TO-DAY’S PROBLEMS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 29 July 1932, Page 2

TO-DAY’S PROBLEMS

PARENT’S RESPONSIBILITY

MINISTERIAL REVIEW SELF-HELP THE SOLUTION Many problems of the day were reviewed by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. A. Hamilton) at the Winter Reception of the Y.M.C.A. on Wednesday night reports the “Post”. The solution of the majority, said the Minister, lay in courage anil self-help, and the encouragement of the spirit of independence among young and old, who were too prone to make demands on others and on the State.

Welcoming Mr Hamilton, the president (Mr R. H. Nimmo) said that ho was carrying perhaps the heaviest burden of any Minister at the moment. Ho expressed his appreciation of the practical sympathy shown by'Mr Hamilton with the efforts by the Y.M.C.A. and all other efforts to relieve the situation throughout New Zealand. The Minister said that he had always looked on the Y.M.C.A. as one of the leavens which helped to keep society on the right lines. Without such organisations there was the danger tliat_ society might readily become corrupt.' He stressed the value of residence in similar institutions, recalling his own four years’ experience in Knox College, Dunedin. He doubted whether anything had stood to him throughout a wide experience in life like those four years of residence.

NEW PROBLEMS Many of the problems confronting us were peculiar to our own day. Many were attempting to diagnose them and suggest remedies, but previous experience was no guide whatever to some of them. The first problem of the day was financial. “I do hot know,” said Mr Hamilton, “whether we have not our minds too much on money. I am inclined to think this is too much of a money- age, and that our minds are set chiefly on it. Money tastes and psychology have been developed. The Labour Party to-day sometimes say that the capitalistic system is wrong. Although I do not belong to the Labour Party I must give credence to the fact that the capitalistic system seems to have gone wrong. It is not working out as we would all like it to work out. The Labour Party pay that the Socialistic method.must be brought in. Certainly the old standard seems to have shifted its ground.” f Standards, said Mr Hamilton, were fine things to work to, but when an attempt was made to set up a standard of values, it was found that gold seemed to have moved. There was none of the comforting certainty about it that was associated with a pound weight or a yard measure; in fact a moving standard was not a standard at all. Although gold has stood as a standard for many years it seemed to have let them down. Gold and currency were problems that Ottawa might be discussing at the moment, as an effort was to be made to set up an Empire currency. There were some who said that a central banking system was wanted. Exchange was another problem, but all these were all matters in which it was difficult to see the other persons’ point of view.

“If you are not losing money to-day, you are fortunate ,” lie said. “I do not know if it does not do some of us a little good to lose money.” A friend had told him, “Just as the money goes, and the poorer you become, your happiness will increase.” There was something in it, because then qne might realise how much better off one was than some people. It was a fine thing to meet people who were happy in adversity, which might well bring out better virtues than prosperity. Text books were no guide in the economic problem, or at least only those which were written up to date. One of the great economic problems to-day was that of price levels. Why were some things cheaper to-day than they were some years ago, such as wool? Had gold shifted, or had wool shifted? There were just as many people in the world, but tlie world level of prices had fallen. There was the world price level and the New Zealand price level and the relationship of values was always changing.-- It was a problem that the world’s thinkers had not solved to date. Tariffs constituted another problem for Ottawa. Freedom of trade within the Empire might be to our advantage, indeed it might be to the interest of the world to knock down the tariff walls. Then there was the question of interest. Our national debts were very heavy when price levels had fallen and the money debt remained the same.

“I would like to talk on the problem of land values,” lie said. “It is little understood from the right point of view, and it is a problem on which more fallacies have been presented than any other, but this is not the time to speak of it.” SOCIAL PROBLEMS Turning to social problems, the Minister said that it Beemed like a -time of levelling. It seemed that the poor would be rich, and the rich would be poor. The man who had the least worry was he with the small farm free of debt. He had his wife, at least the wireless, and enough to eat, and could make the best of it. The social problem, in fact, was such as the world had never experienced, and it was not peculiar to New Zealand. It was pathetic to-day to hear of people who through no fault of their own had become caught in the grip of unemployment, and it was the bounden duty of all who could to help. The problem of mental defectives was another serious one. Nearly all the mental hospitals were full. Perhaps not enough attention was paid to mental defectives. They should start with fundamentals, and he was rather of the opinion that there were some i people who would have been better off 1 if they had not been born at all. It was a problem one could not talk much about, but one requiring serious attention.

The outlook for young people was serious. Young men and women had left school prepared for jobs in life, but the jobs were not there. In the Post and Telegraph Department they had not taken on a young man or woman for eighteen months. Magnify that by all the other businesses in New Zealand, and they could see the extent of the problem. • Whose was the responsibility? It was threefold. The State had a responsibility, and the foundations must be laid so that young men and women could fit into the "social organisation and find a livelihood. But the State could not do it all. There was a big responsibility on the parents to provide suitable jobs for the children, and they could not be released from the responsibility of arranging things so that the young people could make openings for themselves. It was a great

riage and figure.” 1 time for them to strike out for tliemj selves, as did the young people in the ! old days, and they would thus gain the ! spirit *of independence, developing traits of character that would stand to them. BACK TO SIMPLE LIFE . Though more had been found out in science in the last thirty years than for a century, there were, though it was a mechanical age, still plenty of opportunities for young men and women starting out to-day, and our heritage must be passed on unimpaired. People were to much inclined to demand rights from each other and from the State. “Let us give more duty to others and to the State, and we will get on much better. Instead of thinking of those who are better off let us think of those who are worse off and we will be satisfied. 1 Many people do not know how well off they are. They need the lessons of adversity to make them think. We must try to get back to a simpler life, and I think we will all enjoy life more,” concluded Mr Hamilton. A In moving a vote of thanks to the Minister, Mr W. .Appleton said that the Minister had said much that would . make them think. I