NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20480, 4 February 1930, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

DEMOCRACY. " Whatever* the defects of a democratic society, it has this great advantage, that it can be criticised freely," says Dr. Delisle Burns, in a recently-published volume ot essays " Criticism is not allowed in oligarchies, nor in modern tyrannies such as Fascism or Russian Communism. Democracy shows its inner strength by allowing adverse criticism. But it is quite useless to give everyone ' a say ' if no one has anything of value to say; and a system which requires the daily support of common men is futile, if most of them are weak-willed or unwilling. Undoubtedly in communities claiming to be democratic to-day men wait to be spoon-fed and then grumble at the food. . . . The success or failure of the democratic ideal depends not only on the institutions which give the opportunities for the abilities of the common man to come into play, but also upon the actual release of more force —more varied and more effectual co-operation by individuals. Clearly, as institutions become more elaborate, the chances of error in social action become more numerous; but, on the other hand, each error is less disastrous in proportion, as'the whole of social life is made up of contributions from many men." ENGLISH MANNERS.

"In.England, people care less about good manners than good form," says Miss Mary Borden, the novelist, in a contribution to Harper's Magazine. " The English people are in general too insensitive and too lacking in curiosity to have really good manners; for the Jack of curiosity means lack of sympathy and a wide indifference to what others feel or think. Being very modest people or, what is the same thing, excessively proud but not vain, and with an intense positive dislike for showing off, their manners on the- whole are better than one might expect; for, though they don't care a rap about pleasing, they don't care either about showing their displeasure, and so probably they show little or no sign of any kind. Indifference is their prime social quality; that it does not make for the gaiety of nations goes without saying. I repeat again, the Englishman doesn't care what strangers think of him. Ho assumes that he is better than they are, and, in any case, he knows that he is self-sufficing. His blank classic stare means that he wouldn't care a rap if the whole of Europe and the Americas sank under the sea, so long as the British Isles and, incidentally, the British Dominions, survived the cataclysm." MODERN ART TENDENCIES.

A report was recently telegraphed from New York that the award of an annual prize had been 'made by a committee of 20 members of the National Academy of Design to an example of "modern art " which, it was afterwards found, was hanging on its side when the committee judged the competition. "By what means, in what manner, and at approximately what time will the reaction begin agafnst the tomfoolery—and worse—of the years through which we are now passing V asks Mr. Hilaire Belloc, writing of this incident in the New Statesman. " There is chaos, not only in plastic art, but in morals, and.in the chief material expression of morals (which is architecture), and in the use of language, and in pretty well everything which has hitherto been invigorated and made sane by tradition.in Western Europe. I may say, in passing, that England is freer from these horrors than any Western country I know except Spain. The disease is violent in Germany and in Holland, but at its worst, I think, in France, where every year some new crime is committed against our great inheritance. We are ignorant of the moment and the mode wherein and whereby a reaction toward order and tradition in art will arise. But come it will. And I hope I shall live to see it. It is overdue."

THE LONDON MONEY MARKET. " While London's task as an international centre may be appreciably more difficult than in pre-war times, and its scope, particularly as regards long-term operations, may for some time to come be less extensive, there is no question of London's ability to continue to transtact international business," says the 'Westminster Bank Review. " Its technique is more rather than less, efficient, and its experience is certainly wider, than in 1913. Competition from other centres, particularly from New York, may be more formidable, but there is room in the world for moro than one international lender. There is no fundamental divergence in aim, and no clash in interest, between finance and industry. The former is most prosperous when industry is most active, and the desire of the latter to have as largo a volume of credit as possible available for its operations is paralleled by the desire of the banking system to provide such credit to tho utmost extent compatible with sound and healbhy conditions. On a long view, London's character as an international centro tends .to enlarge the dimensions of available financial'resources and not to reduce them, whatever conditions may obtain in an abnormal and short-lived incidental phase. If this be true, it is desirable that no obstacles should be arbitrarily placed in tho way of London's fulfilment, of its international functions, directly or indirectly. In return, industry and the country as a whole may readily expect from those concorned, as in the past, a poligy based upon a complete appreciation of contemporary facts and of tho national interest. In particular, it remains the task of finance to ensure that, while adequate provision is made for all international contingencies, money rates are changed no moro oftou and to no greater an extent than is absolutely necessary."