NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 223, 16 June 1932, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

A high claim is made to-day by Mr. M. A. Eliott, president of the Manawatu and West Coast A. and P. Society, as to the value of these associations. “No other farmers’ organisation, he declares, “is doing so much for the primary producers.” Reflection proves that it is not easy to gainsay Mr. Eliott. Such shows as the society s, whose winter fixture opened yesterday, represent a real educative influence in agricultural and pastoral industry. Competition in a show class is a more effective teacher than books, lectures or. demonstration plots. New Zealand in raising her standards of production owes much to the A. and P. associations with their fine spirit of voluntary effort. Their continued success is a condition of the Dominion s progress and provides a weighty reason, apart from the intrinsic merit of their exhibitions, for both townsman and countryman giving them consistent and generous support.

Lower Hutt has been consistent in its practical concern for the unemployed. Some other districts, chiefly on the score of straitened finances, have recently tended to slacken their efforts. But the mayor and council of Lower Hutt have preferred to continue to do their part to the utmost of the borough’s means. Now Mr. Strand has taken up the idea of reviving N’o. 2 scheme with modifications, whereby the unemployed married men may have an opportunity of supplementing payments under No. 5 scheme. The essence of the scheme is that citizens who help by engaging subsidised labour under it. get work done cheaply. As the churches and other social organisations have proved in raising money, most people like in giving to get such a quid pro quo. Scheme No. 2, suspended 15 months ago, allows for that and its revival is worth consideration.

Proposals for a common Imperial currency continue to be energetically pressed. Yesterday a Canadian senator’s advocacy was reported. To-day a few lines come from Ottawa expressing the hopes of Mr. Darling, a Midland Bank director, who has for years been in the forefront of the movement. Yet, attractive as is the theory, it must be concluded that on the facts it is not at present practicable. Professor Copland demonstrated that conclusively in his recent articles on Empire currency problems. It may be hoped that the propagandists for a common currency do not capture time and attention at Ottawa that might be devoted to framing an effective and workable monetary scheme. There is sound support for the proposal that sterling should be taken as a standard about which the Dominions, India and the colonies could group their systems. It would be idle to minimise the difficulties but the many advantages should assist in overcoming these. A sterling bloc for the Empire might well prove of more value than even the most favourable tariff agreements.

About a year ago, The Economist reminds us, the Macmillan Committee on Banking declared that stabilisation of prices at the low level then existing would be “a serious disaster” for all countries of the world. Since then gold prices of primary products have fallen by about 20 per cent, while British wholesale prices, notwithstanding the depreciation of the pound, now stand at approximately the same level as when the Macmillan Committee reported. “With every week that passes,” The Economist says, “it is becoming more and more patent that the alternative to a recovery in prices to something like the level at which they stood three years ago will be defaults in respect of fixed interest indebtedness, governmental and private, on a scale with which the capitalist system has never yet had to cope.” Chile’s default on overseas interest obligations is the latest confirmation of this prediction. She has been preceded by several States in Europe and South America. _ The burden of paying fixed sums in low-priced goods, whether nitrates, wheat, wool, meat, coffee, sugar and so on, has proved insupportable. It is true that Chile has gone much further than default but, once admit cause for despair, and it is hard to set limits to reactions. Those who have nothing more to hope often conclude, rightly or wrongly, thqjr have nothing more to fear P