NEW BASIS NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1935, Page 6

NEW BASIS NEEDED

NEWFOUNDLAND'S LIFE

EGGS IN ONE BASKET

; For a year and nine months NewE foundland has been undergoing the constitutional experiment of surren- , dering its complete autonomy to a > Commission of Government, an oli- [ garchy appointed on the invitation of r the island by the British Colonial Office, says a writer in the "Winnipeg B Free Press." The causes that led to ' the change are well known, and were largely associated at the time of the . change with maladministration through a series of successive elected ' Governments. This Is not quite the full explanation, in the opinion of one ! of the members of the Commission of ' Government. Mr. Thomas Lodge, a • former highly-placed official of the , British Board of Trade, doubts whether : the shortcomings of Governments were ° the sole, determining factors in the [ breakdown of Newfoundland's political ■ system. He says, in an address reported in the current issue of "InterNational Affairs," that "fundamentally Newfoundland has been attempting to reconcile economic incompatibilities, the dependence of the community on one hazardous calling (the codfish catch), conducted in a more or less medieval fashion, and the functioning of a central Government attempting to shoulder responsibilities towards its constituents out of proportion to its material resources." Governments, explains Mr. Lodge, were confronted by a succession of problems due to causes outside their influence' and their comprehension, and they borrowed beyond the ability of the country to pay, and to improve their financial situation they increased taxation beyond this ability to the people. The distress that must have followed had the British Government declined to intervene would have been on a widespread scale that would have brought a complete collapse of central government. THE FIRST CHARGE. The partial restoration of the economic maintenance of the people has been the first charge assumed by the1 Commission of Government. Its interference was desired, and invited, but its presence cannot be wholly accept-' able, and, though the people are grate-, ful for the administration of decent, and efficient government, they are, naturally, hopeful that the Commission with restore stability which will permit a return to responsible Government. Mr. Lodge thinks this will take time and will depend on conditions over which the Commission may have little control. But its presence is generally accepted gratefully, even' if a very small few are resentful. The virulence of the invective of the few still opposed to the Commission loses its force, however, in the light of what has been done. The last cent, has not been ground out of the people in taxes, as was said it would be. The credit of Great Britain has permitted the; scale of relief to be increased, though the scale remains below the standard in many other countries! Part of the cuts in wages to teachers and civil servants has been restored. The burden of taxation on ordinary men and women has been appreciably lightened. '■■'■■ The attempt to rehabilitate the?coun(ry is honest, and this counts r/ith. the mass of well-intentioned people:'.inr stead of Newfoundland having Ministers make decisions on the basis of. con^ firming their respective Governments in their tenures of office, as tlie3r;.,did unde^ the Central Government, H;they: N have Government by full-time experts: under the Commission, which disre-: gards politics and creeds. The Com 4. mission has begun to establish ah independent civil service. It has begun the reform of Jtfie educative system; "which, no Government has ever been, strong enough to tackle." UNBALANCED ECONOMY. Economically, . Newfoundland's difficulties arise, from the dependence' of a population of .nearly 300,000. on the one calling— that of codfishing—and endeavouring to produce, by methods not far distant from those employed centuries ago, a foodstuff which has to be sold in a world market in competition with other, foodstuffs which are the result of mass production. Mr. Lodge doubts whether the average production'from'all sources per fam-, ily is wo.rth more than 300 dollars (£6O), annually. The ephermaj prosperity brought during the war fostered the growth of the illusion . that during the past decade Newfoundland has been passing through a period of abnormality which must end somehow and somewhere give place once more to. a period of prosperity. But, so far as Mr. ; Lodge and the Commission can see, "Newfoundland appears to produce today, -in real things, roughly as much as she ever did, and what she produces is worth,- in other real, things, roughly as much as it ever was." Modernisation of the fishing industry must- be sought, but .this tends towards a reduction of the total numbers employed. There still remains . for the Commission the task for finding employment for the displaced, and for the increase in population which emigration restrictions make inevitable. Alternatives to the fishing industry are not easily provided, but the orje most appealing to the Commission is settlement on the land. • An experiment has been made in translating a small-number of families at a bare cost advanced by the Commission on : the security of interested citizens.' CAN BE DONE. What was begun as a philanthropic effort has been expanded by the Commission, into ■ a project of settlement affecting the basis of the social reorganisation of the country. The State planned, in short, to restore families uneconomically placed to independence. The result has demonstrated ■ (though still on- a limited scale) that : agricultural settlement '.':• can be successfully achieved ..withoiit • incurring ; any element of charity... ;'. ; . This, says Mr. Lodge, is the most '. "hopeful thing which has happened in- Newfoundland during the Commission's year of office, and .it-is the more hopeful in that the success of the experiment so far is due to the inspiration and enthusiasm of men who are Newfoundlanders either by birth or adoption. The ultimate rehabilitation of the people, if it is to be permanent, will have to be achieved by their own exertion. I have every hope myself," adds Mr. Lodge, "that a policy of land settlement will in a comparatively few years rjsult in Newfoundland which is self-supporting on a standard of living very much superior to that which has ever previously existed on the island. That it will ever be a rich country is; perhaps doubtful; that it can be a country of independent men living a tolerable life and happy, in so far as material conditions can give happiness, is to me certain,"