NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20767, 9 January 1931, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PERJURY IN THE COURTS

" Perjury can never have been much more rife than it is to-day in our Courts of Law," said Mr. Justice McCardie, in a lecture delivered in London. V All of experience," ho continued, " must agreo that perjury is the greatest of all evils in the courts. With regret I venture to express the opinion that perjury in the Law Courts is in some degree encouraged and increased by the low standard of frankness and honesty so widely and unhappily shown in many aspects of our party political system." Referring to the announcement that a lie detector had been invented, his lordship observed: "It would indeed help profoundly in the administration of justice if by some magic of discovery a reliable, practical detector of deliberate falsehood could bo found and could be applied in our Courts." The psychologist who could discover the true test of falsity would be the greatest benefactor in the long history of human justice. The question of stemming the tide of perjury, his lordship concluded, was a grave and responsible one, not only for the psychologist, but for all responsiblo citizens. The need was to teach future generations a new, higher standard of truth.

THE SIMPLE VIRTUES,

" Immortality may be won only by affairs of the spirit," said Lord Moynihan in a speech reported in Canada. "It is this simplo truth, and this alone," ho proceeded, " which leaves no man in doubt that the ideals which nourish and inspire our Empire are the hope and promise, as they will prove tho salvation, of the world. In tho early days of the world's human history it is tho predatory virtues which triumph; but in the long run it is tho simple virtues that will conquer and prevail. The last Empire to survive upon this earth, that alone which will withstand the wreekful siege of battering days, which will gain the willing acceptance, enlist tho eager efforts, and encompass and possess tho hearts of men will surely be founded upon love and honour, truth and charity, purest faith and simple duty. Virtues such as these are no monopoly of our race, but none can deny that to their possession and their rigid practice we owo a stern allegiance. It is because we are nrmed with the sword of the spirit and the breast-plate of faith that in the end wo shall win victory, not* for ourselves alone, but for all mankind. Such is my faith. Strong beliefs win strong men and make them stronger still. In that faith the Empire must go forward."

COST OF BRITAIN'S DOLE

The borrowing powers of the British Unemployment Insurance Fund were recently increased by £10,000,000 to £70,000,000. Commenting on the proposed increase when it was before Parliament the Morning Post said:—"Without this additional borrowing there will be no money left in the Unemployment Fund after the end of 1930. At present it is paying out relief at such a rate that the expenditure exceeds the contributions received as insuranco against unemployment by £700,000 a week, and as the numbers of the unemployed steadily increaso we must expect the growth of debt to become more rapid. For some time past we have been borrowing for tho dole to the amount of £630,''000 a week. Last March the statutory limit 'of indebtedness was £40,000,000. By two instalments the Government obtained power to raise it to £60,000,000. Now it is being increased to £70,000,000. The causes of the insolvency of the unemployment fund are perfectly well known. First comes industrial depression, secondly the payment of the fund's benefits to hosts of people who are, in official language, " not really competitors for employment," thirdly, the Socialist Government's " wholesale and scandalous relaxation of conditions for benefit." The policy of bribing voters with the taxpayers' money is the one article of the Socialist creed in which all Socialists heartily believe. TRYING THE IMPOSSIBLE. There were some striking statements in the presidential address of Mr. Loughnan St. L. Pendred to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London. "Sometimes," he said, "I have wondered if

education does not hamper tho pioneer. Tt is so full of warnings not to make the attempt. Ignorance may sometimes step in where wisdom fears to tread. Most of the great inventions have been ridiculed in the>r time; all sorts of reasons have been adduced against them; some even have been condemned before they were made. Murdock's Bill to supply gas to cities was thrown out because the Committee could not imagine light without a wick, and Sir Humphry Davy said that we might as well try to light London with a bit of the moon as with gas. The locomotive, the steamship, the self-inductive dynamo, were all shown to be impossible. Flight, within our own times, was held to bo impracticable, oven against the dictates of divino Providence. Youth and unwisdom gave it to us. Wo are very apt to think that all the laws of nature as wo have formulated them are fixed and immutable, and wc aro afraid to take chances with them. Yet, wo have seen the Newtonian theory of gravitation seriously shaken, tho theory of light is in the melting pot, and tho transmutation of metals is now almost within reach. "Who knows what other crusted belief may be shattered, as knowledge is increased? According to Eddington, the second law of thermodynamics is tho only one that is still infallible! It is necessary, no doubt, that schools and colleges should be absolute; that they should say, 'lt is so,' without any reservations. But when students have passed their examinations, let us hope that some with enough folly to try the apparently impossible will always remain."