THE AXE IN FRANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 14

THE AXE IN FRANCE.

GOYERNMENT’S ECONOMICS

MANY PUBLIC PROTESTS.

THE TWO COURSE MEAL,

The cry of the axe is heard in. the land, said the Paris correspondent of the London Observer at the end of December. From every part of France, from every department of the Government, the wail of protest is rising against the Government administra tive economies, every Senator and Deputy has received an urgent summons from the threatened Mayors to attend what is practically an unofficial national assembly. Parliamentarians refusing to be present were warned that all local Interests would be mobilised against them at the, next elections. The mayors maintained that unreal economies will result from the proposed reforms and that M. Poincaire in decreeing them was abusing the powers given him, by Parliament. While many share the Mayors' views as to ths amount of public money saved by the axe, there was too much of a political anti-Ministerial flavour about the protests for them to have much effect. Ministers explained that the reform schems must be considered as a whole, that it really aimed at a great measure of decentralisation which would bring about the spueding-up of all local government, and cut down the burden of paper under which the country groans. “Public economies are never very popular, says the correspondent, “and the axe which has fallen upon so many sub-prefectures and local courts of justice, if it has reduced the list which all French school children are expected to know by heart during the geography lesson, has provoked loud outcries from sleepy provincial towns, where the closing of the little building which bears the proud title of Palais de Justice over its portals will deprive the local cafe of several regular customers whose not excessive labours as public servants allow them to pass the afternoon over a quiet game of manille and a vermouth cassis. “Perhaps the decision, just announced, to reduce the number of civil servants in another direction, wil' be less generally un popular It can, however, hardly be expected, 1 fear, that the forthcoming suppression of the jobs of 700 tax collectors will mean that we shall pay any less in taxes One would have thought, indeed, that this was ths one pub’ic service in France which was not overstaffed and underworked, and that the chief result of reducing its num bers would be to make the delays in the collection of the revenue even longer than they are at present. THE STATE THEATRES.

"On the other hand, if the public wiU support the abolition of tax collectors without a murmur France, or at any rate Paris, would hardly tolerate another form of public economy at which certain politicana have hinted; and that is the reduction of the subsidies of State theatres. Even the boldest advocate of retrenchment would hardly dare to touch the Comedie-Pranoaiss, now in its third century of existence, with its intricate constitution of self-government built up on successive royal, imperial, and republican decrees, and its subvention as an integral part of -that constitution. If they did, the Comedie would no doubt de fend its rights before the Conseil d’Etat, and even 'he Ministry of Finance would probably havs to give in. “But there are the Opera, the Opera Comique and the Odeon, which are not selfgoverning, but in which a manager, ap pointed by the State and receiving a sub isdy from it, runs ths theatre under his own direction, and makes a profit if he can These theatres are perhaps more vulnerable but it is pointed out that in each case the manager would have a ground for action ■ against the Stats if one of the principal conditions of his agreement were suddenly suppressed or even modified. . Opinion wa/ also exercised about that other form of economy which was to enforce th? reduction of private as well as public expenditure. The two-course meal m restaurants seems to he accepted without much protest, said the writer. After all, vou can make it up in hors-d oeuvre, if you ars hungry, and is there not a certain restaurant in Pans, famous for its dorsd’oouvre, which has been obliged to put up a notice in its dining room to the effect that meals consisting of .horse-d oeuvre'only will not be allowed? There has, nevertheless been a little trouble about wedding breakfasts or ‘lunches,’ as they are called. Nobody can believe that ths authorities really want to diminish the splendour of the mar riage festivities of the petite bourgeoise where the whole party starts off in a closed 'charabanc, upholstered, in white and fitted with a piano, to eat an mtermidable meal in a suburban restaurant. THE PRICE OF TRIPE. “There has also been .pome surprise that the sumptuary laws have done so little to bring down the" price of food. There .6 trips, for instance. Now tripe cooked slowly in the baker’s oven for at least half a day, “ft Ift mode de Caen/ finds a irequsnt place on every middle-class French table. And yet, although the supply is so great that thousands of pounds weight are thrown away daily at the Halles,, the price still remains high. The Prefect of Police is going to look into the matter, and if he can succeed in getting it sold cheaper ths measures of economy will no doubt include an ‘Eat More Tripe’ campaign. ; “There is another delicacy of which the price has gone up instead of down; and that is truffles; but then there is a reason for it. In the Departments of the Lot and the Dordogne, which make up the district of Ferigord has been cultivated for generations the particular variety of oak which grows truffles at its roots. For the health of these truffles rain in August is essential, and there has been none this year. bo they will have to put something else to flavour the pate de foie gras.”