NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23221, 15 December 1938, Page 14

NOTES AND COMMENTS

HOPES FOR CALMER WEATHER "It is not enough .to have your quarrel just; you must be armed also," declared General Smuts, in a speech at Kimberlcy. "That is the lesson we have learned during recent weeks. In the circumstances we may appeal for world peace, but we cannot always rely on optimism and goodwill. If your cause is just, then it is worth while making sacrifices for it and preparing for the worst. We have to lie more nn the watch, stand more on guard than ever before, i feel that our fear is over for years. The European crisis has been a tremendous warning to everyone," he added. "All have been scared at the sight of the abyss. While; 1 do not say there will be no trouble and no unrest for some time, 1 think we are in for years of peace and quiet." FAITH IN APPEASEMENT "Mr. Chamberlain not only tried to avert European war; he tried to establish a new relationship," said Dr. C>. F. Fisher. Bishop of Chester, in a recent speech. "If that fails it still neems to me a wholly Christian thing to have attempted it. It has not yet failed, although we do most anxiously look to see evidence that it will bear fruit; but surely we must deprecate speeches and articles which, however sincerely felt, do in fact jeopardise the attempt and destroy the conditions which are necessary lor its success. 1 here is an immense responsibility upon us to gne this precarious adventure of faith, oi of what I called applied Christianity, a fair chance, by believing in it when its difficulties are most apparent."

FOUR CHURCHMEN AT ONE "Not very long ago I was standing in the front quad of a college in Oxford, talking to a young Scotsman (a Presbyterian) and to a Baptist minister," said the Rev. Frank Hunt in a recent address. "One of us remarked that the. ecclesiastical backgrounds of us three presented a pretty complete picture of disunion; two members of Established Churches, living alongside each other, but not in Communion; and a dissenter from both! Someone else said, 'We only want a Roman Catholic to complete the party.' At that moment a French-Canadian, a Roman Catholic, came across the quad and joined ns! It came to me to suggest that we should go into the chapel. We went in and knelt together at the altar; the altar where Keble, Newman, and Pusey celebrated. We knelt for a time in silence, Roman and Anglican, Baptist and Presbyterian, absolutely at one. Then one oL' us began to pray aloud. It was the Roman Catholic. I shall never forget that prayer. He prayed in his broken English: 'Dear God, we give You our Churches. You give us power to—to—to —go ahead for Jesus Christ.' "

PRELUDE TO PEONAGE Three hundred years ago America was the richest land on earth, writes Mr. Peter Neumann in the Spectator. There were no promised streets of silver, but the soil was a rich black gold. The forests primeval that Longfellow envisioned towered over a land rich in the bounties of Nature. This is no more. American farmers —once called the backbone of the nation — are poverty stricken. The forests have been cut in half. Erosion cuts through and sweeps away soil of an area as large as England and Wales combined and nearly 500,000,000 dollars' worth of topsoil blows away every year. Combined with and the cause of an economic tragedy, the American farmer to-day possesses little, and can hope for less. Averages set the value of the American farm at close to .5000 dollars and. their size at 155 acres. Fifty-five years ago 50 per cent of the nation's farmers owned their own farms. To-day only half claim to and thousands considered owners are as insecure as tenants, for in some areas the farmer's equity in his property is as little as one-fifth. Income is as low as ownership. Half the farmers in the United States realise an income of less than 1000 dollars, most of it in produce value; over a fourth realise less than 600 dollars, and three out of five less than 400 dollars. The national farm income to-day is only 273 dollars per farm inhabitant. America is now witnessing but the middle stage in the development of a grave problem. Once this problem grows to its full dimensions nothing will be able to stop it. In this period of short perspective just the blame is being shifted; in another 20 years it will be the social structure. A condition in which half a nation owns no land, and three-quarters no homes, certainly supports no optimism.

THROUGH TRAFFIC ROADS "1 was interested to see very recently in Italy that the generality of roads were quite good and .sufficient for the normal traffic needs of the district, but, for other than this traffic, i.e., through traffic, and for vehicles requiring to move at speeds beyond local requirements, there existed an Auto-strade which could he used on payment of a toll, " said Mr. G. S. Szliimper, general manager of the Southern Railway, in a recent address. "The Auto-strade had been provided Inprivate enterprise and was reserved tor motor vehicles solely, and I am bound to say I consider this to be the only sane and equitable method of catering for traffic in excess of local needs; it well might, be that Parliamentary sanction should be obtained before their construction is permitted, and that regulation of their tolls and general design and operation be enforced just, as in the case of the railways. Such a system of private motor toll roads would at any rate remove from the taxpayer a grievance that he now voices as to the provision at his cost of business premises for the road operator, and would enable steps to be taken to prevent the ordinary roads becoming choked with through traffic, and with loads unsiiitccl to the character of the highway and quito unrelated to the districts through which they pass. I feel, too, that such a scheme would bo for the ultimate development of road transport, and would go some distance toward providing a natural economic division between road and rail traffic. It should also help the motor vehicle manufacturer by making it worth his while to build vehicles of greater power —in the. knowledge that the full power could be put to use and not, as under present conditions, held in check for a large proportion of each journey."