TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Labour was out to solve tho problem of unemployment, declared Mr. P. Fraser last night, and not to make propaganda out of it. This is tho coi'rect attitude to adopt, and also the one most likely to secure results beneficial to. the workless. Propaganda antagonises and hinders effective effort. The mv mediate problem io not: who was, responsible for the difficulty? but: how can the troublo bo met? If all parties will join in solving this latter problem there need be no prolonged distress. It would. seem, however, that some of Mr. leaser's'fellow-spoakers at the Sunday night meeting have their own views as |o the desirability of propaganda. Two of tho speeches were definitely political in tone. One was merely an attack upon the Government of the Day, v.ith unemployment as the text. Helpful suggestions were conspicuous by their absence. If there were no answer to this attack the propaganda might be expected to help Labour in the, General Election; but there wil] be an answer, and in the heat of the argument helpful measures for the workless will bo hindered. The sincerity of the friends of the unemployed can be attested better by concentrating attention on remedial measures, and resisting the temptation to turn tho distress to political advantage. » # « ' That women should have a place in tho New Zealand Parliament to give, it balance is the desire expressed .by Miss Maude Boyden, after meeting many of the leading women and men of tho Dominion. She does not express surprise that, in this otherwise progressive, country, there should be no women Parliamentarians. Probably she recognises that to be due in part to circumstances over which no Government has control. Certainly the right to sit in tho Legislature' was long delayed. Though early in tho field with woman suffrage, New Zealand lagged in according to women the second half of the right in government. Since that righi^ has been given several women have sought to take advantage of it. Their, failure, hitherto, must be attributed mainly to the chances of the poll. Some women candidates have been endorsed by political parties; some have come in conflict with those parties. Their experiences .in this respect have ■ boon the same as those.iOf male candidates. They have not pleaded for support because of their sex, and they have ac- ' cepted defeat without any suggestion that tho balaneo was weighed against them for sex reasons. This year there will be other women candidates in the field, and possibly they will bo successful. If they are, they1 will be in a stronger position than if earlier success had been won by a feminist appeal. They will have won their seats on merit with no suggestion of favoured treatment. • * * Arguing that local loan proposals woro sometimes defeated by inertia, Mr. Bloodworth proposed, to tho Auckland Transport Commission, that a now rule should bo made. Ho suggested that, unless 25 per cent, of the persons on tho roll voted against a proposal, it

should bo doomed to be carried. The percentage suggested is a high one, since 50 per cent, total votes on loan proposals aro by ,no means common. Apart from this the change is open to serious objection. Apathy is to bo deplored; but it may operate • both ways. It may mean absence, of opposition to ill-prepared schemes, as well as lack of support for those which aro desirable. It cannot bo assumed that inertia is always a sign of approval, and that opponents aro invariably so much' more enthusiastic than supporters. That being so, it would bo as reasonable to suggost that no poll should bo deemed carried unless a certain percentage of ratepayers recorded favourable votes. This may not bo necessary; but it is not dcsirablo to go far in tho other direction. To curb tho borrowing of local authorities the Government has deemed it advisable to constitute a Local Bodies Loans Board. It would be unwise to give a new impetus to borrowing by lessening the control exercised by the ratepayers. • • '• Ohristehurch this week celebrates the Diamond Jubilee of the Borough. The settlement is, however, some eighteen years older, for it was in December, 1850, that the Canterbury pioneers landed in- Lyttelton and pushed over tho hills to tho plains. When the borough was first constituted it. had a population of over 6000. In sixty years that population has grown to almost twenty times the number. The compact little settlement on the banks of tho Avon has become a widely-ex-tended city, busy, with the commerce of tho plains. , The visitor to-day, noting many of tho beauties and advan-1 tages of tho city, may say that the, settlement was well endowed with natural advantages. But it must not be forgotten that it was the foresight of the early settlers and administrators that made these advantages secure for the present and future generations. Even with the great area of lovel land to work upon the beauty and convenience of the present city would not have been assured except by town-planners who looked ahead. Christchurch was the first city to reap the benefits of cheap hydro-electric energy from a Government development; but that would not have come bo soon if the Christchurch people had not been alert and progressive. The city stands to-day. as an example of what may be secured by a people able to make the most of natural advantages, and ready to grapple cheerfully with difficulties.