NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21116, 25 February 1932, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

FINLAND'S LIQUOR LAWS. Tim abandonment of prohibition in Fiwiand, as a result of a referendum in which 70 prr rent, of tho voters declared that the experiment should be ended, has attracted world-wide attention "Soberly, and as early as 1907, tho Finnish Diet voted for prohibition, but, since the, liquor tax went to the Imperial coffers, the Tsa.r vetoed the measure, both then and in 1909," says the London Daily Telegraph. "In 1917, however, ho j sanctioned it, and in 1919 the law came into force. Almost immediately bootlegging set in. Geographical conditions favoured it. Finland is a country of lakes and marshes, which, like tho bogs of Ireland, offer evely opportunity for the concealment of illicit stills. The long, indented coastline, with its innumerable tiny islands, is almost a. smugglers' paradise. In spite of all attempts at enforcement the liquor traffic prospered and extended." Last month the Government presented to the Diet a bill to regulate the manufacture, salo and consumption of beverages containing more than 2.25 per cent, alcohol. Tho Government proposes to set up a State-controlled monopoly to fake charge of the liqnor trade. It is suggested that 30 per cent, of its annual earnings should bo used for temperance purposes and for the national old ago insurance scheme, 20 per rent, by the municipalities for various charitable purposes and 50 per cent, for sundry State expenditure. It is proposed, however, that the total earnings of the monopoly in 1932 and 1933 should be given to the Exchequer. Every kind of liquor will be obtainable, but the bill contains a great number of provisions intended to restrict abuses. A YEAR OF PARADOXES. "Has 1931 been simply a year of world depression, a year of crisis, or the end of an epoch ? It has been all three. It has been a year of doubt and difficulty, a year of storm and tempest, and above all a year of paradox," says the Westminster Bank Review. "Men have been thrown ouf, of employment and nations impoverished through the existence of 'excessive' store of wealth. Serious-minded industrialists have co-operated to produce less in order to encourage, the world to consume more. Great Britain, the world's financier for 100 years, has borrowed from the United Slates, whose rise from adolesrence to economic manhood she fostered by her own wealth, and from France, much of whose war debts she recently remitted. She has borrowed at rates of interest she herself, in normal times, would consider appropriate to a South American republic of uncertain status. Nations, to defend their economic existence, have, been constrained to erect barriers to keep out tho goods of other nations. Simultaneously, they have striven to sell their own produce in other lands, only to discover that the wheels of world trade have come nearer and nearer to a standstill. . . . The past 12 months have brought the world's affairs to a point where a decision, one way or the other, affecting the welfare of millions, cannot long be delayed. International action alone can be effective in a situation which has passed beyond the control of any one power." BIRTH AND DEATH RATES. A report issued bv the health section of the League of Nations, surveying the natural increase in population since the beginning of the 20th century in the European eounlries, and Australia, New Zealand and Japan, reveals the fact that up to recent years thero has been a decline in both 11io birth-rate and the deathrate. Japan is the only country in the group studied which has had an increase in its birth-rate. Franco has now a higher birth-rate, than England, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Estonia. The average net increase of population in the course of recent years shows no general diminution in comparison with the years 1900 to 1905. However, there is for most countries some diminution. For England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Belgium the natural increase for these recent, years is only one-quarter of that of 25 years ago. For Austria, Franco and Switzerland there, is a diminution of more than 50 per cent. On the other hand, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Russia have had, since 1928, a greater natural increase than at the beginning of the century. In the year 1928 Europe had an increase of nearly .3,000,000, without counting the Soviet Republics, which appear to have had an increase of more than 2,800,000. Among tho extra-European countries the United States had an increase of 870,000 and Japan of 900,000. The continued fall in the death and birth rates has brought about important changes in the structure of the population of most countries. The proportion of elderly people is greater than -in the past, and the proportion of young people smaller. These changes will in turn bring a rise in the general death-rate and a further decline in the birth-rate. In particular the reduced generation born during the war will from 1935 to 1945 have an increasingly depressing effect on the birth-rate.