NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 291, 4 September 1931, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

No doubt the House was influenced by the best of intentions in passing Mr. Fraser’s Distress and Replevin Amendment Bill but this further restriction on the rights of landlords will probably in the long run react against the tenants. House property as an investment will be made less attractive and either owners will require a higher return on their money to compensate for greater risks in collecting rents or else they will seek investments in other directions, so leading to a scarcity of houses for letting. In either case the effect will be to raise rents. Parliament also makes a mistake if it supposes that all owners of house property are well off. Very often it is the man or woman of small means who has put savings into- a small property. The landlord’s need is often as great as or greater than the tenant’s and there are said to be cases in Wellington where unemployed men and widows have been unable to collect their rents, were held responsible for rates, and yet found it difficult to qualify for relief because they were property owners. Deliberate exploitation by landlords is rare but it is said to be increasing among a certain class of tenants who may be further fortified by this latest legislation.

French policy for centuries has aimed at the hegemony of Europe and more than once has almost succeeded. On the decay of the Spanish power in the seventeenth century France under Louis XIV took the headship but finally was checked by the combined armies led by Marlborough. Again under Napoleon French ambition wenl far toward its goal but was at last humbled at Waterloo. Since the Great War, France has pursued her traditional aims and now she is able to reinforce the strongest armies in Europe with financial power. In the past it Was British subsidies that in the end defeated her but to-day France can back force with money. What use she will make of her dominating position remains to be seen but at the moment it is reported that she is attempting, by withholding urgentlyneeded credits, to extort a renunciation from Austria of the latter’s plan for a Customs union with Germany. This looks very like hegemony since none seems to be able to deny the French will bv offering an alternative. Even Britain is held in fee by French credits for the support of sterling. Nevertheless history shows that time and again France and other great nations have ascended the European throne only to be deposed-by some fresh combination.

While it is earnestly to be hoped that the strike at Hikurangi which has rendered idle some hundreds of coal miners will be settled in the conference now proposed, this belated effort at negotiation seems like closing the stable door after the horse has galloped oft. Even the safety men were withdrawn from Wilson’s colliery, the pumps had finally to be removed, and the mine is rapidly flooding. At a time when unemployment is rife, it seems incredible that men should stand by and allow their means of livelihood to be ruined. Even more inexplicable is that the miners’ sh-called leaders, who should have a greater sense of responsibility, should allow this to happen. If they had felt it incumbent on them to order the men to cease work, they should have at least secured the safety of the mine. For what is the use of disputing about working' conditions in a mine that is allowed in the meanwhile to become unworkable. Yet this sort of unreason is typical of the official Labour movement, not only in New Zealand, but also in Britain and Australia.

An estimated saving of between £5OOO and £6OOO, it is stated, will be made by issuing the Telephone Directory annually instead of half-yearly as at present, alterations in the interim to be circulated by supplementary lists every six months. In times like the present this systematic search for economies in the cost of State services is to be commended. On general grounds there is nothing in the circumstances to be said against either this particular economy in the telephone service, or the other, announced some days ago, whereby the time calls are to be cut out. At the same time it should be remembered that the telephone is an almost universal and very popular utility, livery extension of its convenience more strongly establishes it in public favour, and hence should be good business for the telephone department. In these days, however, many people have probabh come to the point of making up their minds whether the telephone is a necessity or a luxury, and the deprivation of any of the conveniences by which the department has popularised it may tip the scale against it. Jhere is always a danger that economy may overall itggife.