CURRENT COMMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

CURRENT COMMENT

OTHER POINTS OF VIEW

(By

M.O.S.)

From fashions’s latest to a shaggy . coat of hair is a far cry; but.the gap , has been bridged in the past Mx thousand years—why not again? Many hundreds of correspondents recently killed the theory of evolution, ever upwards, so definitely dead that one must now look to the’future with a new perspective; and the possibilities are alarming. What may the next six thousand yearsof human experience bring forth? Me had been looking- upward to finer things —the evolution theory is dead and we must look in every direction. The signs and portends are disturbing. We have been . told - that the apex of. human achievement and respectability was reached- in the Victorians era. For generations mankind —more' 'especially womankind—had. been piling on more ■ respectability and clothing -until the • limit-of discomfort-had been reached. Then the slide began. Each year Paris has decreed that more and more clothinc*- must be discarded and ■ that A ic- ■ torian respectability must be.,re placed by the new .craze. The law of Nature is to supply where artificial, or human, ' agencies, lack. There you have it! No ;■ artificial- clothing—a fine, sleek coat of ■ hair; the progress of evolution—ever downward. Other , signs of the dowu- ' ward slide; are called to mind—the 'formation, of Savage Clubs (a tre- ; mendous leap), Botany clubs and. golf : clubs! ’ But the signs are everywhere, if . W'e only look with.-our. new Joynd light shed by shattering of Darwin’s mis- -. conceived theory of upward evolution. . ;** * * . Dominion Day, which is a holiday foi a favoured few, .was perhaps the most ' pleasant day Taranaki has experienced 1 since last summer. The closing of i banksand certain-other offices served to > • remind most people of the holiday, and « many others, no doubt, envied those who were free/ Such ardent friends of the. 'Prime Minister as his-recent biographer 1 probably -accepted * the geniality of the day as a.compliment to their heio. It was- during his -previous, term of office as Prime Minister that Sir Joseph Ward took'.the step’s.., w-liith enabled this country, to claim dominion status, f aiid •it was entirely fitting that the first* ■ r anniversary since his restoration to the • leadership’of the Dominion Should have smiled upon him.' *#■ ■ * * Those whose memory of the events of 22 years ago is still fresh will recall the somewhat .modest rejoicing inspired by New Zealand’s promotion to national rank in the Empire. The first Dominion Day« was a generalecholiday, but the celebration of the anniversary quickly fell into disfavour. Nowadays there is less observance -.of Dominion Day than there is of the provincial anniversaries, though these also have been losing then-old-time influence. ' It happens unfortunately that many of the anniversaries fall awkwardly in the calendar. Canterbury’s date is nine days before- • Christmas’.Day, 'and in the middle of / December 1 - business people have no desire to stop work. Wellington and Auckland celebrate their anniversaries ■within a few weeks of the New Year holidays. Taranaki’s anniversary, of course, is March 31, which is too close to Easter. There is a good deal to be said for the suggestion—it is by no means ne w—that New Zealand should choose one day as Anniversary Day and make it a general holiday. Dominion Day could °be incorporated with the .other anniversaries. Partial holidays inter- . ~ fere with all kinds of business, and as things are nowadays interference with . business is unprofitable, and even dangerous. - '

Every year the Labour Party in Parliament puts in a pica for what it regards as the political rights of civil servants. Mr. 11. E. Holland has got in early this year with his reference to the 'subject, asking that in the event of a civil servant wishing to contest a seat in Parliament he should be given leave ' of absence for the campaign and restored ‘ to his job if unsuccessful at the election. One insuperable objection to such a ■’ course would be that the public would soon lose faith in the fairness. and .integrity of the public service. But, apart from that, why should an employee of the State be permitted to absent himself from work in order to do another job? If one of a private employer’s workers asked for a month’s or two month’s holiday.in order to contest an election what would the employer say? A very emphatic “No.” Political life is for the man who is his own mastej. and it would be well for Parliament if all its members were, in that category.

The experiences of the miners who were despatched by the Kent collier} owners to Russia to see for themselves the conditions under which the people live there were illuminating. These delegates were asked to stay amongst the Bolsheviks if they found life amongst them preferable to conditions at Home, and the owners undertook to send their wives and families after them. On the other hand, if they returned they were iirected to give publicly a true account of their experiences, .or leave the service of the company. They came back post haste: they found no earthly Leaven, but an earthly hell.

This was an effective as well as a practical experiment, and might be undertaken with benefit to other British communities. In Australia, for instance, the coal strikers refuse to return to work because of a ‘'cut" of Is a ton in the hewing rate, and are holding up and inflicting loss upon the industries of the State. Even at the present rates, these industrial aristocrats can earn from 35s to 40s a day. In ’ Victoria the timber workers refused to accept the Arbitration Court's award that provided for a slight increase in ' the week’s working hours, and went on strike. The leaders of these strikes mi"ht with advantage to their country be’’deported to Russia. Then perhaps they would realise, like their Biitish comrades have realised, that their lots tire cast in fortunate places, and that „ they-have nothing really • to’complain ; o f.‘ -