LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24775, 24 December 1943, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Times Have Changed Sir, —It is certainly a case of poetic justice to rend that Mr. Webb was concerned about the effect of the gas strike on the public. If Mr. Webb will reflect a little he will remember that he and many of his colleagues were responsible for educating the working people of the country as to the use of the "strike weapon" in industry. The main point is that former strike leaders are now the national leaders and it would be more in keeping if they set out to rectify the numerous anomalies in wages and working conditions, instead of "passing the buck" on to various boards and committees. C. Dawson.

Paying and Owing Sir, —Your correspondent Mr. J. Johnstone is suffering from a confusion of thought. He is confusing money with real wealth. It is obvious that a barter transaction may result in debt. When Edward Bellamy wrote "Looking Backward" he postulated a world without money, all transactions being on the check system. He was bitterly attacked, and the gifted economist replied: "It "seems incredible that such confusion should exist over what is an elementary and fundamental truth. Our present monetary system not only puts a brake on production, but locks up the goods afterwards. What we really do is tantamount to telling a housewife whoso homo is full of food and other goods that as she has no money she cannot have access to the goods." Why should New Zealand not be allowed, per means of the Eeserve Bank, to draw op her creditP The private inidvidual is allowed to do so. Your correspondent refers to world debts existing because no provision had been made to meet them. Quite so. Under a debt-free monetary system this would have never occurred. Take the Inst depression. The world was bursting with goods. Nature had not slumped. Hut we were told there was no money. What occurred then can occur again. Money, per se, and in the last analysis, is the result of wealth —-not the cause of it. Is not the time ripe for a careful analysis to be made now, and our monetary system drastically altered to prevent the position wp fell into a few years ago recurring? Hp.Rnr.nT Mulvihim,. Accrediting Sir, —There Is a tendency now to argue that accrediting cannot make much difference, because no secondary pupil can be accredited by the head teacher without having a year before passed an examination for the school certificate. But wliat is that examination worth?, Jt was devised to cover a wide option of "non-academic" subjects, in the hope that employers would accept it in place of matriculation as the educational qualification for business appointments. Now it is to be forced upon them. Tn practice, it has usually contained a preponderance of the old matriculation subjects, few schools possessing the extravagant equipment required for the soft options. This core of traditional subjects was examined by the university examiners a.s part of matriculation. Who will examine it now? Not the university examiners whose, papers—for those not accredited—will now be set on an additional year's work. So it will he the officials of the Education Department. Business will be compelled to accept, not now the verdict of educated men. but instead the verdict of the tohungas of "education."

The public has gone oil paying those matriculation Ices without which the University of .New Zen I and would he bankrupt. So, to further the schemes of the new education quacks, Mr. Nash hastens to reimburse the university for the loss of these fees, enabling it to snap its fingers at the public. The spectacle of a corporate body like our university being actually subsidised by the Government to withhold a public service casts far into the shade the classic incinerations of Brazilian coffee crops. Remember, this is ajl finalised and beyond review in any discussion of reports from tho mysterious commission on secondary education. The only remedy left is for the graduates to eject from the senate those members who -have exploited their devotion to academic ralues. W. Andehson. Auckland University Collegia.