NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18332, 23 February 1923, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NEW INDUSTRIAL EFFORTS. It is becoming obvious, says a British review, that if and when* we get our unemployed millions back at work, it will not be on the same work that they loft. Markets, methods of production, even the needs of individuals, have changed since 1914 too much for tliat. Hence it was interesting to notice the new industrial efforts that are being made in and about Sheffield. The first example is the production of "stainless steel," by which enthusiasts hope to institute a "rustless age." The process is as yet expensive, and has only lately been applied to larger articles than cutlery, but researoh may solve this difficulty. Another new development is the production of "soft" cheap steel, which was formerly manufactured in Lorraine. Those and other activities have already led to a fall in unemployment figures from 50,000 to 36,061. ———————————— ,» CURRENCY AND WEALTH. The results of the depreciation of money on the permanent wealth of a country are thus summed up by a German correspondent in the Economist. The liquid wealth in the hands of the investing public is destroyed. The purchasing power of the home market is greatly diminished. Output is reduced, and cost of production thereby increased, while competition both at home and abroad becomes more difficult. In many cases a physical deterioration of machinery and plant will take place. Owing to the scarcity of capital, production must be reduced, for the time being at any rate. The country which suffers Irom a shortage of capital of this kind must become strongly indebted to foreign countries, who are buying up. its permanent wealth. An increasing share of its exports has to be set aside in future to meet the interest charges on these loans. Though the share of the State may not be seriously diminished by sums thus paid to foreigners in respect of dividend and interest charges, it is none the less true that a much smaller share of the total national income will be at the disposal of the inhabitants of the country. The net output of industry available for dividends may be the same, whether one-third of the capital is held abroad or not. but the total income of the country itself will be reduced by 33 1:3 per cent., while both the taxable capacity of the inhabitants and their purchasing power will be diminished pro tanto. If foreign capital had not come in, the industrial mechanism might have gone to pieces; its restoration, however, is none the less a very expensive process. Ultimately the country's taxable capacity as far as its co-nationals are concerned is greatly impaired, and so is its capacity for making remittances abroad, for the new capital which comes in does not open up new avenues of production, but merely closes the gaps which depreciation has made. IRISH FINANCE. A note of surprise at the agricultural output of Ireland in spite of civil war is struck by the Dublin correspondent of the Statist. The correspondent, however, write dolefully of financial and trade prospects. He says:—The expenditure of the Government for the current financial year will, in all probability, considerably exceed the available revenue. There are heavy arrears of taxes, army expenditure is considerable, and compensation has to be provided for the destruction which has 'taken p'ace. It is evident that, if an improvement does not take place, the country will be saddled with a debt which will materially impede its progress. The financial position of the Free State is at the moment difficult of ascertainment. The share of the British public debt for which it* will be held liable, or the burden to be assumed in respect of the past financing of land purchase, have not yet been determined. Before the war it was generally assumed that the cost of living in Ireland was cheaper than in England. Now the figures indicate that manufacturers in Northern Ireland are handicapped in competition with Great Britain. Belfast shipbuilding output for 1922 shows a decrease, both in the number of vessels launched and in the tonnage compared with the previous year. The total output was nine steamers of 86,943 tons, as against 13 steamers of 93,494 tons in the previous year. A MORE SOBER NATION. Swiftly a change has been wrought in our social life, says the Westminster Gazette. The brewers complain that the consumption, of beer has dropped onehalf since 1913. If so we have passed almost unheeding through a revolution. As a direct result of the reduced drinking we have a markedly-decreased number of convictions for drunkenness, and the confession of more than one Judge that the crimes arising from drink have almost disappeared from their calendars. If the lessened consumption endures through future changes in condition we shall have altered one aspect of life in England. Many causes have contributed to the fall in the consumption of alcohol. The restrictions of the war period may have been resented, but they were educative. More potent factors are probably the reduction in the strength of beer and the increase in price. Higher charges have done more than all else. The older generation may grumble at the limitation of its opportunities; the younger has known no other condition and has adapted itself to the world into which it has been thrust. Taxation and the increase of brewing costs have carried the country further toward temperance than all the schemes of the reformers of the public house. The important thing is to see that we do not drift back. The change in conditions runs deeper than most people would imagine. Except in the public houses in the towns, constructed almost entirely for a maximum consumption of beer, the publicans are discovering that they can no longer rely upon the sale of alcohol for a living. All over the country the character of the inn is changing. The space devoted to bars is being reduced, teas are being provided, and the catering trade is being developed. In the end the change will : be vastly beneficial. It synchronises with that new zeal for moving about which the motorcar and the motor-cycle have fostered. These, inventions may well be the salvation of the inns, by creating the custom to which the public house in its new form can appeal. All things are working together for good. * SERMONS .OR CEREMONIES? "It is a significant fact that the pulp has,, in theac latter days, ceased to dominate the minds of men. It may be questioned if it even seriously influences them, except perhaps in a few specially favoured places, where preachers of personality and power may still be found. The age of sermons has passed away and the age of ceremonies has succeeded it. The multitudes no longer sit at the feet of the prophet, thrilled by his impassioned earnestness, moved by the manifestly divine quality of his message. They have now no splendid vision of. God, no true appreciation of the grandeur of human life. . . . The prophetic line is extinct." Thus writes Rev. R. Meiklejohn in the Modern Churchman. He proceeds: The gradual process by which the.prophet is being eliminated, the Blow decay of the preaching ministry, will, unless it is speedily arrested, prove fatal to the vital and vitalising life of the Church. The prophetic mind is creative; the priestly mind is merely imitative. The prophet strives to make all things new; the priest is restrained by the.icy grip of the dead hand reaching out from a park and distant past. The prophet pursues a great ideal with unswerving directness, deathless courage, and unquenchable hope; the priest runs round in hopeless circles like the traveller lost in the desert. It is in the revival, therefore, of the prophetic office that the salvation of the Church is to be found. It is by diligent study and persuasive preaching, rather than by sumptuous services and sensuous music that the clergy of the Church must regain their hold upon the men of the world. The ministry of the Word must come into its own, or the Church, as a human institution, will cease to exist." 1