NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18814, 15 September 1924, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

LIFE ASSURANCE. In these days of high taxation, adequate life assurance has become equallynecessary to the professional man as fire assurance is to the factory owner, and yet life assurance seems still to be classed by many as a virtue to be practised when possible, rather than an essential safeguard, says Alexander Wright in the London Spectator. The factory owner does not look upon his fire premium as so much money lost, for he knows that he obtains value for the payment, but the professional man too often fails to apply business methods to his own private affairs. He tries to make an. estimate as to how much he can spare for life assurance, and takes out policies accordingly, instead of calculating how much life assurance cover he ought to have and then seeking means to obtain this amount. If this latter standpoint were adopted, there would undoubtedly be & big increase in the amount of life assurance written in every civilised country., and thero would bo less distress among the widows and dependants of professional men.

THE STATE OF ..BRITISH TRADE. A committee has been appointed by the British Government to inquire into the conditions and prospects of British industry and commerce. Its personnel is as follows:—Sir Arthur Balfour (chairman), Mr. John Baker, Sir W. H. Beveridge, Mr. Henry Boothman, Mr. W. T. Charter, Mr. C. T. Cramp, Mr. Hugh Dalton, Sir Horry Goschen, Mrs. M. A. Hamilton, Mr. P. A. Hargreaves, Sir Norman Hill, Sir John S. Hindley, Mr. David Landale, Sir W. Clare Lees, Mr. P. J. Pybus, Mr. Arthur Shaw, Sir Allan Smith, Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith. Industrial capital is represented by Sir Norman Hill, Sir Allan Smith, Mr. Pybus and the chairman, and banking by Sir Harry Goschen. Mr. Cramp will be the chief exponent of official trado unionism, while Mr. Dalton and Mrs. Hamilton represent the intellectual side of the Labour movement. There is no restriction upon the breadth or direction of the committee's inquiry, for the terms of x-eferenco are as follows:—" To inquire into and report upon the conditions and prospects of British industry and commerce, -with special reforenco to the export trade, and to make recommendations in regard thereto."

EDUCATION BUILDINGS. Difficulty of providing school buildings to replaco dilapidated {structures and to provido for new needs is experienced in Britain, although the child population is declining. In a policy speech recently, the President of the Board of Education, Mr. C. P. Trevelyan, said he was having a complete survey of the country made by his inspectors, and ho intended in the course of the autumn to make clear what school buildings could only be i allowed a limited period of continued existence. Some would have to be condemned outright, and the reconstruction of others would be required. He did not intend to set up too high a standard for this purpose. If they wanted satisfactory schools everywhere thoy would have to condenm schools in droves in every county. What he had to do was to get rid of the worst schools. The greatest national need was more school buildings, rather than perfect ones, to meet the needs of the increasing industrial centres and mining areas, and to make up for the deficiencies of the war years. He wanted the local education authorities to be able to provido many more secondary schools, and it would be a great mistake to divert the energies of the authorities solely to replacing bad schools. Speaking generally, there had been a bound forward in educational activity. Jn the whole of last year the approved expenditure for the building of elementary schools amounted to £1,097,000. For the first six months of this year it was £838,000. When they came to secondary schools, they found that in the whole of the last financial year 30 new secondary schools were approved, and in the six months since the beginning of the year 40 new schools had been added to those approved.

AUSTRALIAN BANKING. The first steps have been taken toward tho constitution of the Commonwealth Bank as a central reserve bank for Australia. The. views of the Government on the subject were expounded by the Treasurer. Dr. Earle Page, in presenting legislation, which has since been passed, with some amendments, by both Houses of tho Legislature. Dr. Page said the necessity for a central bank had been sufficiently clear before the war and had been accentuated since. In 1920 Australia had found that an excessive rate had to be paid to remit money to Britain, but in 1922 the exchange position had entirely reversed, and for many months it had been impossible to transfer to Australia either all the moneys realised by the sale of Australian products overseas or the money which was being raised abroad for Australian development. In addition, money was so "tight" that it was hard to get advances from tho banks for most desirable purposes. In troubles such as these the important functions of banking could properly be performed' only with the guidance and control of a central bank. To that end tho Government had decided that the Commonwealth Bank should become the pivot of Australian banking—a bank of issue, deposit, discount, exchange, and reserve. There was no reason why the resources of the Commonwealth Bank should not bo distributed between London and Australia, and be put to active service instead of lying dead, which was tho prosant condition of a large portion of the resources of the Notes Board. The bank would then be in a position to conform fully to the resolution of the Economic Conference on the exchange question. Pending return to the gold standard, the best that could be done with exchange was to place it in the hands of a central bank, which would have ample resources, including control of currency, and would work for the good of the whole community. One of the most important functions of the central bank would be that of rcdiscounting; by means of this, every other bank would be able to convert its bills of exchange into legal tender money. But the right to secure money from tho central bank would have to be given with caution. The safeguard lay in the power of the central bank to increase its rate :>f discount. The Government recognises that tho success of the Commonwealth Bank as a central bank would depend upon the skill and foresight of the directors. Tho whole matter would have to bo left to the board, which would be required to publish its discount rate only when it found itself in a position to take up the usual functions of a central baak»