NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18890, 12 December 1924, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

INDIAN RAILWAY FINANCE.

The scheme adopted by the Legislative Assembly of India for the- separation of railway finance from the general finances of the country provides that the railways shall contribute, as a first charge on earnings, a contribution equal to 1 per cent, on the capital at charge of commercial lines. It is provided that if 'n any year the revenues are insufficient for the percentage, surplus profits in the next or subsequent years will not be deemed to have accrued for purposes of division until such deficiency has been mado good. The interest on the capital at charge and the loss in working strategic lines are to be borne by general rovenues, and'arc consequently to bo deducted from the contribution so calculated to arrivo at the net amount payable from railway to general revenues each year. Any surplus remaining after the payment to general revenues is to bo transferred to a railway reserve, provided that if the amount available for such transfer exceeds a fixed figure only two-thirds of the excess over that figure is to be transferred to the railway reserve and tho remaining one-third will accruo to general revenues. The reserve is to be used to secure the payment of the annual contribution; to provide, if necessary, for arrears of depreciation and for writing down and writing off capital; and to strengthen the financial position of railways in order that the services may bo improved and rates mr.y bo reduced. There is to be a standing Railway Finance .Committee of the Legislative Assembly? and the Railway Department must place its estimates of expenditure before tho committee prior to the date for discussion of the demand for grants for railways.

THE SPREAD OF SOCIALISM. One feature of the British elections that has been widely discussed was the increase in the voting strength of the Labour Party. In a letter to the London Times, Lord Sydenham says:—The false, reactionary, and destructive doctrines of Socialism claimed more than five and ahalf million adherents, and the fact that they increased by more than one million in a year is a portent which we dare not disregard. Who, 20 years ago, would have believed that so great a growth of moral and intellectual perversion could have been brought about in so short a time ? Who can doubt that a powerful impulse has been given to it by the bloodstained world revolutionaries who established their criminal autocracy in Russia in 1917 by military force ruthlessly employed ? What is, from the Parliamentary point of view, a Socialist debacle is, in great part, duo to a moral revulsion against the dark influences behind the Government. This may well be regarded as a hopeful sign by every patriotic Briton throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. But the forces of evil are scotched and not killed. It would be a grave orror for the victors and for the tens of thousands who have rallied to their aid in this particular election to imagine that the danger has been definitely removed.

RECRUITS TO LABOUR. An attempt to discover-the source from which the Labour. Party gathered its additional support was made by Mr. C. R. V. Cbutts. .He points out that the Liberal vote declined by 1,300,000. Assuming that 100,000 of this fall was due to abstentions, and hazarding the opinion that four-fifths of the remainder - were cash for the Unionist Party, he suggests tha I the Labour Party gained . 240,000 Liberal votes. That would leave 860,000 of the additional Labour vote to be explained. There was a net .increase in the electorate during the year of 770,000 and a net increase in the. total votes cast for all parties of 1,800,000 after allowing for thosa (presumably mainly Liberal electors) who voted in 1923 but abstained in 1924. It is impossible to divide this increase of 1,830,000 accurately between new voters and 1923 abstainers. But it is generally admitted that the greater part of the 1923 abstainers voted this year for the Unionist Party, there being no reason to suppose that the Labour Party did not poll practically its full strength in 1923,. whereas it is known that many Unionists abstained on the free trade issue-; and that on balance a certain proportion of the 1923 electors transferred their vote on this occasion from the Labour to the Unionist Party. It is therefore difficult'not to reach the conclusion that, on the assumptions made, probably more'than one-half of the new voters who have recently come on the register have been attracted to the Labour Party. Mr. Coutts adds:—lt is true that these assumptions may be incorrect, but there is certainly a prima facie caso for this conclusion. And it should give ground for reflection to those who take too rosy a view of the future of the Unionist Party from the present election results. The future of the party must ultimately depend on its being able to attract the majority of the new electors who are, year by year, being placed on the register.

PROFITABLE THINGS. The Bishop of Gloucester recently made a protest against extravagance, in the cpursq of which he spoke of the wealth which, by the lower classes is " squandered on the pictures and charabancs," as "economically an unprofitable employment of labour." He was promptly challenged by Mr. A. A. Milne, the playwright, who wrote: "From one of our spiritual instructors this is a little surprising. What does he hold to bo the reason of our existence—the provision for each other of broad and boots, or the development of our souls ? Agriculture, he insists, is a 'profitable' employment of labour; presumably because the product of it is not 'wasted'—it helps to keep us alive; but why aro we keeping alive t Apparently in order to make boots and build houses for each other —good, profitable employment. Profitable employment, in short, is employment which benefits the body; unprofitable employment, squandered money, is that which is devoted to the son'. Strange teaching for a bishopM The pictures and charabancs, poetry and painting, the view from Richmond Hill, and the silence of a Cathedral, a. concert and a day in April, these things, like education, were 'admirable when the country was wealthy'; but now, with the wages of gardeners what they are, money spent on them is money wasted. Is this indeed what the Bishop wishes us to believe ? And are there never moments when he understands that 'pictures and charabancs' are not merely profitable, but the only profitable things in life? I seem to remember a test. .•.'-*