NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18198, 18 September 1922, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WEATHER FORECASTING. Wireless telegraphy has permitted a remarkable development in the science of weather forecasting. By its aid, the reports issued by the Meteorological Office of the British Air Ministry are now based on information received by wireless from America, from Iceland, and from ships at sea, and from all European stations and the Near East. The United States Weather Bureau sends to France by wireless telegraphy coded weather reports giving barometric pressure, wind direction, and wind force, at abont 30 meteorological stations which form a network over the whole of the United States, and, in addition, of conditions at Bermuda, and several stations in Canada Tho observations are broadcasted in Europe by the French National Meteorological Service from Eiffel Tower, along with a messago giving a synopsis of weather conditions over Europe by means of observations from {selected stationsi hese American reports when combined with European observations and those from ships at sea, enable tho British Meteorological Office to obtain a represen tation of the meteorological situation, within 12 hours of the time of observation, over fhe major portion of the Northern Hemisphere extending from the Pacific seaboard of America to the west to Rnssia and Eovot in the east. RELIEF IN RUSSIA. According to a report by Mr. HeThert Hoover, Secretory of Commerce, upon tho activities of tho American Relief Administration, in Russia, tho administration " is now reaching all accessible persons whose lives are in jeopardy, and tho loss of life directly due to starvation ceased some time since, although almost everyone in Russia is hungry. There was considerable loss of life early in the winter, which would have been much abated had the Russian railways been able to transport the large surplus of sunnlies which the American Relief Administration maintained in Russian ports." There appear to bo supplies enough to carry through until the next harvest, and the surplus then available will be devoted to the further support of destitute children. Apparently a comparatively good harvest is expected this summer. The famine region, it 'is believed, will produce three or four tines the quantity of food which it did last year—a fact due to the large shipment of seeds. Tho amount of material shipped to Russia has reached a surprising totil. Europe sent some 45,000 tons of material, whilo the United States Relief Administration has, for its own account and that of other agencies acting through it, shipped supplies amounting to 788,878 tons. SHORTSIGHTED EDUCATION. The last few generations have 6ecn education taking vast strides forward in America, but the advance has been all in one direction, writes Mr. James L. Davis, Secretary for Labour, in the New York Outlook. " Practically the whole system Is directed toward turning out boys and girls equipped to enter the professions, to undertake what is known as brain-work, or. more aptly, to occupy ' white collar ' johs. Educating 100 per cent, of our school children along lines that fit them for the professions is plainly unjustified when we know that less than 10 per cent, of them will ho able to make a living in professional life. To-day, while our ' white collar' occupations are crowded to overflowing, we are actually lacking in the skilled workmen and artisans necessarv to keep up production in shop and factory and to do our structural work. Oar educational system is out of balance. We see our future generations growing up with a profound distaste for manual labour. We see our young men and young women insisting that their education fits them onlv for so-called ' mental ' or brain effort. * We find them seeking unremunerative employment in crowded offices, jeopardising the nation's health and building up an economic problem of serious r.ronortions. We must attract young America to tho crafts where men "work with their hands—the crafts upon which ultimate!v rest responsibility for the nation's prosperity, economic and political. To that end we "must see to it that educational conditions which induce the belief that work with the hands is irksome and menial an corrected. . . . America must teach the trades-ytrue > craftsmanship —by practical instruction linked with instruction in theory."

POLICY IN PALESTINE. Addressing the Council of the League of Nations in connection with the confirmation of the British.mandate for Palestine, the Earl of Balfour referred to the views expressed by representatives of the Arab population who think that their interests have not been sufficiently safeguarded. " I »-an most sincerely assure them that they are mistaken, that the most anxious attention has been paid to their position, and that the last thing the British Government have ever desired is that they should be sulferers from injustice because wo try to carry out the policy of providing a Jewish home in Palestine for the Jewish people," lie said. " Believe me the two policies are in no sense either antagonistic or inharmonious with each other. I most firmly believe thai- for the Arab population, as for overy othc;* section of the population _in Palestine, &, new era of prosperity is going to open with the beginning of the new regime. I believe that every liberty will be preserved to tho Arab population, I be lievo they will increase in material wealth, I believe they will gain liberties which under the Turkish rule they never dreamed of: therefore I would beg them to do all that they can in their power to see that a system, in which they have not been forgotten, works to the best advantage not only to others, but also to themselves."

CHEAP MONEY IN ENGLAND. Toward the end of July, the Liverpool Corporation offered for tender on the London money market, 12 months' bills, and so keen was the competition for them that the average rate of allotment was under 2 1-8 per cent. In other words, there were found many lenders of money who were glad to find employment for their resources on almost nominal terms of interest. Similarly, some of the very short-dated Government bonds have been so keenly inquired for that they now stand at a price yielding a materially lower rate of interest than 2 per cent. Commenting on this condition, Mr. Arthur W. Kiddy financial' correspondent of the Spectator, says that the rise in securities is for the time being emphasised by two important facts. The first is that the volume of capital now employed in securities represents far more than what can properly be called "investment" resources. It includes vast sums which in ordinary conditions would be financing the trade of the country. The other fact is that over and above tho impetus given to the security market by the stagnation of trade there is added the circumstance that in many quarters apprehensions of the situation on the Coii' tinent are occasioning a constant demand for very short-dated securities, and the rise in the price of these tends to stimulate the upward movement in investment securities' generally. During recent weeks there has been a pause in the flotations of purely gilt-edged securities, their place havincr been taken by sound industrial securities. Similarly, on the Stock Exchange, although investment stocks have been wonderfully well maintained in price, there is rather a noticeable tendency to search the markets for the prior charge stocks of tome of the best industrial concerns. The fact is that gilt-edged stocks have risen to a level making the yield something like 2 per cent, less than can be obtained on many really sound industrial preference and debentures. This is a margin held to be more than sufficient to compensate for any slicrht additional risk. With trade so stagnant industrial ordinary shares are still disregarded, bub it is felt that in the case of many of tho big companies the great losses resulting from the present period of bad trade have been so frankly faced that some of tho prior-charge issues are fairly attractive.