NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

LIGHT-HEARTED BORROWING. The blame for the universal collapse of trade ought not to be fixed solely upon the fall in price levels, says Sir Arthur AT. Samuel, SI.P., in an article entitled "The Curse of Debt," which is published in the Times Trade and Engineering Supplement.. Part of the blame must rest upon the light-heartedncss with which before and after the War everyone used "credit" and borrowed. Nations were taught to say: "What were formerly luxuries are now necessaries," whether they could afford them or not. So every one borrowed. All, weak or strong, competent or incompetent-, were invited to follow the fashionable craze "to use their credit." They used it to excess. Then, when prices fell, the shock could not be resisted by structures enfeebled by debt. The banks would now bo doing a public service if they refused to yield to the often unjustifiable clamour for "credit," quite apart from the fact that the money, or credit, they lend is the property of the depositors and not of bank shareholders. MENTAL DEFICIENCY. Addressing the London Nursing Conference Dr. F. J. Browne, of University College Hospital, said that the growth of civilisation had interfered with natural selection to such an extent that we wore within measurable distance of the time when the fit would be in danger of being submerged by the unfit. In 1907 the ascertained incidence of mental deficients was four per 1000 in England and Wales. In 1927 it was eight per 1000. By mental deficiency he did not mean insanity. There were at the present time in Britain 314.000 mental defectives and only 25,000 of them were under any kind of institutional supervision. The remainder were almost entirely free to propagate their kind without hindrance. That was a serious utate of affairs, especially as 80 per cent, of mental deficiency was hereditary. At least 70 per cent, of the criminal population was mentally deficient. What was the remedy ? Obviously segregation would be the ideal, but in the present state of finance there was no prospect that we should get institutional treatment for those 300,000 odd mental defectives. The only alternative was sterilisation of the mentally unfit. MADE IN THE EMPIRE.

For the purposes of the British Import Duties Act the rule has been laid down that goods shall not be deemed to have been manufactured in a part of the British Empire unless at least 25 per cent, of their value is derived from materials grown or produced or from work done within a part of the British Empire. The value of manufactured goods imported is, for the purpose of deciding the appropriate duty, their cost at factory including the value of containers and other forms of interior packing ordinarily sold with the article retail. It does not include profit, exterior packing, carriage or other charges incidental to the export of goods subsequent to their manufacture. Tt is clear, therefore, that an article assembled and finished in the Empiio is not necessarily to be regarded as foreign merchandise; all depends on whether the assembling and finishing represents 25 per cent, of the cost. r J he definition, says the Times, is practically the same as that enforced in Canada when preference was first accorded to British goods. The regulations have been considerably tightened in the Dominions in recent years and at Ottawa it might be worth while to consider the possibility of introducing uniformity of practice throughout the Empire.

TALKING BUSINESS AT OTTAWA. A great deal will depend on the ability of <tlre Government representatives to talk business and not merely exchange benevolent sentiments, says a corrspondent of the Times in an article on the Ottawa Conference. In that respect they will necessarily have to rely on the assistance of business men from all the countries concerned. Are the industrialists, the merchants and the financial interests occupying themselves seriously with the examination of the practical possibilities of this vast subject? We may wonder and doubt. Yet it is the extent and thoroughness of the preliminary exploration of the ground—not by the Governments, for they can do little but consider the plans of those who will in the last resort have to execute them —that will govern tlji outcome of the Ottawa Conference. The day has gone by for long discussions over petty little tariff preferences, such as occupied so much time at the conference of 1923. A bold and far-seeing vision is wanted to-day, with a willingness both to ask and to give much more than would have been seriously proposed on any previous occasion. This is no time for small-minded-ness or haggling over trifling details. A broad plan of action, to be resolutely maintained over a space of time that must be measured by decades rather than years, should be the aim of every one at Ottawa who believes that the Empiro can bo brought back to a condition of interlocked economic prosperity in all its parts by appropriate mutual action to this end.

HEALTH "FALSE ALARMS." "What an immense boon a book which recorded false alarms would be! writes the medical correspondent of the Times. "We should learn from its pages that, every year, stout hearts are overcoming troubles which have made cripples and wrecks of weak hearts. We should learn, too, that fear and disease go hand in hand and that to admit even one fear into the mind is to lose health by tho measure of that one fear." lie speaks of the pitiable spectacle of the man who has denied his instinctive knowledge about his own health so often that he has lost that knowledge, and refers to a normal man who is concerned about his blood-pressure. "The greatest authorities on blood-pressure know how difficult it is to make positive statements," lie says. "Some of them now refuse to accept tho views that were current a few years ago. For blood-pressure seems to vary like the shape of the nose or the colour of the hair. . . . The patient goes to his doctor with one question on his lips. Is it up ? Is it down ? If normal has been reached lifo opens before his eyes; if normal has not been reached he nurses gloomy thoughts. It is all wrong. This particular symptom varies like a weathercock. The sight of a friend is capable of sending blood-pressure up to regions supposed to bo fraught with danger. The excitement of having one's pressure taken always raises it, and so on. A very wise physician in the hearing of the writer thus addressed one of these patients:— 'Do you feel well ?' 'Yes, I do, doctor.' 'Very well. Thank God and don't come back here.' "■