NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21411, 8 February 1933, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

PILGRIMS TO DOORN A German writer, describing Doom and its occupants, says: "Sunday after Sunday, visitors come in cars and buses, throng tho otherwise quiet village, and fill the newly-opened hotels. Morning prayer in the Haus Doom, which the Kaiser reads himself, affords an opportunity for regimental clubs, societies and single visitors to see the Kaiser and his family, speak to them after prayers, and give them presents. Doom is a magnet that draws many thousands of Germans who see in the monarchy the only hope of salvation, or have hereditary ties with the House of Hohenzollern. Masses of letters are received daily, and visitors arrive from all parts. These visitors mean much work, the greatest burden of which is borne by the Kaiser's wife. Not a day passes that she does not receive visitors in her study. Her attempts to discover the truth of things can be seen by the various books and papers of every tendency on her desk, for she finds it informing to learn different opinions even when they are not favourable."

THE LAW AND BETTING " The attitude of the law toward betting is difficult and can never be entirely consistent," said the Spectator recently. " In the eyes of the law betting is not a moral evil to be suppressed, it is a social evil to be controlled, and though the limits of control Are hard, if not impossible, to set logically, it will generally be conceded that if betting is to be acquiesced in anywhere it is on the actual course where the horses, or for that matter the dogs, which are being betted on are running. That is, in fact, the principle that has always been followed in regard to horse-racing. The totalisator has, introduced a new factor into the situation, but on the whole it is a factor to be welcomed. With a totalisator there is no welshing and no touting. It may facilitate betting, but at least it does not encourage it." Concluding some general observations on the social aspects of the question, the Spectator says:—"lt remains true at any rate that the citizen of most value to this country is the man who uses his money wisely to secure the best life for himself and his dependants," trusting as much as possible to prudence and forethought and as little as possible to chance, and that any who incite him to an opposite course are enemies to the country's welfare." POVERTY IN EUROPE

In the course of a survey of conditions in Europe, a writer in the Economist says: —" It is true that a good deal of the present distress, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, which has attracted attention among people who, to all intents and purposes, had never before considered a Hungarian as having an economic life or as being, in fact, anything but a political complication in Franz Joseph's Empire, is not due to present conditions, but is endemic in areas inhabited by a backward and poverty-stricken peasantry. It is good that Western European complacency, which has been a little shaken by the events of the last few years, should be reminded that millions of persons in the Europe of 1913 lived in conditions of shocking squalor and poverty, which could at that time be ignored because it was not believed that poverty was infectious. Now we have discovered that poverty, like cholera, tends to spread from the slums of civilisation to its .respectable middle-class areas; and it is well that we should be told that it existed even in the days when we were too. comfortable and well-fed to notice its existence. It is probably true that the beggars of Buda Pest are 110 more numerous and no worse off, actually, than before the war; and if it is true, it had better bo known."

INCREASE IN PUBLIC DEBTS Attention is directed by an article in the Australasian Banking Record to the fact that, although borrowing has lately been 011 a smaller scale than a few years ago, there has been a fairly substantial increase in public debts in Australia. It states that the total for the Commonwealth and the States has risen from £1,104,028,062 on June 30, 1929, to £1,187,827,868 on June 30, 1932, showing an'increase of £83,799,806 in three years, these figures including Treasury bills. The comparison covers the period since the closing of the London money market to Australian loans, but it conceals the fact that a greater increase than that quoted has occurred during the last two years, for the reason that between 1929 and 1930 there was a reduction in the total debts. The figures for the last five years are as follows: —

June 30 1923 *4 . < £1,094,802,901 1929 . - r « 1,104,028,062 1930 .. . - 1,100,597,198 1931 .. * 1,156,036,118 1932 . < ~ 1,187,827,868

The increase in two years has been £87,230,670, equivalent to 7.9 per cent. Of the addition during 1931-32, £4,282.630 was due to increase in the amount of debt through the conversion operation. The debt at June 30, 1932, comprised £398,884,730 on account of the Commonwealth, an increase in two years of £25,927,368; and £788,943,138 on account, of the States, an increase of £61,303,302. During the corresponding period, from March 31, 1930, to March 31, 1932, the public debt of New Zealand increased by £14,559,457 to £281,942,800, the addition being equivalent to 5.4 per cent. Calculated on the estimated population at the respective dates, public indebtedness in Australia was equivalent to £lßl per head, as against nearly £lB5 per head of debt in New Zealand.