NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18779, 5 August 1924, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NEW ZEALAND CURRENCY.

Commenting on the observations regarding currency control by the acting-chair-man of the Bank of New Zealand, Mr. William Watson, the Australasian Banking Record says:—The New Zealand system is one of notes issued by the various banks, without a Government note issue, and in accordance with, the arrangements made during the war period the bank notes are legal tender. This is accompanied by a proper system of regulation, fully adequate to protect the public, while there is sufficient freedom to admit of increase and decrease in the amount of notes issued from time to time to enable the varying requirements of trade ;at different periods to be met without the further element of inflation being admitted. In this the practical knowledge of the banks, in full contact with the whole position of the country, has gone hand in hand with regard for sound principle, and New Zealand currency has been characterised by a smoothness in working which has left no occasion for question or controversy. Thi.s is in contrast with what has happened .in Australia, where the actual administration of the Australian note issue has left much room for improvement. Comparison between New Zealand and Australia, both as regards the systems and as regards the manner in which they have been handled in practice, is therefore somewhat in favour of New Zealand.

THE FOLLY OF STRIKES. Condemnation of the "lightning" strike was expressed by Mr. J. R. Clynes, the Labour leader of the House of Commons, in an address at the opening of a camp for schoolboys at Manchester. "These stoppages are not effective attacks upon low wages or upon evil conditions of employment," he said. "They are attacks upon the best method yet devised for dealing with real grievances where grievances exist. Surprise strikes designed by their suddenness either to terrorise employers or inconvenience the public, soon develop into confusing and disruptive adventures in which the men's real grievances are completely lost. The public becomes bewildered, and the substance of workmen's claims is submerged because of the methods employed to advance them. Public sympathy is alienated and attention is concentrated, not upon the demands of workmen, but upon the grievances of a suffering public." Mr. Clynes added that trade union rights were not easily won!" Methods of collective bargaining which it took generations to establish were endangered by reckless and inexperienced men, whose continued failure should now be sufficient to warn all wage-earners against them. Iradeed, the only profit to be derived from these events was in the experience which might teach men to avoid them in future. If the workmen have learned from what has occurred employers should understand vhat a great contributory cause to trouble is undue delay in arranging to settle within reasonable time the issues which are raised between employers and employed. Avoidable delay is inevitably an effective excuse for men who are ready to make mischief on questions of work and wages." COLD STORAGE OF FOOD. When opening the fourth International Congress of Refrigeration, in London, Mr. Sidney J. Webb, President of the Board of Trade, said that remarkable revelations of the advantages of mechanical refrigeration were given during the war period, and it was clear .that the cold storage of foodstuffs would be of great assistance if any calamity interfered with regular supplies of imported food. He regarded the subject, however, from a somewhat wider standpoint. There had heen great centres of population before London and other densely inhabited modern areas, but it was interesting to reflect that the earlier centres of dense population were not peopled by meat eaters, and it was possible to supply their needs from local sources if a sufficient area was available to grow vegetable foods. The modern problem of ieeding largo populations was very different, and the 450 millions of people) in Europe were dependent to a great extent on outside sources for their meat supply. It was not, perhaps, too much to say that the present density of population in Europe was to be traced to the development in the science of refrigeration, without which it would have been impossible to maintain the desired standard of living. Great Britain, which imported about half its food supply, was certainly dependent on efficient methods of transportation and preservation of food. It was probable that the science of refrigeration was only on the threshold of its real development. At some place in the world, apples, for example, were ripening every month in the year, and it was for those engaged in the refrigeration industry to bring these and other fruits of the earth to the consumer in good condition. A PLEA FOR SIMPLE WORDS. Opportunity was taken recently by the London Times to rebuke the readiness of those in authority to use words and phrases which they think likely to impress the rank and file and to keep up the dignity of their own high calling. The • habit is widespread in official life. It would almost seem sometimes that Government Departments are plants too tender to bear unscreened the rough blast of the plain mother tongue. They swathe themselves in wrappings against it. They observe, but never see; commence but rarely begin. They would be shocked to say in an official letter that ono of their men had been told to do this or that; he receives the necessary instructions, and then rarely to do something outright, but rather to take steps with a view to this action or the other. They never so far forget themselves as to be surprised; though they sometimes cannot refrain from expressing their astonishment. Each change and chance of the official life has its set and stilted form of words. The tendency to long words and roundabout phrases seems, indeed, to dog the specialist of every kind. Scientists ce.n hardly escape it in their need to find new words for new things and new ideas. Philosophors could not go on without coining fearsome phrases whose rotundity may hide one knows not what mistiness of meaning. Doctors revel in length and outlartdishness, but their patients are perhaps partly to blame for that. The man who has a creaking lung finds himself much more interesting as the owner of abnormal crepitations. He would certainly give up the doctor who, when he was suffering from a functional derangement of the digestive system, told him that he was upset inside. Still, it is easy enough to make fun of the grand word and the resounding phrase. It is not easy to come by pitii 1 and shortness, above all when there are s subtle shades of meaning to be shown or new thoughts to be made clear.