NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20241, 29 April 1929, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

CURING UNEMPLOYMENT. "It is already clear that there arc differences of opinion in the Liberal camp as to the wisdom or practicability of the pled go which Mr. Lloyd George gave when he launched his general election scheme for the relief of unemployment," tho Times stated recently. "In that pledge lie declared that the scheme would reduce tho figures of the workless in (he course of a year to normal proportions without adding ono penny to national or local taxation. Even at this early date it is obvious that many members of the Parliamentary Liberal Party arc not prepared to endorse that pledge, although they are ready to support tho general idea underlying the scliemo and to cooperate in dealing with the problem of unemployment in every possible way. They arc already saying that to talk of any vast scheme of this kind not adding ono penny to national or local taxation is nonsense. When the Liberal leader gave his plcdgo ho stated that ho did so after consultation with his colleagues, but it is now known that the colleagues to whom he referred were not the members of tho Parliamentary party, despite the fact that ho is their elected leader. The scheme was not submitted to thcin at all, and they had no idea beforehand that he proposed to give such a pledge. Many of them now say that they cannot support .it in its entirety, and that they propose to intimate to their constituencies without delay that they do not regard themselves as bound by a pledge to which they wero not a party. It seems equally clear that the executive committee of tlie National Liberal Federation was not consulted, despite tho fact that the federation has passed a resolution that no Liberal Party policy ought to be announced unless it has been submitted first to that body.

METAL AIRCRAFT. Addressing the 21st annual meeting of tho Institute of Metals, Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for Air, said tho development of aviation during tho last 21 years would have been quito impossible without tho work which the members of tho institute individually and collectively had done in research and in experiments with regard lo light metals and their alloys. Perhaps tho main problem of aviation during those years had been that of combining lightness with power. The work of the institute had been invaluable in making possible tho production of light and powerful and flying machines. Tho new metal machines which were boing substituted for tho old wooden types wero 15 per cent, lighter for land and 25 per cent, lighter for flying-boats. In tliroo years they had been able lo turn British aviation from a wooden into a metal aviation. Thrco years ago tho total number of metal machines ordered by the Air Ministry in 12 months was only 21, as compared with 392 wooden machines. In 1928, however, they ordered 423 metal as against 63 wooden machines. By the end of this year they would have substituted metal machines for wooden almost entirely, with tho exception of a few machines for training the Air Force, lie did not think there had been a swifter or more silent revolution, and its success was duo to thrco causes. I 1 irsfc it was due to tho wise policy that was adopted by the Air Ministry and the resolute way in which they had carried it out. Secondly it was due to the enterprise and adaptability of tho British aircraft industry, which had shown a willingness to pool its knowledge and experience. Thirdly tho success was duo lo tho research and experimental work of metallurgists and the knowledge they had accumulated.