OUR SIDNEY LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 16079, 3 April 1916, Page 8

OUR SIDNEY LETTER

HOW NOT TO DO IT. The operation of the Fair Rents Bill is already arousing keen misgivings. Architects complain that Orders for the planning and erection of premises for letting purposes are being generally countermanded. Business was very slack' as it was. In the building trades many bricklayers, carpenters, etc., were out of work. This latest development will make employment scarcer still. The effect on the housing of the people, too, threatens to be disastrous. The Bill is framed in such a manner as to deprive an owner of house property from getting any return above bare interest on the money he invests. He knows that in very many cases he will not get even that, so that if there is to be no risibility of recouping himself by obtaining something more than interest in other cases there is no monetary inducement to build. He can get interest by investing in State or Commonwealth bonds without incurring any risk. The Act might more accurately be styled "An Act to prevent the building of houses to let." It is being suggested that the Government will have to devote a very large proportion of the immense and ill-timed expenditures which they are contemplating to the object of providing dwellings for the people. TRUANCY. _ Mr Arthur Griffith, Minister of Education, has designs on unruly boys, who j sometimes, by the way, turn out very distinguished men. If the lads in question, or even their parents, knew the full scope, of the Minister's proposals they would put on their considering caps and begin to "think furiously." As originally drafted the Bill defined truancy on the part of a child as refusal to obey the order of its parent or guardian to attend school. In the morbid habit of mind which now prevails, it is safe to predict that any measure of this kind will be strained to the furthest limit that its literal construction will permit. In this case one act of refusal or disobedience would constitute a child a truant. He m k nt fcn en be proceeded against in the Children s Court, and if the Magistrate was in a bad temper or otherwise harshly disposed the child might be sent to an institution for some years, thus entirely rupturing the family tie, saddling the State with unnecessary expense, and probably ruining the prospects of the delinquent for life. The Minister professed great faith in the " common sense "of the officials concerned to avert such a catastrophe. But where is the common sense in the Fair Rents Act and in numbers of other stupid and tyrannical measures enacted by men who were also believed j to be endowed with "common sense" in no ordinary measure? In this instance members on both sides of the House were too sensible to allow such a power to remain in the Bill. Most of them remembered and some openly confessed, that they had themselves " played the wag on occasion, and they insisted that habitual disobedience must be proved before a child could bo dealt with under the Bill. Even then the unwisdom of bringing the policeman and the Magistrate into the home on pretexts so slight was strongly denounced. But the most ferocious provisions of the measure found advocates among members, who imagine that a Legislature can reconstruct the community on their own crude lines. The Bill is not yet out of the committee stage. STILL STRIKES. Further vivid illustrations are afforded nearly every day of the difficulties in which the Government, in common with other employers, are enmeshed by reason of the manner in which they have, metaphorically speaking, warmed unionism in their bosom. Difficulties are made, and stoppages of work, which may have the gravest consequences, are brought about on the most trivial pretexts. It is safe to assume that when the Legislature gave to the heels the power to control the head SA.T" th ey chariUbly ass mud that the power would be exercised with common sense. If so, they must be grievously disappointed. A demarcation dispute occurred between the electricians and the engineers employed on "war" work at Spectacle Island. An employee was wort 5? the , man ¥ ement toVcertlfn work. He preferred to obey the uni on and refused. He received notice of dis' missal, and thereupon 50 of the other engineers ceased work! Other strikes of a similar character are proceeding at the Government workshops at Eveleigh. THE WAR. "Not till after the war" is the reply in numbers of cases in which some exten•ion of enterprise had been projected. No wonder, therefore, that the war news is eagerly scanned. It is easy, then, to ima! gine the intrest which the cabled statement of M R,bot, the French Minister of Finance has evoked. He declares that we are at the decisive hour, and that it is possible 'without illusion," to perceive 2 8 n *a t° f *u he . St r^ le - Has fie solid ground for the statement, or is the wish father to the thought? He must be very much better informed as to the real nature of the situation than " the man in the street and there are many who, on the strength of the general tenor of the cabies, do not hesitate to predict that Germany will never face another winter of privation and anxiety. On the other hand, others who claim to know something of the facts, declare that Germany will fight to the last man and the last shilling." Australia, by the way, has promised to do just that same. At present, Australians ol fighting age seem to be paying much more attention to striking than to fighting No long journey or tedious drill is needed before we can enjoy the excitement of a aH , S ?1 S M r - ap • With one anotherhostiht ' S 1S * Vefy real form of TEMPERANCE. Mr Hugh D. M'lntosh is writing some amusing letters in reply to the more « adnn n B Ce „f v Ol th ° VFperance advocates. One of his most telling points is that very few responsible generals want a teetotal army. If they did they could have it I for military discipline is absolute. He I doubts moreover, whether it is justifiable I to restrict the conveniences of three-quar- ™°, a t mllll ? n of people merely because ! a percentage of soldiers camped some miles 1 away are apt to drink in excess when they come into town. Still, excessive drink- ! ing—and all drinking is excessive which '■ makes away with money sorelv needed for ! other and worthier purposes—works so i much misery in so many homes and fami- ! lies, besides those of the more irrespon- ; sible class of soldiers, that there will be ! V ? te in , favor of restriction ! to the fullest extent that the votine paper ' will permit. Mr M'lntosh's prediction i that sobriety will come when insobriety is I finally_ condemned as beastly and inexcus- i able by an enlightened people is incontestebly true. So is his further statement that it is coming all the time. But its pace is so slow that not a few good folks want to hurry it along a little. And it is not easy to see how they can be very severely blamed. J March 21.