A LEAD IN ECONOMY WANTED

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 208, 29 May 1940, Page 8

A LEAD IN ECONOMY WANTED

No doubt the public will take to heart the injunction, voiced by the Minister of Supply, as to the necessity for conserving supplies of paper, cardboard and other wrapping material. As Mr. Sullivan pointed out, Scandinavian supplies of these products are now extremely limited, with the result that a large part of the world demand for paper and paper products will focus on tjje North American continent. The amount of available dollar exchange being small so far as this country is concerned, it has become necessary to'practise rigid economy.

In the everyday use of paper as wrapping there can be substantial curtailment without particular hardship. In recent years it has become fashionable to market goods in a number of wrappings, some of which are purely ornamental. These will not be missed; indeed, many people are likely to welcome the new simplicity. There is also the existing practice (mentioned by the Minister) of rewrapping an article which is already wrapped. Tinned goods, packet goods goods in all manner of containers require no other wrapping. lhe addition of a brown paper covering is largely a concession to gentility which might well be withdrawn in wartime. The only practical function of a blanketing paper cover is to make one parcel of many articles. The occasion, then, calls for a revival of the shopping-bag habit, after all the most convenient “wrapping” of all.

Paper economy, however, is only one of many savings, large and small, which could and should be effected. But the right lead and the right example must be given. It is unfortunate that up to now the practical encouragement of thrift in all things has been conspicuously lacking. We have experienced six years of notoriously extravagant administration. Bad precedents have been set, and these are apt to stick. Because of the need to counter the bad example of the past, as well as to meet present circumstances, a painstaking effort should have been made from the beginning of the war to inculcate waitime economy in everything worth saving, be it money, goods, materials ot services. It is a reflection upon judgment and foresight that the first positive appeal for economy, as distinct from generalizations concerning the conservation of stocks and elimination of waste in industiy, should not be heard until nine months after hostilities opened. Had the approach to economy been early and far-sighted, it is possible that motor vehicle number-plates, representing a substantial quantity of imported metal, would not be in process of distribution this week. Instead, a wartime system of re-licensing, involving the continued, use of 1939-40 plates (which would outlast many of the cars they are on) might be in operation.

The matter of paramount importance is that economy of State spending, State labour and State services and projects involving the prodigal use of materials should be retarded in every possible direction. Thrift in the multitude of smaller things should be but a necessary accompaniment to the bigger national savings. It is to be hoped that the steps taken to achieve true economy on a national, scale will .be one of the early po : nts of investigation by Parliament in the coming session. There must be no lingering suspicion in the coming era of service-by-all that the utmost is not being done to husband our supplies and resources of every description.