CASUAL NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 140, 15 May 1936, Page 8

CASUAL NOTES

(By “The Watcher.”) THE CLOSURE. Chickens and curses are not the only things that come home to roost. Some years ago the Labour Party (then in Opposition) stuck up a Government measure in the House lor eight whole sitting days. As an act of defence, the then Government invented the closure. It took two aspects: One, by declaring the P ro " posal before the House a measure ot urgency, it had to be put through as far as the Government desired before the House rose. The other, that discussion could be stopped at any time if the motion, “That the question be now -put,” was moved and carried. At tlie time the Labour Party warned the Coalition Government that the day would come when they would be tne sufferers. So it has proved. The Marketing Bill ..(guaranteed prices) is the most revolutionary measure ever proposed in the New Zealand Parliament. Discussion is tlie essence of democracy. If ever there was a Bill that needed the fullest and freest discussion from every aspect this was it. The Government had no reason to fear. For every speaker put up by the Opposition they had nearly three speakers available, including Ministers. Yet quite early in the second reading debate the closure was introduced and when the Bill got into committee down came the guillotine time after time, and discussion ceased. From every point of view it is regrettable. Nothing has been gained. Ihe Bill does not take effect until August 1, and if another week had been spent upon it and the fullest discussion allowed, the Government v;ould have stood higher in the opinion of the thinking portion of the community. Shakespeare says in one of his plays it is good to 'have the strength of a giant, but it is tyrannous to use it. Mr Savage might well think it over. OUR EXPORT TRADE. Of all the British possessions, proetc., the United Kingdom was the only one worth speaking of whose trade gave a balance in favour of New Zealand during the March quarter. Our exports to the Mother Country were £14,446,000, as against imports £4,735,000, leaving us £9,746,000 to the good for distribution amongst our producers. Some details of other British countries are of interest, but they are all balances against us: —Ceylon (tea), £212,000; India (woolpacks, etc.), £178,000; Canada (motor-cars, etc.), £389,000; Australia (general), £498,000. The sums stated are the cash New Zealand had to pay on the three months’ trade. . . Taking the foreign countries we did not do so badly. Here our wool helps, us very . much. From Belgium we received £119,000, France £951,000, Poland £IIO.OOO, Dutch East Indies, £301,000, Japan £560,000. In practically almost every other case the balance was against us. One of the worst is U.S.A., from vdiom we imported £1,207,000 against £ <30,000 they took from us. Japan i 6 doing a good trade with us. She bought £769,000 from us, and sold us £212,000 worth. DOMESTICS’ UNION.

Probably it would not be going too far to say that the labour unions are the baciioone of the Labour Party and to them it largely owes its political success and accession to power. At the end ot 1934 (the latest date available) there' were 404 unions, with a total membership of 74,000. The largest was the land transport, 13,610, but they included three unions ot railway employees totalling 9822. Apart from these the actual unionists thus number about 65,000. The Government thus realises the necessity of strengthening themselves and their party in this direction, and legislation is being passed tor that purpose. One feature of it is compulsory unionism, under which a man or woman will not be able to get employment unless they produce their union tickets.

Another direction is new. Attempts are being made to establish domestic servants’ unions, and for this class of labour rates of wages and hours are to be fixed either by law or the Arbitration Court. The present writer regards this proposal with great disfavour. We see no difficulty in arranging unions for trades and industries but when it comes to the homes of the people it is an altogether different matter. Union secretaries have a right to visit their members at their work to collect subscriptions, hear complaints, and so on, but it is a different matter when it comes to entering homes. This question was raised in the House, and the answers given were not very satisfying. In any case, I think the idea is not a good one. Domestic service is a thing by itself. It covers a multitude of necessities and varies infinitely, from the large wellequipped house with its four or five servants to the humble cottage of the working-man with a sick and delicate wife and family of small children. No laws, rules or regulations can bring the whole of them into line. It may be a case of a voung girl who has just left school and is taken by a mother into her home to help with the children. Perhaps she comes from a home where the parents are glad to have one less mouth to fill and see their daughter trained for higher duties. How can such a child be estimated as to wage value or hours of employment? Under the 40-hours-week is she to leave at 5 o’clock and spend the rest of the day reading novels or walking the streets, leaving the unfortunate mother to do all the rest of the work without assistance? No doubt Hon. Mr Armstrong’s intentions are good, but in this case lie has gone too far with Ins labour legislation. ABYSSINIA: AND MUSSOLINI. The expected has happened. Abyssinia has 1 alien; its Emperor, Haile Selassie, has fled, and his capital is in possession of the Italians. Mussolini has held great festivities in Italy and made a series of cockawhoop speeches, of which the sum total is that Abyssinia is now and for all time an Italian Empire. King Victor Emanuel is declared its Emperor. But is Abyssinia conquered ? Does the flight of the King and the occupation of his capital necessarily mean that the whole 350,000 square miles of his empire lias fallen into the hands of the Italians? Time will tell.

There are many questions to be considered. On the west and north is Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and on the south is British East Africa. The Sudan is of special interest to us as an empire, because a short distance from the Abyssinian boundary is Lake Tsana, the source of the Black Nile river, which is Egypt’s greatest pos-' session and life-giver. Any interference by Italy with that lake will be met by the whole resources of the British Empire. Now also comes the question of the League of Nations. Italy has broken the Covenant, repudiated the Locarno Pact, refused arbitration, and broken all the laws of war by using mustard gas and in other ways. What will the League now have to say? Even France, which resolutely blocked the wav to sanctions that might have ended war, is now frantically calling for penalties on “the aggressor” (Italy), but she is too late. For Mussolini’s purposes the capturing of

Abyss nia is no doubt a “fait accompli, but at what a cost in both inorfev and. men! For years and years Italy will be an impoverished nation, the people will yet rue the day when !i adventure a °' en *- er upou this