CASUAL NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 170, 19 June 1936, Page 10

CASUAL NOTES

(By “The Watcher.”)

THE PARLIAMENTARY RECESS. Parliament' has completed its work for the present and gone into recess tor five weeks. It meets again on July 21 and meantime the Governmen | will devote the time to piepaiing a ! further dose of more or less socialistic measures tor consideration. In looking back over the accomplishments so lar of the Labour Government it must be recognised New Zealand has un er them taken a big step towards Socialism. Let there be no mistake on this point. That is their avowed objective and already they have gone a long way. By their guaranteed price policy for dairy produce they have taken the whole sale and marketing of the dairy farmers’ produce out of their hands. Wool and meat may follow. On and after August they will have no voice or control in the marketing ot their butter, cheese, etc. It will all rest in the Government. True they will have a guaranteed price which will be paid them directly the goods are shipped, but what that price will be no one knows. _ . At present butter stands at 10is m the London market, but it i 6 a maximum, owing to short supplies in Europe. In a few weeks it may drop to SOs or even 80s and then ? How will the guaranteed price stand ? Meantime one or two questions crop up. I’or instance, how will Australia, our biggest competitor, deal with our new arrangement? And how will Britain agree with it? Will Mr Elliot accept it, or want, in the interests of the Home farmer, to apply quotas to our exports? Here the question of the Zo per cent, exchange crops up, and complicates matters. Mr Nash, the Minister of Marketing, is to visit London, and should go at once, so as to be there to initiate the new departure, but lie cannot leave for months and months. He is Minister of Finance, and must prepare liis Budget and carry it through Parliament. Possibly it may be found that there are heavy holdings of butter and cheese in London stores, and that shipments from this end must be delayed in order to ease tlie market; in which case the farmer will see his products lying in store ready for shipment, but unfortunately no cash will be paid iint-il the bill of lading is presented and the goods are actually on board tlm ship. All these things have to be considered in starting the new scheme of guaranteed prices, and there are. others. Many factories and farmers have beeiq selling in advance on their proved quality and goodwill, and have built up fine business connections. These will all be knocked, on the head, for they cannot be fitted into the new methods ol business. Altogether it looks like ‘ a pretty kettle o’ fish,” but whether tlie Government will be able to come out of it all right remains to be seen. We hope they will, for New Zealand s future largely depends upon this mighty revolution in its methods of- dealing with £20,000,000 worth of its domestic produce, which may double in quantity and value, as we all hope during the next ten years. DEFENCE.

It is singular that during the session so little was said or done regarding the defence of New Zealand. Our position is one of extreme danger. We are a completely isolated country, and would be a most valuable prize for any marauding country possessed of a navy supported by air power and even a small army capable of putting up a fight ashore. Abyssinia’s fate proves what can be done with modern war equipment over wide fields of adventure. Our own defences are in a lamentable state. Alter Lord Kitchener’s visit about 1909 the then Government instituted a system of compulsory military training for boys and men, but it gradually died out. At present the most hopeful sign is the cadet movement at the secondary and some of the larger primary schools. By these means about 16,000 of the cream of our youth are receiving training. The Territorials are in an unsatisfactory state, and of course the Volunteers (who were a most competent body for many years) are now “non est.” It we turn to the navy though we are supposed to have a New Zealand Division of tlie Royal Navy, none of the ships are on our coasts or in our ports. One cruiser, the Diomede, was ordered to the Red Sea several months ago, and tlie new sloops, Wellington anil Leith, are British ships, used for policing the South Seas, with headquarters in New Zealand. Something lias and is being done in the extension of air power defence, but not enough. Besides, that is not sufficient. The whole question of defence, in all its aspects, needs to be considered on a broad basis. To accomplish that, we must have not only air bombers, but also submarines and destroyers, and a fullyequipped body of men competent to meet any landing force. it is tlie defenceless condition of our contry that constitutes our greatest danger. No enemy would attack us from across the Pacific or elsewhere if they _ knew beforehand we were ready to put' up a fight for freedom and liberty. Such a scheme may cost millions. Let it. The money would be better spent than on making railways, or even on guaranteed prices for farmers. Our very existence as a nation may be at stake. The people look to the Government in this matter, and by their dealings with it they must be prepared to stand or fall. We therefore hope t' at during the five weeks’ recess they will consider national defence as the piimest necessity of this country in their charge and bring down legislation, whatever the cost may be, to put New Zealand in a position to defend itself, from whatever quarter danger may come. The world at present is full of unrest. There are at least half a dozen danger spots which may explode any moment, and our slogan must be, “Be prepared.”

LICENSING, Possibly one of the questions the Government will consider for legislation is the licensing laws. It is a thorny subject. Successive polls have shown a gradual increase in the votes for prohibition, and recently the chairman of New Zealand Breweries, Ltd., voiced a demand for the abolition or the triennial (or periodical) vote, on the ground that the Dominion will not accept prohibition. Will the Government accept this (or any other) change in the law? That there are many weaknesses in the law as it stands is recognised. For instance, it is difficult to see the fairness of a uniform license fee of £4O for a great city hotel where £IOOO worth of liquor may be sold in a week as compared with 'a country hotel where £SO would be a good week’s sales. There are also questions of transfers, travellers, and others. “PARADISE LOST.” I wonder if in teaching English litterature our teachers in the primary' schools are allowed to include John Milton’s great epic, entitled as above. It is the greatest English poem, and Milton was the last of the great Elizabethans. Having recently gone over it again, the writer has been impressed w ith its grandeur and magnificence. Milton was stone blind when he dictated it. His aim was to leave something imperishable—that would live after him. And he succeeded. You can paraphrase or parody

scores of pieces from Shakespeare, hut you can’t from Milton. He’s above it. No man or woman can be regard'ed as educated who has not at least a nodding acquaintance with “Paradise Lost.”