NEW BUTTES BENEFIT BRITAIN.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1930, Page 6

NEW BUTTES BENEFIT BRITAIN.

Figures alone show plainly that as a cure for unemployment the dole can be, counted as nil; indeed, they indicate that it is a stimulus to unemployment both as regards Capital arid Labour. One hardly doubts that the Labour Government in Britain would abolish it if a way of doing ,so were held out as possinle and practicable; but it has become so intimately interwoven now in the social and industrial scheme of things that emancipation would require a supreme effort and involve a kind of political self-sacrifice now almost extinct. The prospect is a steadily-growing incubus and a rapidly diminishing purse out of which to pay tribute to it. With Britain’s experience before ,us it is no wonder that there is 'strong repugnance toward the institution of tire dole in Xew Zealand.— Bunedin “Star.” • THE CONTROL OF POLICE. ' Police methods in New Zealand are not above criticism, as any lawyer knows,' and as many others, know, too ; and the necessity for setting them h - yond reproach suggests' that the Commissioner should be a man of Wider outlook than one steeped in police ron-' tine can possibly acquire. He should be more broadly judicious than it is easy lor policemen to be; lie should-be a competent administrator; .and hgr should act as an effective intermediary, between public and police. A civilian Commissioner, is more likely to fulfil those conditions than an officer trained to look,at the.public.and at the.police* from inside police uniform. But if the present system is to be retained, then it iis even; more necessary than it wopUf; otherwise he. that .the conditions of the.’ service, should ..lit?' ilrastically ...changed.' and a second division created. This should he composed' of men of high education, whose-; training should. y hi !i ajong, .special'* lines:' These -should be the commissioned officers of the Epree)' from among whom the Commissioner would be appointed.—Christchurch “Pres.”

The new rates generally bring an increase of British preference, in some instances small, elsewhere :quite appreciable. The added 5 per cent, advalorem on foreign imports is an automatic addition to that preference. Less directly, but none the less certainly. the sweeping away of the priro"age and the substitution of a percentage addition to duties collected means a measure of reilief and a further margin of preference. Prim acre was col T . lected on all goods, whether dutiableor free. As it disappears, all items'pnthe free list become actually and entirely free. Here is the relief. Of those on which no duty is charged, the vast ma.ioritv are British. Therefore the percentage increase on duties collected adds to- the British preference. —“New Zealand Herald.”