DOMINION TOPICS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

DOMINION TOPICS

Road Accidents. The road accident tally of the holiday period so far has been deplorably bud, yet it seems to have been taken for granted by the public. It is to be hoped that the motorists and motorcyclists will realise that the responsibility is on them and on no one else. Road accidents are due iu the main to sheer carelessness, to excessive speed, to luck of consideration for others, io the taking of unwarranted risks. If every rider and driver could get it firmly fixed in his mind that he can afford to take no chances with the management of a high-powered machine the accident rate would drop immediately. The motorist knows that there is the possibility of * accident every few chains iu a city; he does not always realise that there are dangers lurking on every mile of the open road. The experienced driver knows the dangers, but during the next few days the roads will be used by thousands of people whose skill and knowledge are less than their enthusiasm, and who are certain to involve themselves and others in difficulty, if not in accident. If there is one warning more than another that should be insisted on it is that speed is the cause of the worst accidents.—Christchurch “StarSun."

Our Meat Exports. ! It is a cruel rebuff for the efficient and enterprising New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board to be told that the success of the Dominion’s meat publicity in Britain is largely responsible for the British licensing scheme for the regulation of mutton and lamb imports from the Dominions. Housewives, it seems, have been asking for frozen mutton and lamb instead of fresh United Kingdom products, causing the home grower to complain and to bring almost irresistible pressure on the British Government. New Zealand producers have been reaping the benefits of the increased demand and the good prices for their mutton and lamb, and this further proof that the British market is not a bottomless pit in which huge quantities can be thrown will cause considerable disappointment. Yet the right of economic protection for British farmers in their markets is the last thing the New Zealand Government could disagree with. —"Taranaki Herald.” Uncertainty About the Future.

Markets have certainly been stimulated by more liberal expenditure of public money, but the general policy lias made manufacturers very hesitant in venturing to meet the demand. It is the unknown quantity in the Government's policy that matters. If manufacturers, were sure—indeed, if the Government itself were sure—whither the policy is heading, they would act accordingly. Knowing that State ownership of their factories is not beyond the bounds of possibility, they have preferred caution to enterprise. What is most needed is the confidence that would be inspired by greater frankness and by security of individual rights. Protection from overseas competition may have some effect, but besides “protection” there must be an assurance of security. The Government would be wise to study that aspect of the problem as it develops its policy.—“Waikato Times.”

The Defence of the Dominion. ■ It might have been expected that the crisis of last September would have brought home to New Zealanders —as it did to the people of other countries—the need for adequate defence measures, but if tlie results of the drive for recruits are any criterion the young men of this country either fail to realise the seriousness of the situation or else are too much concerned with their own comfort and convenience to accept their .clear responsibility. The first alternative surely is the correct explanation, and this being the case there is an urgent need for the better education of the people of the country to the implications of recent international events. In 1914, the Dominion bad approximately 50,000 trained men and youths; todav the number probably does not exceed 10,000 and ,unless the deficiency is remedied the consequences, in tlie event of war, cannot be foretold. The new year must open with a still more determined recruiting campaign, and unless this succeeds, the Dominion must be prepared to adopt a system of universal service.—“ Poverty Bav Herald.” Interest Rates.

In view of the widespread discussion in New Zealand on the likelihood of the ruling rate of interest being raised to assist the Government float an internal loan, the position in Australia is interesting. The opinion that it seemed likely that low interest rates in Australia would continue, was expressed in Melbourne by Sir Harold Luxton. chairman of the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia, Ltd., when addressing the annual meeting. Sir Harold Luxton suggests that, having regard to the other consequences of low interest rates, it is considered that policyholders can view with equanimity the comparatively small price they may pay, in somewhat reduced bonuses, for the great advantages they will derive as members of the general community from the other effects of cheap loan money. In New Zealand the ruling rate of interest is regarded as not sufficiently attractive to provide adequate funds for local Government development work, and the movements of the money market within the next few months will be watched with general interest.—“Tirnaru Herald."

The Reserve Bank Witness. No one who takes the trouble to subject the latest weekly return of the Reserve Bank to the most cursory examination will ask for any additional evidence to explain the Government’s dramatic implementation of control of sterling exchange in London. A contraction of £661.000 in a single week in the sterling exchange holding is shown in the bank’s return for the week ended January 2. This brings sterling exchange to the new low level of £4,017,233 in New Zealand currency, compared with £21,398.000 when the Government took office in 1935. The return also shows a further shrinkage—to 26.13 per cent.—in the proportion of reserve to notes and other demand liabilities which has steadily fallen since May, when it reached 82 per cent. Tlie note issue is now £16.000,000, and the Government indebtedness by way of advances, another £16,000.000 in addition to Treasury bills. These figures speak for themselves. —“Timaru Herald.”

