists will be more thankful that the increase is less than some of them have feared, or hostile to it because it is still a sharp increase, need not be anticipated; but whatever grounds for complaint remain, one is not present. The Government has not taxed the motorist for general purposes. The revenue is to be expended on the road. Though the revenue will certainly rise, it may be very far from rising in proportion to the increase. If it does not, then revenue from other related sources may be sluggish or may recede; and in that case the Government may prove again that it does not pay to force a profitable source of income too severely. One indirect consequence of the increased petrol tax is increased preference to British cars, as light consumers of petrol.—Christchurch “Press.”

“Radically Unsound.” The additional threepence a gallon on motor spirits is radically unsound. It should be remembered that the original tax was imposed with the consent of motorists for the improvement of roads, and the justification for such a special burden was the expectation tha£ motorists would make a saving by reason of the lessened wear and.’ tear on tires and vehicles. The in-', crease is a heavy class tax, equal to; about a shilling a week on the most modest of private motorists, andl mounting to a huge sum . in the case; of carrying companies, the transport; companies, and all businesses that use motor transport. Benzine is not a luxury in these days.—“Christchurch' Times.” The “Dole.”

Figures alone show plainly that as a cure for unemployment the dole can be counted as nil; indeed, they indicate that it is a stimulus to unemployment both as regards Capital and Labour. One hardly doubts that the Labour Government in Britain would abolish it if a way of doing so were held out as possible and practicable; but it has become so intimately interwoven now in the social and industrial scheme of things that emancipation would require a supreme effort and involve a kind of political self-sacrifice now almost extinct. The prospect is a steadily-growing incubus and a rapidly diminishing purse out of which to pay tribute to it. With Britain’s experience before us it is no wonder that there is strong repugnance toward the institution of the dole in New Zealand.—Dunedin “Star.” The Control of the Police.

Police methods In New Zealand are not above criticism, as any lawyer knows, and as many others know, too; and the necessity for setting them beyond reproach suggests that the Commissioner should be a man of wider outlook than one steeped in police routine can possibly acquire. He should be more broadly judicious than it is easy for policemen to be; he should be a competent administrator; and he should act as an effective intermediary between public and police. A civilian Commissioner is more likely to fulfil these conditions than an officer trained to look at the public and at the police from inside police uniform. But if the present system is to be retained, then it is even more necessary than it would otherwise be that the conditions of the service should be drastically changed and a second division created, urns should be composed of men of nign education, whose training should be along special lines. These should be the commissioned officers of the force, from among whom the Commissioner would be appointed. — Christchurch “Press.”