NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 290, 3 September 1931, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

Mountaineering mishaps attended by fatalities have not been alarmingly numerous in New Zealand. The possibility of an increase in their number, however, must be taken into account, as alpine outings are becoming more and more popular every year. To the small group of experienced alpinists who in past years have had the snowclad heights to themselves have now been added great numbers of young people who include mountaineering in their programme of “hiking.” Mountains and mountain weather are treacherous things, and to the inexperienced may prove extremely risky. It is clear, therefore, that the time has come for more careful supervision. The events of the past few days on Mount Ruapehu have given timely emphasis to the considered opinion of the New Zealand Alpine Club and the Federation of Mountain Clubs that regulations providing for effective supervision and control should be devised. This view has been pressed for some years, and the Government has now undertaken to do something. That is at least satisfactory, but it would have been better had the warnings of the alpinists represented at yesterday’s deputation to the Prime Minister been heeded sooner.

With' an unemployment problem of unprecedented magnitude in their minds, the public will have little sympathy for the plea put forward in the House on behalf of distressed miners on the West Coast. It is likely to be far more impressed by the other side of the case as put forward in reply by the Minister of Labour. Mr. Holland claimed that the greater part of the time lost had been due to lack of orders, and that but a small fraction of the stoppages had been caused by the miners themselves. Mr. Smith’s retort was precise and effective. From September 1, 1928, to July 31 of this year, he said, there had been 73 disputes resulting in stoppages and three cases of “go slow.” Roundly speaking the loss of work resulting from these stoppages—which incidentally had compelled the Government to look elsewhere for supplies—represented two years’ work for 272 men. Furthermore, the secretary of the union had declared that the miners were not going to change their tactics, no matter what the condition of the industry. In the face of this the public will form its own conclusions.

Any scheme which will successfully absorb a number of boys in farming occupations is to be welcomed at any time. At the present it is doubly so. The breakdown of the previous scheme for the training of boys .at Penrose Farm, near Masterton, was referred to this week as a matter for regret. The Unemployment, Board now proposes to establish a system of cadet training under which boys may be placed on farms and provided with an allowance from the Unemployment Fund as a kind of bursary, which will represent payment for services rendered to the farmers. On paper the scheme looks promising and workable. Whether it can be carried out on a worthy scale remains to be seen. -That will depend partly upon the boys themselves and their parents and partly on the farmers’ reception of the scheme. The advantage to the country of acclimatising New Zealand boys to rural life cannot be over-emphasised. To the boys themselves it is an opportunity not to be despised. It means a home, and freer and healthier occupation than, can be found in the cities, with a more definite object in life than aimless employment in the “blind alleys” of an urban existence. If parents could only see beyond the clouds at present lowering over the land—take the long view, in fact—they might conclude that as the depression first enveloped the primary industries, it may also lift first from them. That conclusion would seem to be justified and if it were widely accepted and agriculture were once again held to offer a “future” or career, there .would be no lack of cadets for the land.

ii i l i/iiil i’l li iii'i.’f'