BY THE WAY

Evening Star, Issue 25849, 20 July 1946, Page 10

BY THE WAY

[Written by " X.Y.." for the ' Evecing Star.'] Lo, here is England, bleeding from numerous wounds, but standing not only victorious but invincible ; England, who, having forged the. links of Empire, rises berore the world as a true educatress of peoples, mother and conductress of nations. This is not an extract from the proceedings at Washington, D.C., during the recent loan debate. These words were spoken some months earlier, a little while after the " cease fire " sounded. The occasion, however, was a Parliamentary one—Senor Oliveira Salazar m his address to the Portuguese National Assembly. Salazar, who makes no apologies for the application of dictatorship to ensure Portugal's emergence from what some years ago looked like submergence in a sea of anarchy, resembles Eire's de Valera in having graduated to the Top in politics by way of the university; he was a professor. It may he a cultural coincidence that, following Salazar's tribute, de Valera unexpectedly paid one to England in. the same strain, doubly welcome, perhaps, because of its spontaneous and ungrudging note, besides the element of complete surprise. Naturally, otie hardly looks for the interchange of either presents or pleasantries between moneylender and client when negotiations have concluded after not too smooth a passage. They separate on different terms from those on which they met when they joined forces in what may then, have seemed hazardous enterprise. One party emerges with a noose round his neck, self-adjusted admittedly ; but it was a case of Hobsou's choice; the other party holds the end of the line. This is no equal partnership. How long is this relationship to continue? The undertone of .humiliation, though not of despair, is plain enough in the summaries of Britain's reception of the doings of Congress. America's acceptance of payment in goods, to avoid the 'fiasco which ended a far smaller transaction after the earlier war, is responsible for a few lines of comic relief. There is the squeal with which Lord Beaverbrook announces himself the' first casualty. His " trade within the Empire" obsession has not had its roots loosened by the upheavals of the last seven years. And then there is Mr Walter Nash. Is his fiscal policy to remain as menacing as ever to a Britain desperately seeking markets? , * * * * What are the guiding principles actuating our State trading? Already the State has established some monopolies in this realm and exercises control over a number of other industries which it has left nominally in the hands of private enterprise in the meantime. In these latter concerns the State figures neither as proprietor nor as shareholder. But it participates in profits. That is to say, the State, first in at the kill, leisurely arises from it gorged, leaving about one-fourth of the carcase for distribution among shareholders. The community, burdened with high prices in shopping of any description, has become very impatient over the lag between Government promise and Government performance in bringing down the cost of living and keeping it within reasonable bounds. A big 6lice of Government revenue, whether from sales tax or income tax. depends for its buoyancy on a high scale of prices in the shops. The State likes easy money just as much as any individual. Hence its inertia. Not a move. Not even the flicker of an eyelid.

From his place in Parliament Mr Gooseman went a step further than this. Of all prime requisites for the young people setting up in life, the first is a roof over their heads. Of all experiments in seeing how far a pound will go, the most absurd length is discoverable in housing; for here .a pound goes nowhere. Where it once purchased so many cubic yards of internal space, the measurement is now in cubic feet. Why does not the current " ceiling price" more nearly approach the ground-floor .price which the Government says is its very attainable and practicable ideal? Mr Gooseman explains it thus: The Government invades ..the building market, takes precedence therein, and deliberately inflates the cost of its own State housing. This < in order that it may derive the maximum revenue from its taxation of private enterprise's house building, which would be based on those inflated values. Demonstrably, State competition with private enterprise and State regulation of prices in the same field are two diametrically opposed interests; they are mutually destructive. An unabashed Fraser or Nash might admit this and then say: " Give us a mandate , this election to abolish all private enterprise, and all will be well." But would it?

