TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 21659, 22 March 1932, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

In a recent speech Dr Lindsay, master of Balliol, said he did not think anyone could read about an inquest as a result of a motor accident without coming to the conclusion that the law had allowed people to take risks—risks which represented no moral turpitude at all. If they considered the way in which accidents had been prevented in the mines or on the railway, they must be struck by the fact that it had been found necessary to have those accidents investigated by people who were experts on the subject. If they thought of the extraordinary care with which inquests were taken on fatal accidents that had occurred on railways, and compared that with the kind of discussion that took place at an inquest on any motoring fatality, they realized that the enlightenment got from the latter was as nothing compared with that got at the former.

“My own belief,” said Dean Inge in a lecture in which he discussed the relation between modem scientific theories on the evolution of the universe and the Christian tradition of creation, "is that if the cosmic process, as we partly know it, is doomed io pass out of existence, • there will be, and perhaps are already, other world orders of which we know nothing. . . . Some

opponents of Christianity absurdly maintain that the substance of the Christian religion has been destroyed by new discoveries. My contention is that Christianity stands or falls, not with any theories about the past and future of our planet and its inhabitants, but with the great tradition, the foundations of which were laid by the Greeks, and which has been developed by a long line of Christian thinkers. This tradition is now assailed by what looks like a coalition. Its leaders have studied the new science and wish to be scientific. But my contention is that their position gives them no advantage over the adherents of the old tradition in dealing with the grave problems which physics, astronomy and biology present.”

“If Lancashire and the North continue to give preference to foreign butter when Vie Empire is producing on a scale never before experienced in history the result bound to be utterly disastrous to Empire trade and Britain’s economic revival,” said Sir John Haslam, M.P., in a speech at Bolton. The occasion was a lecture to members of the Junior Imperial League on the food value of New Zealand butter as distinct from foreign butter. Already, said Sir John there was a disparity of over threepence a pound between the wholesale prices of Danish and New Zealand butter. That was due to the geographical delimitations of the home butter market, which caused the supply to remain static over a large area in the North and Midlands, while the South reaped the benefit of increased Empire production. If the demand for Empire butter were spread evenly over the whole country the disparity in prices would soon disappear and the purchasing power of our Dominions would be greatly increased. The present preference of the North for foreign butter was a most regrettable thing. Unless Northern consumers resolved to give up the foreigner and buy Empire it would be utterly impossible for New Zealand and other Dominions to maintain their purchases of British goods. “If Lancashire continues to freeze out Empire butter she will inevitably destroy the valuable market she now enjoys for cotton goods in the Empire dairying countries,” added Sir John.