NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21164, 22 April 1932, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

CASE LAW CONFUSION. Mr. Justice McCardie recently made some strong comments on tho old legal authorities which govern present-day actions. After hearing legal arguments in an action in which a woman claimed damages for the loss of her husband, who was killed by the collapse of a crane, he decided that on the authorities there was no right of action against the owners of the crane. "Tho discussion in this Court on the authorities reveals (ho absolutely deplorable state of English case law," said the Judge. "So far from it being a source of pride to us, no intelligent layman hearing a body of cases discussed can do so without wondering how it is that such a state of confusion exists. If it were open to mo I would wipe out two-thirds of theso decisions and fivesixths of the dicta. I think it is tho duty of an English Court to have plain, clear rules, and there would be no difficulty in doing that if the Courts would only face the realities of life which govern the relationship between man and man. If this case goes to the House of Lords, then, with the greatest respect to that tribunal, I do profoundly hope that at last the profession and the country will be endowed with a set of working rules upon the questions which have arisen in this case."

RURAL CRAFTS. Rural craftsmanship is encouraged bv a London society which maintains a permanent showroom in which are displayed such goods as ironwork from village forges, quilts in traditional designs from colliery hamlets, furniture, basketry, pottery and tweeds. At. a meeting of the society Sir William Rothenstein said there were no better craftsmen anywhere in the world than in Britain and the reason why the country craftsmen were failing was that the country had lost, tho art of co-operating with them. For that he, personally, largely blamed the museums and antique shops, which gave persons the notion that to achieve distinction they must furnish their houses with the work of the past. It was the enchanting quality of the great English houses of the. past that they were the very history of English craftsmanship. Up to the 18th century tho country gentleman had the knowledge which enabled hini to go to the village carpenter or blacksmith and tell him what he wanted. To day most people did riot know what they wanted. The plea that he, would make was that those of his hearers who lived in the country should get into touch with their own village people and start them on quite simple things that they really needed. MASS PRODUCTION EVILS.

Speaking at. tlie wme mpeting Dr. Unwin said that, the question of country industries was not a. mere, tl win riling fad, but, a vital problem. In the last few years there had been started in Czechoslovakia the biggest, shoe factory ever made, employing 15.000 men and /urning out. 60.000.000 pairs of shoes in a year —nearly enough, he supposed, for the whole of the United Kingdom. This mechanisation was rapidly defeating itself, for it was creating unemployment faster than the advantages derived from mechanisation could be. taken up, as the. United .States had amply demonstrated fince the war. lie looked forward to a vastly greater development of the. old handicrafts, and particularly useful handicrafts, as the only way out of our present trouble. Mass production might have its part to play in the world, but he still believed that there were things it would pay better to make by hand rather than by machinery.

REMONETISATION OF SILVER. Sir l'obert Home pleaded for the remonetisation of silver and the establishment of a bimetallic monetary standard in a speech at Bradford, lie said there were two problems arising out of gold scarcity:—(l) To mitigate if possible the present disequilibrium caused by the scarcity of gold in all countries other than France and America; and (2) to provide against the inadequacy of the gold supply in the years ahead. He suggested that the remonetisation of silver was tile best way of dealing with them. lie agreed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement that the world required some metallic basis as the foundation for international exchange and the international exchange could not be operated upon a managed paper currency, lie was glad to note the indication in the Chancellor's speech that, while ho believed in gold as providing the most efficient basis, he did not shut out the possibility of its being united with something else, the implication being that the Chancellor contemplated the possibility of a return to a standard composed both of gold and silver. Such a union would afford the safest method by which a reversal of the disastrous deflation, which had already lasted too long, could bo achieved, and as a permanent policy would nt least alleviate the difficulties in which the world would be placed through the inadequacy of the gold supply foreshadowed by the Macmillan Committee. The stabilisation of silver in some defined ratio to gold would greatly facilitate trade with silver-using countries. There was no single act which we could attempt which would so quickly create » turn in pur fortunes.