The Sun. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1928. A PYRAMID OF PENNIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 336, 23 April 1928, Page 8

The Sun. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1928. A PYRAMID OF PENNIES

THE alert Mayor of Wellington has propounded a scheme of unemployment insurance on a national basis of compulsory contribution and application in each winter of distress for all time. The plan has a rare simplicity, and is almost as alluringas the prospectus of those company promoters whose mesmerising optimism leaps over all difficulties in one jump to big dividends at once and for ever. The idea is to collect from payers and receivers of wages a penny for each £ of the Dorfi inion’s annual paysheet, the Government and all local bodies to be levied on the same scale.

If it could be guaranteed beyond all possible doubt that so light a levy every week throughout the country would make an end to unemployment and alleviate the worst cases of social distress, then the name of Mr. G. A. Troup should he blessed for evermore. Of course, such a guarantee is impracticable. Hard experience of unemployment insurance elsewhere has proved that insurance on any scale of contribution is merely a palliative, not a cure for unemployment. And too often the palliative assumes the demoralising character and influence of a drug. It stimulates a demand for the temporary relief it affords, hut does not effect a cure.

In many vital details this superficially attractive scheme is weal-:.* Indeed, its outstanding weakness lies in its apparent strength. It is proposed to levy £833,333 —a pyramid of pennies -—for the provision, if necessary, of six months’ unemployment relief work for ten thousand male workers. Apparently it has been presumed that women worker are never idle or are quite able to help themselves. Such relief works would be devised and carried out under the control of local bodies of whom some have demonstrated their inability financially to control a mile or two of street improvements. It is to he feared that, if close on a million pounds sterling were made available for the relief of unemployment every winter, the demand for its expenditure would become only too certain for the simple reason that individual enterprise (to say nothing- about the lack of‘political enterprise) would slacken in sight of a substantial fund. The great merit of Mr. Troup’s scheme is its avoidance of any payment that could he described as a dole. Relief would have to he earned, and not merely accepted as compensation for idleness. Labour, of course, will spurn the scheme, mainly because the hook in the bait is the proposed less-tha-n-standard wages. Though serious attention should be given to the plan outlined by the Mayor of Wellington, it is to be hoped that responsible administrators will not readily agree to accept a counsel of despair. It is lamentable even to imagine that so virile a country with ample scope for profitable development requires to provide for the relief of ten thousand unemployed men every winter. There is no excuse for despair, no reason for pessimism. The Dominion secured a record trade recovery last financial year. It is now the duty of the Government to acquire merit, and make the most of the silver lining. It need not look far for a quick unemployment insurance scheme. The best form of unemployment relief this year would be a reduction of £2,000,000 in the sum of high taxation. OVER THE ROOF OF THE WORLD IT is doubtful if any of the sensational flights have so far exceeded in value that of Captain Wilkins, the intrepid Australian who has succeeded, after a third attempt, in crossing the Arctic Circle. This was no vainglorious expedition, no do-or-die dash for notoriety. It was said of Captain Wilkins that he was not the man to indulge in any “fancy stunt”; that he was setting off on an attempt to make “a definite contribution to science.” This he has done, plunging into the gloom of the unknown, to emerge again into the light with knowledge that will he of immense value to navigation and to meteorology. The courage shown by him, and by his companion, Lieutenant Lie Ison, was of that cool and determined character which is unexcelled because it calculate® the odds and faces them undismayed. How fascinating a flight—over the roof of the world! It was not even known that Wilkins and his companion had left Alaska. Isolated by ice and snow away in the frozen North, their safety was feared for. Months had passed, and no word of them had been received. Had they fallen victims to the cold hand of the Arctic that had seized so many adventurers? Then, out of the vast silence, flickers the magic message of the wireless. Wilkins and his companion have crossed the void and arrived in Spitzbergen—flying time 21 hours from Point Barrow to Dauholm! During that lonely voyage they faced the fury of the tempest and blinding snow-storms, which forced them down on an uninhabited island, where they endured five days of privations which can only be imagined. The greatest value of the flight, apart from its lesson of endurance, skill and determination, is that it opens the track of reality to the dream of ages—the North-west Passage. For Wilkins has discover’d that there is no land at the Pole, which picturesque writers are already describing as “the crossroads where future Continent-to-Continent caravans will meet.” The unknown is now illuminated with the light of knowledge, and the track blazed by these stout pioneers may yet become a main highway. The feat of Wilkins has added another glorious page to the air-history compiled by Australians —the Smiths, Parer and Mclntosh, Hawker, Hinkler and now Wilkins. Great names these, and an encouragement to aviation in Australia, where much headway is being made in the development of mail routes, and medical and nursing services by air. The achievements of these Australians should also be an incentive to greater progress in New Zealand, where there has been far less enterprise.