CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14978, 26 April 1909, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE LESSON OF CARDIFF.

Tho great Budget on which Mr Asquith’s Government wants to he

judged will bo delivered this woek, and Mr Lloyd George will have to explain how ho, proposes to raise the money necessary for old age pensions, new Dreadnoughts and the rest. From tho brisk agitation that lias been conducted in favour of the taxation of land values it seems tolerably cortain that this particular reform will not be long delayed. A striking example of tho absurdity of tho existing system is given hy tho “ Daily Chronicle.” Sixty years ago Cardiff was a village on the edge of a marsh. To-day it has 200,000 inhabitants. Its development was duo to the opening of tho Welsh coalfields. “In the town of Cardiff,” says the “Chronicle,” “stands a great medieval castle, itself covering 11} acres, surrounded by its moat, its gardens, conservatories, orchards, ornamental lakes, home farm, cedar plantations, recreation grounds—in all, a magnificent domain of 105 acres (503,200 square yards), cut off from the sordid world by its feudal battlements; its great keep frowns from a height of 140 ft oh tho busy hive of industry surrounding it. This feudal oasis belongs to Baron Cardiff, of Castle Cardiff, otherwise tho Most Noble tho Marquis of Bute. The defensive works of this feudal fortress, we are told, remind one of tho Middle Ages. Similarity with medievalism goes further. The owner of tho castle also owns the greater part of the town, and levies tribute on ito people, just as his medieval ancestors did, but, instead of receiving it in personal service, he collects it in ground rents, and tho State, in return for these services on his part, relieves him of paying a fair share towards the taxation of the .country. Cardiff Castle, with all its mediaeval magnificence and its extensive privato grounds, is rated at £924. Near by is a tailor’s shop, with afi area of 47ft by 90ft (470 square yards), which is rated at £947. And tho State further comes to the assistance of tho Marquis of Bute by treating him as a ‘ distressed*’ agriculturist under the Agricultural Rates Act with regard to his homo farm.” lb is tho policy of tho Bute estate to. sell no land, and as Cardiff pays its lord and master about £300,000 a year in ground rents the reason for the policy can he understood. Lord Bute did permit tho citizens to buy 09 acres of land for a park, receiving £109.000. These 09

acres had previously been rated at £245 a year. Mountetuart Square was a garden and paid no rates until an exchange was built on it. Now it pays £IOOO a year in ground rent and is rated at £6029 a year. Cardiff would cloarly Ix 3 a suitable place to commence rating on actual land valutas.

UNEMPLOYMENT.

The theory that finds acceptance in orthodox political circles regards unemployment as an unavoidable evil. The true-blue Liberal will argue that in every industrial community there must be a residuum of labour, idle under normal conditions, waiting to be drawn upon when there is an extra press of busine33. The " submerged tenth,” according to this theory, is even a necessary element of the population. And, of course, the average individualist does not think of questioning the wisdom or justice of the system under which a working man is liable to be thrown out of employment at any moment by a slackness of trade. We are having our own littlo experience of the unemployed problem just now, and perhaps New Zealanders may be disposed to do a little clear thinking on the subject. The evolution of a “submerged tenth.” ia a process easily followed. A section of the working class is thrown idle for a period, and in time demands and receives charitable aid. Its children are brought up under poor conditions, with a minimum of education, and as Boon as possible are turned out into the world to earn what they can at odd jobs. They learn no trade and, at best, are intermittently employed. The next generation grows up without hope,, takes charitable aid without shame, and is practically unemployable. Obviously, If the community had taken care to keep its grandfathers properly employed, this generation would never have become “ submerged,” and the original cost to the State would have been a fraction of the ultimate cost. Mr Bernard Shaw tried to drive this lesson home to a London audience last month. His immediate purpose was to urge that working men, like soldiers, should bo paid while they were out of employment as well as while they were employed. Mr Shaw applauded Mr Sidney Webb’s proposal to create a national system of labour bureaux and labour exchanges as a means of enabling labour to be carried to places where it is wanted, but obviously his argument justifies an even greater national scheme for the prevention of unemployment.

Britain, according to an American writer in “ Scribner’s Magazine,” is a nation of sportsmen. “ Sport .here,” he says, “ is not a dissipation for idlers j it is a philosophy of life,” and he goes on to state that “ though Britain may be fighting somewhere in hor vast dominions, she is also playing somewhere all the same.” He was surprised, during his latest visit to London, at a timo when tho Prime Minister was seriously ill, when there was fierce debating in tho House of Commons upon tho new Navy Estimates and upon Mr Asquith’s Licensing Bill, and when there was fighting on the Indian frontier, to find that the catchline on all the newspaper bulletins, “ Britain’s Big Task,” referred to none of these trivial matters, but to the fact that tho English cricket eleven would have to make a big score to beat the Australians in the second inings of a test match. He gives the following table, estimating tho cost of sport in Britain:— Annual

A SPOUTING NATION,

The American critio concludes from these figures that, taking no account of the cost of such games as bowling, tennis, hockey and lacrosse, £46,613,250 are permanently invested, and £44,775,545 are annually 6pont on sport in the United Kingdom. The use of sporting terms, moreover, has permeated the everyday speech of the people in an extraordinary fashion, and such expressions as “Off his own bat.” “Backing the wrong horse,” “It’s a six-to-four chance,” “It’s not playing tho game,” and so forth, are heard from the lips of men and women in all grades of society. The universal use of the term “ fit ” to express good condition, and of such phrases as “ He’s off his feed’,” says the writer, are constant reminders of that habitation dearest to the hearts of so many Britons, tho stable.

Fox-hunting Invested. £ 15,607,000 Expenditure. £ 8,638,000 Horse-racing 8,330,000 10,693,000 Football and cricket 10,763,000 11,712,000 Yachting . . , 5,600.000 8,023,000 Shooting . , , 4,067,000 8,128,000 Fishing . • « 650,000 589,000 Golf . . , 525,000 725,550 Rowing . . • 284,000 574,300 Coursing , , > 520,000 317,400 Coaching . . . 290,250 237,795 Polo 87,000 110,100