Imports Licensing and the Exhibition,

We can appreciate the fact that the manufacturers of Canada and the United States will not be enthusiastic concerning representation at the Exhibition if their quota of import trade is to be reduced instead of increased, and the cumulative effect of this feeling may be to leave almost the entire space at the disposal of the Exhibition authorities to house Dominion manufacturers and Government displays of our various resources. What the reply to this may be we have' no means of discovering. A homily by Mr. Savage can achieve nothing because be wotud be dealing with men of the world who had achieved success by those practical methods he is gradually dooming to the scrap-heap. It is a serious matter, and wg hope that some way out of the difficulty will be found. The position requires very delicate handling, and we trust that Mr. Savage will not deal with it as if his big majority was capable of overaweing the world as well ns of subjecting New Zealanders to Labour control and Labour experimentation. —Southland “Daily News.”

Unemployment in New Zealand. One passage iu the Hou. P. C Webb’s address to yesterday’s conference sounded very like a cry for help. “People say that there are too many men on public works,” he said. “Where else are we to put them? I want to know. We have got to get something better, and I don’t, yet know what it is.” He may well ask. His party started out three years ago ou the assumption that unemployment was due in the main to lack of spending power, and that if the people were given money to spend the employment position would automatically right itself. The whole problem is full of complexities, and some of the factors that have prevented the absorption of the labour surplus into normal occupations are rather remote. Actually Mr. Webb's difficulties arise in part from the fact that from the beginning of its term of office the Labour Government advocated two conflicting policies, the development of overseas trade and the development of local industries. It'is now attempting a reconciliation of sorts, under compulsion. It is not easy to say why the unemployed have not returned to productive employment in greater numbers, but it is certain that industrial expansion has been retarded, partly through the ■uncertainty of international conditions and also by legislative policy and administration iu New Zealand. —Christchurch "Star-Sun."

Penal Reform in Britain. “For the first time lire State in Great Britain undertakes to provide facilities whereby the cause of ihe crime may be diagnosed before the court prescribes any medicine. Il Is a first step toward a penal system which may be not only humane, bur. in some degree, scientific. As to the treatment jj’hich is to follow diagnosis, there may be probation, possibly with mental or psychological treatment; there may be compulsory residence in hostels from which the young people go out daily to ordinary jobs; there may be Borstal training, or, for the young man with previous convictions, corrective training, or for the persistent offendei, preventive detention. There are danger points here. It is surely indefensible to grant, to lay justices! without training or qualifications, a!nd without an age limit, the power to deprive a young man of 18 or 20 of his liberty for three years without right of appeal to' the Court of Criminal Appeal. And we must take care .that a penny wise policy does not make ‘Corrective Training’ and ‘Preventive Detention’ into imprisonment under a new name and for longer periods.”—Miss Cicely Crave, the Hon. Secretary of the Howard League, in a letter to the “Sunday Times ” Tasman Airmail. There has beipi so many false starts, so much procrastination and so many conflicting statements on the proposed Tasman air service that nobody is likely to be surprised by the latest announcement from the Australian Minister of Civil Aviation. ... On June 21 tire Prime Minister confirmed a report from Canberra that tlie service would probably begin just before Christmas br early in the New Year. "I would say it will not be later than that,” said Mr. Savage. In November Mr. N. S. Falla, chairman and managing director of the Union Steam Ship Company, said that no precise date could be given because the machines to be used in the service were not likely to be delivered in England before February, "and it will necessarily be some time after that before the service can begin.” Now the starting time has been advanced at least eight months into the future. Meanwhile the people of Australia enjoy the benefits of their “all up” air mail service to-and from England, while in this country it is still necessary to depend on steamers for the Tasman lap of the journey. As an example of Empire collaboration the preparatory stage of the Tasman air service has been anything but a conspicuous success. —“Southland Daily Times.”

The Decline in Production. Speaking broadly, the difficulty over casual labour for such services as shearing and harvesting can be overcome. Farmers recognize the casual nature of such employment and are prepared to pay a high rate of wages to obtain the assistance they require. It is the difficulty of obtaining reliable labour for a season’s production that is the handicap the dairyfarmer is .finding most serious. How grave the problem has become may be judged by the fact that, in spite of the highest price for butterfat for ten years being guaranteed by the Government, dairy production is falling rather than rising in volume. Last season and this have seen values increase and production decrease, an economic phenomenon formerly unknown to the dairy industry. The explanation lies in the shortage of efficient farm assistants, and that so many farmers have been compelled on that account to limit their milking herds to a size that can be handled if necessary without reliance upon hired labour. Whatever may be the cause of the shortage, that has been the result, and as high production is essential to the Dominion’s solvency it is impossible to note the decline of her largest primary industry without apprehension. It is satisfactory to learn that this is becoming recognized by organized labour. —“Taranaki Daily News.”