NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19512, 16 December 1926, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

IMPERIAL" AIRSHIPS. Reviewing the discussion at the Imperial Conference on air communications, the Times remarked that it is a little startling, and even a little humiliating, to reflect that after twenty-three years of flight no two parts of the Empire are connected by, a civil air service. Yet the Air Minister talks with -confidence of the possible establishment of such services. The work is too vast and too costly for any of the nations of the Empire to undertake it single-handed. It must be co-operative, and every one of the Dominion statesmen who addressed the conference expressed goodwill toward the principle of this policy and a desire to assist it so far as circumstances would permit. The British Government is now building two airships expressly intended for long-distance nonstop journeys. They are of great size and power, and intended to carry a hundred passengers, besides freight, for 4000 miles without refuelling. They are to be finished next year, and it is pari ticularly desired to fly them to the difj ferent Dominions as soon as their homo and Indian trials have been completed. But there, is at present a prohibitive obstacle in the way. These vast ships cannot be sent anywhere in safety where there are not proper mooring masts awaiting them, or where certain meteorological conditions are not accurately known. At the moment there are no mooring masts in the Dominions and the meteorological data are not adequate, or, at least, not in adequate shape. The Air Minister begged his hearers to consider with sympathy his request that the masts and the data should be provided by their Governments without delay. The matter is urgent, for it will take some two years to have the request fulfilled. The cost of the masts is estimated at about £70,000, and that of collecting and marshalling the data cannot be very large. DOMINIONS' CO-OPERATION. The reception by the overseas delegates of the Air Minister's appeal was very encouraging, the Times says. The Prime Minister of Canada! l6d the way with great spirit by pledging liis Government, to take immediate steps for the erection of mooring masts and for beginning meteorological organisation, Mr. Bruce, for Australia/ showed equal eagerness for the development o:t civil and commercial Imperial aviation. He was indeed a little more cautious about committing • his Government' to the particular plan of erecting a mooring\ mast.' He asked very rightly for further evidence, which will doubtless be forthcoming; but he thought he , could go so far as to say that, if there were, reasonable possibilities of making airships cafe upon the journey, "we' would take the risk of a mooring' mast" and certainly provide the meteorological information. Mr. Coates expressed his own intense interest and that of Now Zealand in the subject, and does not think that the cost would trouble her, if she were assured that the service is practicable and that it would be regular; and Mr. Havenga promised that the Government of South Africa would "carefully consider" the l provision of a mooring mast. There is every reason for satisfaction at this general agreement. Clearly the assembled statesmen- from every quarter of the Empire all recognise the immense importance of the problem, and believe that 1 their peoples wiU be ready to further its solution to best of their abilities. THE STATE IN INDUSTRY. Active participation by the State in industry was critically examined by Sir Lyndon Macassey in an address last month before the Institute of Chartered Accountants in London. He said that in England, it was necessary to assume, having regard to the genius of the people, the national temperament and the average Englishman's subconscious outlook,' that prima facie private enterprise and individual freedom in economic life was the true rule of progress. When it was proved that certain urgent public economic needs could not be supplied under the normal procedure of private enterprise, he suggested that any reasonable assistance by the State to private enterprise was preferable to the State itself going into industry to supply the needs of the public. If in the end it was incumbent on the State to start or take over an industry to supply an urgent public economic need,' one could only hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. . The real test was whether the community would probably lose more by not having the need supplied at all than it would certainly lose by having the supply of it undertaken by the Government. Speaking of State management in practice, Sir Lyndon Macassey said that in some countries the national railways had been the football of contending political parties. The Cape Railways and the Government railways in Australia were cases in point. In some countries, of which Belgium was a conspicuous example, the State railway administration had completely failed to satisfy the requirements of trade for railway extensions and improvement of equipment. Tested by their ability,to vary methods and adjust charges so as to accommodate customers and secure the greatest volume of business, State railways everywhere lagged behind railways in the hands of private enterprise. With the exception of the South African Dominion Railways, which produced a balance on the right side, the Prussian State Railways were the only Government railways which retnrned any considerable profit to the State after payment of working expenses and interest od capital. Belgian and Swiss State railways just managed to balance their budgets. The other German States and Australia had had from time to time to resort to national taxation to meet their railway deficit and the State railways in Austria, Italy and "France were hopeless financial propositions.