NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19727, 29 August 1927, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PAKEHA AND MAORI. " It may bo confidently said that the history of tho contacts between Europeans and ' primitive ' people contains no chapter that may bo read with more satisfaction than tho story of the Maori race in New. Zealand," writes Professoi A. J Grant, o" Leeds University, in tho York shiro Evening News. "I believe the memory of the amazing fight they put up against the English !.as been of service to them It has saved them from tho paralysing sense of inferiority and self-contempt which seems to be near the centre of the causes of the failure of some native races. They have no humiliating r| efeat to look back jn, but a series of struggles the heroism r which is probably uow a good deal touched by legend. Their prowess at football uas been a really important influence in tho same direction. It has raised thein much in their own esteem to find that there is one 'ctivit< which the Englishman values very highly where they can equal and often excel him. Whateve. the reasons, tho ..laori now enjoys a position of remarkable equality by the side of tho white man. The contrast with th position of things and the trend of public opinion North America, in South Africa, and even to a certain extent in Australia is most striking. The New Zealanders take a pleasure in telling yo how no distinction is made between the two races. 1 do not to paint tho situation in too bright colours There are some dis appointing featuros; there are difficulties ahead, especially in connection with the Maori ownership of land; there are many instances of distre .ink reversion to type even among well-educated Maoris But on the whole the outlook of the Maoris is full of hope and creditable to Maoris and Englishmen alike."

CONVALESCENT PATIENTS. A largo private house at Reigate has been equipped as an annexe of the London Hospital to accommodate men patients nearing the convalescent stage. It has been established by the "Marie Celeste" Samaritan Society, which was founded 136 years ago to assist patients of the London Hospital. The annexe was i-ecently formally opened by the Minister of Health, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, who said it was more than a mere addition of 20 new beds to the existing 1000 beds of the hospital. The expenses of hospitals had risen out of all proportion to the increase of their income. He understood that at the London Hospital, for instance, a bed which cost 35s a week for maintenance 25 years ago, to-day cost five guineas. The increase was largely due to the alteration in the value of money, to the improvement in the pay and conditions of nursing (a reform he thought long overdue), and, perhaps even more, to the increasing demands which were mado upon the hospital in consequence of the advance in medical and surgical science. Much of the work in these new departments of hospitals was concerned with only the first part of the patient's stay in the hospital. That was succeeded by the second period, when the treatment he required was much less specialised and when his bed might really bo moro profitably occupied by someone who would require the benefits of these specialised services. The great advantage, therefore, of annexe treatment was, taking hospital services as a whole, that it enabled a far greater use to be made of all the services at their disposal, and so they got much better value for their money. He thought the idea, first started by the society's three annexes for women patients and now followed by this annexe for men, was really of national importance. These 20 beds would mean, perhaps, the saving of thousands of lives in the future, of people who otherwise would have had to wait for a bed until, maybe, it was too late. 110 trusted the new enterprise might be only one of many such annexes to bo built in the future. TIME-WAGES OR PIECE-WORK. "There is abundant evidence to show that the time-wage system is inadequate. Its successful operation depends on the honesty and goodwill of the workmen, or upon the driving power of the management and no matter how keen a management, it is impossible to get the best results from a body of workpeople who do not feel that their personal interests are directly allied to their personal efforts," says Engineering. "The system of straight piece-work is just and workable. In the present stage of industrial development it is probably the system best suited to our needs. A man enters into a contract to do a certain piece of work for a certain price, or to do it in a certain time. Other things being equal, his wage depends upon the energy or skill which he displays. Ho is induced to exert himself. Ho knows from hour to hour and from day to day what he is earning, so that the stimulus remains. Personal advantage is a dominating factor 'in life, and the system of straight piecework is the most direct and effective method of allying a workman's efforts to his interests. The successful operation of the system presumes two things, namely, that piece-work prices in the first instance should be fair, arid that, secondly, they should not be broken by the employer merely because a man exerts himself and earns high wages. If a price is originally fixed on too high a basis, a worker may earn a wage which ho feels should not be exceeded, and yet may not be' giving an output the reasonable equivalent of his wage. In such a case, he is deliberately inefficient and is robbing the employer of production. If, on the other hand, a workman by supreme effort or by special skill earns a high wage and, in consequence, finds his piecework price broken, the employer is robbing the worker of the legitimate fruits of his energy or of his skill. When such a tendency to tako unfair advantage exists on either side, the value of the system is seriously depreciated, and it may, indeed, come to be an actual disadvantage."