CONDITIONS AT HOME.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 6

CONDITIONS AT HOME.

INDUSTRIAL CONSERVATISM. UNEMPLOYMENT STILL PREVALENT. WELLINGTON, August 28. , Although not adopting a pessimistic? view of things, Sir William Hall-Jones, j •who returned to Wellington to-day by the Corinthic from England, said that hq could not regard the position at Home with any great degree of optimism. In the iron and steel trade, and in some cases in the cotton industry, he said, things were not altogether what they might be. It seemed to him that the fault lay partly in the proverbial conservatism •of the Englishman. He was afraid to strike out in new lines to meet changed conditions, being com tent rather to follow in the lines laid down by his father and his father’s father. In these days of modern coinpetition and an altered industrial world, such a policy did not lead altogether' to industrial success. The position of the. railways in England, Sir William went on to say, could hardly be called bright. For years the ordinary shareholder had received few, ~ if any, dividends. This, to many, was disastrous, since their investments in railways were perhaps their main, or even sole, source of revenue. The competition of motor vehicles was, of course, largely responsible for this lamentable state of affairs. Statutory power for the railways to run their own motor services was not enough to remedy matters. The only solution, so it seemed to him, was for the railways drastically to write down their capital, and to lower their fares. They must, and could, do the latter, as it was a far better paying proposition to run a full carriage at reduced fares than one half empty at higher fares. One thing which very forcibly struck Sir William Hall-Jones was the evolution, since his last visit to London, of the one-way traffic. London’s traffic problems were being solved in a most wonderful manner, although there was still room for improvement in one or two -aspects. Since he was in London last —in 1921 —much of the city had been rebuilt, and that process was still going on, but Sir William Hall-Jones is not too well pleased with the result. Much of Regent street, he instanced as an illustration of what he meant, was Crown property, and hence the buildings had to be in accordance with the wishes of the Crow’n agents. Fine large buildings were certainly erected, but it was pitiful to see the number of upper storeys to let. Discussing the unemployed problem z in England Sir William Hall-Jones remarked that however prosperous a country was, there were always some unemployed, because there were always men unemployable. Too many, he was afraid, wanted as much money as possible for a minimum of work, and a number of the unemployed were incompetent. For' all that, the problem was a very big one, and a very difficult question for which to find a solution.

It is possible in Glasgow to travel 23 miles on the tramways for 2d.