NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19897, 16 March 1928, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

„ SAVING AND SPENDING. " In spite of the substantial volume of money constantly seeking investment, there is a consensus of opinion among economists that, as a nation we are saving less and spending more than we did before the Great War. The phenomenon of freer spending obtrudes itself upon our notice every day," said Mr. R. Hugh Tennant, chairman of the Westminster Bank, in his first speech in that position. "The masses of the people are better clothed and better fed. The motor-car, a few years back, was a luxury of the rich; to day garage accommodation is one of the first preoccupations of architects of even humble homes. In so far as this freer spending represents a higher standard of living, better health, increased efficiency and happiness, it is entirely welcome. In so far as it represents mere squandering, it it to be wholly condemned. Probably most authorities would agree that tho general public should pay closer attention than they are at present paying to tho need for economy. There has been since pre-war days a substantial measuro of redistribution of income as. between various classes of the population, the rosult of which is that the purchasing power of the richer classes has declined, while increase has taken place in the leal income of the poorer. Since it is easier for the richer to save than for the poorer, this tendency probably means a permanent 'decline in the volume of national savings, and emphasises the importance of efforts to inculcate thrift." THE OUTLOOK IN BRITAIN. "For the first time since the disasters of 1926 there are definite signs of the beginning of a new relationship between capital and labour in this country, the Times said recently. "The signs, no doubt, are small and scattered. It would be extremely unwise to make too much of them. Still, they are there—in the general abandonment by tho trade unions of the 'class war' policy; in their readiness to take part in tho conference initiated by Sir Alfred Mond; in the recognition by employers in individual industries that good wages and efficient management are the contribution required from their side in industrial cooperation ; above all in the deliberate elimination of politics from the recent discussions of industry. Slowly and arduously, but also surely, industry is making headway on the whole, and there is, among industrialists the same measured confidence in an accelsrated improvement of trade which the bankers, with their fingers on the pulse of every industry, do not conceal. Every hope of the kind depends, of course, on the continuance of industrial peace; and, just to the extent that industrial peace develops from a state of mutual tolerance into one of active and purposeful cooperation, so hope will be transformed into the certainty that prosperity will not be jeopardised by tho warfare of interests that are necessarily linked together." EASIER TAX PAYING. Citizens of Stoke-cn-Trent are now permitted to pay their rates by affixing stamps weekly to cards for official collection. The device has been recommended for wider use by a contributor to the London Evening News, who says:—"So long as the Government takes a considerable proportion of our earnings from us, so long must it devote special attention to devising means by which the process can be made as easy for us as possible. This suggestion offers a means which might make it, at any rate, much easier than at present. The prudent man of middling income does not run up big bills if he can help it. Such is human nature that it is easier to pay small sums often than a large sum now and again. He therefore meets his liabilities as they arise, and he takes care that they shall arise at such frequeut intervals as never to assume unmanageable proportions. But income tax, which is for many people by far the largest individual item of regular annual expenditure, falls on him with crushing weight twice a year. He is given no opportunity of dealing with it in the manner best suited to that in which his income is earned or to his own habits of handling money. The stamp system would be so flexible as to accommodate itself to all peculiarities, whether economic or psychological. The taxpayer would buy his stamps precisely as he now meets the requirements of his domestic budget. He would have no more trouble with the Inland Revenue authorities than he has with his grocer. It may also be added that the Inland Revenue authorities would have no trouble with him." INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. Some threats to liberty were discussed by Dr. Ernest' Barker, the newly-ap-pointed professor of political science in the University of Cambridge, in his inaugural lecture. He said freedom was a precious thing; and an individual moral will, even if it had to act in harmony with other and similar wills, must essentially be free if it was to be moral. The cause of liberty, proclaimed by Mill as by Milton, had seemed a cause which had been accepted; it was a cause which was being threatened. Its enemies wore no ignoble faces. There was the puritanism of administrative zeal, concerned for the setting in order of a thickly populated and sadly complicated society full of contacts and conflicts of interest which seemed to cry for adjustment. There would always be men who would fain leave tho world a tidier place than they had found it; Again, there was the passion for social enthusiasm, aflame for a creed and consumed by desire for grasping tho sorry scheme of things and remoulding it instantly new. Such passion might move to its end like a rushing wind, taking ultimate acceptance for granted and ready to impose a dictatorship until it came. Liberty was thus threatened from tho right and the left—at once by the sober administrator and by the ardent reformer. Thero was a reaction against tho old faith in liberty and popular government; but there was no better way for the management of men than the way of self-management; and in tho long run it was the only possible way. There must, however, be energy present, and it would only be present if electorates could develop an instructed and interested public opinion, which was neither tyrannical in its occasional pressure nor apathetic in its general laxity. The formation of such a public opinion was the crux of our politics. In education ha saw the means of attaining such a body of opinion. It was an old saying that "We must educate our masters" ; and the theory of education was essentially part of political theory