NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15548, 4 March 1914, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

CONTENTED NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand is pictured in a new book entitled, " Social Welfare in New Zealand," written by H. H. Lusk, as, the most contented, the most law-abiding, and the most prosperous community in the world. This happy result is attributed by Mr. Lusk to the adoption of a' policy which denies the conclusions and disregards the teachings of commercialism, and which has for its main object to secure that every member of society shall obtain a fair and full share of the profits arising from his exertions. Mr. Lusk traces the origin of the policy not to any study of. the higher morality, but to debt, which made it necessary for New Zealand to offer inducements to settlers to farm the land; as to its effect on the community, he declares unhesitatingly that " it has resulted in an increase of individual well-being for the people and of wealth for the nation that is wholly unprecedented in the annals of history." The author sums up as follows:—" Perhaps the most remarkable feature of New Zealand's object-lesson, at least from an economic point of view, is the evidence it affords on one point, and that the most unexpected of allthe policy is the most profitable of all national "policies yet adopted. This, indeed, is not its highest recommendation; it is one. however, so unexpected, and so contradictory of all past experience, that it cannot be lost sight of without injustice in dealing with the question. New Zealand adopted a policy that was in absolute contradiction of the received and accepted principles of national political economy—a policy that might be defended on grounds of benevolence, or even of an overstrained and somewhat sentimental desire to give opportunity to the class that had hitherto had the least opportunity of advancement 20 years ago. The result that was not anticipated, either •by the supporters or opponents of the policy in New Zealand or elsewhere, was the one that is the most apparent of allthe policy has paid, to an extent that can be claimed for no other national policy ever adopted by any country. The last 20 years has been a period of great events in the commercial world. Business has increased as it never did before in many of the countries of the civilised world; nowhere has it increased in anything like the proportion that it has increased in New Zealand. Wealth has poured into several countries as it never did before, so that America, England, and Germany, as the great commercial countries of the time, congratulate themselves on an unprecedented increase in the amount of their wealth; none of them have increased in riches—in the amount of goods exported, or the amount of riches gained—'in proportion to the numbers of their people, one-half as rapidly as New Zealand and its people during the period."

AN ULSTER STAMP. An Auckland lady forwards as an indication of the temper of the Ulster agitation against Home Rule a new stamp designed by .a Donegal —Mrs. Kettlewall, sister to Sir J.. Olphert, C.V.O-, Lord Lieutenant of County Donegal. • By the same mail, ■ says the correspondent, I received information how the ladies, old and young, in the north of Ireland, are making themselves proficient in ambulance and hospital work, how they are being instructed in all the various postal departments, and how preparations have been made in English families to receive women' and children, irrespective of creed , or politics in case of civil war. I am as- i sured by my Ulster correspondent that j there are abundant supplies of arms. ammunition, and that Ulster will resist Home Rule or separation from the Union ! to the bitter end. THE RISE OF WAGES. Industrially, 1913 was a good year in Great Britain. Unemployment touched the lowest point since 1899. The average percentage of unemployed ■ members of trade unions was 2.1, while in 1899 it was 2. In the intervening years it has been as high as 7.8 in 1908, and the average over the whole 15 years has been 4.2 per cent. The only period of employment which corresponds to the activity of the last three years' was that from 1899 to 1901.' In some trades, particularly in cotton' and shipbuilding, there was an actual shortage of labour during a part of the past year. In coal-mining employment was uniformly good, the number of days worked per week being the highest recorded. The export of coal was higher by 8,955,600 tons than in 1912. The -upward tendency in wages which was noted in 1912 was accentuated last year, and the changes showed an increase of £164,178 per week. In the building trade the rise Was the'largest'recorded in any year, but the larger pari of the increase has been divided amongst ■ the miners, who enormously outnumber the workers in any other trade of which the returns take account. Trades which are not included in the returns shared in the general improvement. Seamen obtained an increase of 10s per month, and Government workers in the dockyards and the police were 'also among those who received larger wages. Taking the whole record from 1894 onwards, there has been a net weekly increase of £620,000. The improvement in wages, however, is largely offset by the increase in prices, which reached a higher level in 1913 than at any time since 1883. Yet last year the rise in prices was very much less in proportion than the gain in wages.

THE KAISER'S WORK CUBE.

The Kaiser has recently been emulating the late Mr. Gladstone by felling trees in Sans Soucci Park at Potsdam. He-has added to this recreation the sawing of logs and chopping of sticks, to which for several weeks he gave up from two to three hours daily, generally before luncheon, though often both before and after. This part of the exercise was advised ay his doctors, who prescribed a "work cure" involving continuous and heavy manual labour. He was accompanied and instructed by an old woodman, with whom he joined in handling a long saw. The Empress and several of the Kaiser's intimate friends frequently ■ visited the monarch while he was at his toils, while aides-de-camp and adjutants were often invited to lend it hand. It is whispered that there were amusing incidents occasionally, when important officials, protesting that they were enjoying themselves immensely, were seen puffing and perspiring as they took part in the unwonted exercise. The quantity of firewood produced was measured daily, and showed a constant increase, till the final output compared very favourably with that of any professional woodman of the Kaiser's age. The cure is now pronounced ended. It began early in December. The Kaiser's new recreation is being variously compared in Berlin with that of locksmithing and clockmaking, which were hobbies of Louis XVI., and with the shipbuilding apprenticeship of Peter the Great, though it is not suggested that it i 3 an omen either of an approaching German revolution or as promising a rapid increase in the power of Germany. > .