A VICE-REGAL APPEAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20465, 17 January 1930, Page 10

A VICE-REGAL APPEAL.

From an unassailable position of impartiality toward . controversial issues in this country, the GovernorGeneral has made a suggestion, rather an appeal,, for combined action to attack its most distressing Social problem, unemployment. Having had exceptionally good opportunities of observing and summing up the characteristics of New Zealand, His Excellency has found prevailing an atmosphere of sympathy and good-fellowship which he believes could be pressed into service for the purpose. In the circumstances, his proposals are naturally made in general terms. The Governor-General has no policy to propound, no method to recommend. There have been enough of those advanced already, and none of them has brought the desired result. The country can be grateful to His Excellency, therefore, for having laid emphasis on the spirit which should animate efforts to cope with the existing situation, and not having attempted to suggest in detail what should be done. The discussion of unemployment needs, more than anything else, to be removed from the atmosphere of controversy which surrounds it. Both in Great Britain and in this country, where an identical problem on a reduced scale exists, it grows more and more apparent that there is no magic formula, the exclusive possession of any section of the community, which can be used to make the mists of unemployment clear away. To try, then, what the united wisdom of all can effect is the logical, the sensible, the desirable step to take. There have been round table conferences in New Zealand before to discuss the problem, but none of them so broadly based as that' which the Governor-General suggests. If one were to be called, composed of men, and women too, ready to make sacrifices, as it is suggested must be done, prepared to give full play to that spirit of sympathy and fellowship for which New Zealand receives credit, it might well happen that something practical would result. At least the issue would have a chance of ceasing to be the sport of contending factions, a fate which has demonstrably hampered its consideration with the impartiality it badly needs. An appeal such as the Governor-General has made comes appropriately at the moment, and it could have come from no source better calculated to give it force and weight.