NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 158, 1 April 1937, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

The separation of the Royal New Zealand Air force from the Defence Department, announced this morning, and tlie establishment of an Air Board, which Parliament is to be asked to authorise next session, assure for aviation, both military and civil, a new status in New Zealand. The Government deserves congratulation for the vision it has displayed in aerial matters, first in looking to Great Britain for expert advice, and now in acting upon the advice tendered. One step further would give us an Air Ministry, and that should not be long delayed.

It was the turn yesterday of boilermakers at the Otahuhu railway workshops to keep the machinery of production running smoothly, as the Prime Minister wishes. They did so by stopping work and insisting upon the withdrawal of certain instructions given by the workshops management. And they got their way. It is only fair to assume, in the absence of fuller information, that the men had a legitimate grievance—otherwise thc management would scarcely have given way so soon. But surely in its own factories the Government can insist upon some more sensible procedure for thc adjustment of differences than that of ultimatum and strike..

The campaign for more members by the New Zealand Farmers' Union offers an opportunity to primary producers at present outside the union to link up with an organisation through which a national view can be expressed on all questions concerning their welfare. Almost every other industry has a strong organisation by which it can speak with one voice on behalf of the people it represents. Backed up by a powerful body of rural opinion the Fanners’. Union can do the same for farmers. With its present membership of 20,000 the influence of the union is already great, but its authority as the mouthpiece of farming can be still further extended if supported by more members. r l he union is the logical organisation through which representations on most farming topics should be made to the Government. The Prime Minister has himself stated that the Government will not deal with individuals; and the systematic oiganisation of farmers into one national body for their common protection is probably more necessary to-day thanjiyer before.