A sample of the Government's idea of business is provided by the War Assets Realisation Board. One of the assets is a mammoth park of motor vehicles of wide variety and utility and no doubt in very various degrees of running order. New Zealand buyers are understood to be impatiently awaiting the arrival of post-war models from Britain or America. But the elate of arrival is indeterminate and is inclined to recede; meantime there is said to be quite an avid market for the warworn goods. Does the board seek to explore, let alone exploit that demand ? Not at all. A wide distribution is regarded as a pitfall to be avoided. Sales in bulk quantities to a select few at fractional prices, instead of rational disposal over wide areas at competitive prices, are alleged. There is to be an investigation; but soma Government supporters in Parliament evidently thought this quite a Quixotic concession to sticklers for business principles and methods. There is a fair infusion of Hibernian patronymics on the Assets Realisation Board, and the comments of some M.P.s with, corresponding identification discs claim attention. One apostle of toleration asked in effect: Are we really expected

to do otherwise in a trifling affair such as this? Another subscriber to cheap elastic ethics in a second-hand deal did not dispute the near, certainty of thumping profit from prompt re-selling of each bulk purchase in small individual lots, and wished the fortunate middlemen good luck in getting away with it.

Once more Westport bar is workable. Eight laden vessels had their chance to get out. They did not take it. Their crews refused their union's instruction to end the strike to have their quarters lighted and heated at night in port. As was stated here recently, Westport is a depressing place from the standpoint of amenities, and why sailor-men should elect lo moult there indefinitely is known only to themselves. An excursion, or two might vary the monotony for them. Why not a flight to Oamaru, arriving in time to be at Oamaru North School entrance at 9 a.m. ? They could enter the infant class room with the children and find the thermometer showing one degree above freezing point, with a prospect of rising nine degrees during the day. The school authorities have referred this chilly problem to the

education board's architect. Could he do better then refer it on to the seamen? They like to be warm after being ashore to attend the fortnightly meeting of the local Rechabite Lodge, or a session of Slippery Sam, or whatever happened to claim their leisured attention, no matter if one or two of their mates have to stay aboard to ensure light and heat at the right time. During the war merchant seamen won a high name for bravery and dogged endurance. Since those days, and presumably with the cessation of " danger money," they are showing how petty they can be. The public incidentally must be getting tired of the frequent defiance by strikers of their union's instructions to resume work. Are there industrial as well as legal fictions?

•If there has been a justifiable strike lately it was at the Taita School, where recently only seven pupils out of' a roll strength of 350, said " Adsum." There is no need to rehash the details of the prehistoric lack of amenities against which the strike was a parental protest. The Wellington Education Board's acknowledgment that it was " not unaware of the urgent need " existing in that part of the Hutt Valley was thoroughly up to date in its non-committal preciseness. But it awaits authority from the Education Department, which in turn. awaits authority from the Government. Here we have the Circumlocution Office in full bloom The South Island provides a parallel ease at Ashburton East, where the parents are drawing comparisons between school and pig sty. Mr Peter Fraser claims that his Government has provided New Zealand with " the best social structure in the world." Evidently his Government has omitted other structures which are inseparable from school equipment. The Wellington Education Board's reply to Taita fixes the responsibility where it belongs—but should not. However, Governments themselves insist on centralisation, and have themselves to blame. Also, this particular Government's " best social structure " has caused a drying up of sources of labour. Tradesmen with years of work in them are retiring at 60 by obvious invitation, and apprentices are not coming in at the other end.

This dearth of apprentices is regarded as a most discouraging symptom. On the otlier : hand Dunedin as a University town.':is invaded in strength by students desiring to enter one or other of the professions. Precedence having been granted to the Otago University Council in the allotment of building permits, the density of imposing structures in. the Hospital vicinity is emphasised. Now, before,.the. ring of workmen's tools ceases in- the latest edifice, the Council Chamber echoes with a demand for yet more buildings, these being indispensable; and the example of other universities in having a well-paid Vice-Chancellor to. be the executive business head is quoted as well worth following. That may well bo. But as to the building programme, does precedence, though exercised, never expire? Taita, Ashburton, and Oamaru are more or less remote, and their wants are perhaps primitive. They may be low down the educational ladder, but we all had to start there* once, professors and graduates included. And there is also the lamentable deficiency of dwelling houses, so that people have nowhere to lay their heads. Under these circumstances would Alma Mater corral building tradesmen and behave so unsocially as to appear as a harpy in the eyes of the houseless.,