VOICE OF THE PRESS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20261, 9 November 1935, Page 9

VOICE OF THE PRESS

NEW ZEALAND OPINIONS Sportsmanship in the Elections In the approaching campaign it is inevitable that there will be misunderstandings, and it should be the duty of the public to do their best to promote clarity. Too deliberately are the weaknesses of a certain group exploited by their stronger minded brethren, and, to put it plainly, politics might be made a great deal cleaner without a party suffering material loss or sacrificing any of its principles. It is possible to be Nationalist, Democrat, Labourite or Independent and still be decent without being effusively amiable. We realise that an election is not a Sunday school meeting; £>ut that is no reason why it should lack the ordinary amenities of sincerity and chivalry. Each side may strive to win on its ordinary merits or by employing guile; but, there is not, and never was, justification, even in the heat of the contest, for unnecessarily blackening the character of an opponent. There is nothing clever in it, and it gives to politics an appearance of meanness they should not possess.— “Southland Daily News.” School Staffing Every business man knows that when changes take place in his staff it takes some time before things run as smoothly as before, and the new members settle down in the fresh environment. A new teacher has to know every pupil in his class and form an estimate of his powers. First impressions are often deceptive and need correction. It is obvious then that if a school is to be efficient the changes in its staff should be as few as possible. Yet we learn from a discussion at the last meeting of the Taranaki Education Board that during last year in a staff of 381 primary school teachers under the board there were 178 changes and, worse still, eight headmasters of the 18 schools of grade 4 and upwards have been changed. Anyone not knowing the position would imagine that there must have been terrible inefficiency followed by a drastic clean-up on the part of some Mussolini director and would be astounded to learn that the changes were due to the normal working of the most carefully designed regulations.—“Taranaki Herald.” The Taxation Load It is not so very long ago that the popular remedy for all social and economic ills was to provide for the masses by taxing the rich, but to-day the masses, or at least the larger proportion of them, realise full well that it is they who inescapably shoulder the burden of taxation. As a result, there Is a general demand, and it is taken up by all political parties, for a reduction of taxation. New Zealand’s latest political party, for instance —and it is quoted merely as a typical example of the methods used in an attempt to gain office—is pledged to reduce the unemployment tax, lower customs tariffs, remove the sales tax, abolish the gold export tax, and reduce income tax by 10 per cent. The other side of its platform, however, contains 14 specific planks, and of these exactly half would involve increased national expenditure. Not unnaturally, each of the proposals is fully deserving of support, and each is calculated to appeal to some section of the community, with the hope that in the aggregate there will be sufficient votes to have the party elected.—“ Poverty Bay Herald.” Unemployment There, is a tendency to look on unemployment as a manifestation of social or economic disturbance related in some mysterious way to the workings of the State, the individual being powerless to intervene or to influence the course of events in any way whatsoever. Expressed in other terms, the idea commonly held is that a solution of the problem of unemployment will only be found along the lines of political action. This conception is partly true. At the same time it is incredibly selfish to assume that the individual has no responsibilities outside of those arbitrarily imposed on him by the State. If he is prepared to help only when the spur of compulsion Is applied, there is nothing more certain than that unemployment will never be cured. If he can derive no feeling of pleasure of satisfaction from helping quietly and unostentatiously when the opportunity presents itself, his sense of values must be badly in need of adjustment. Political remedies alone will not suffice to end the suffering and ease the discontent that are the direct consequences of economic upheaval.—“Otago Daily Times.”

“Happy” staffs do more and better work than those working under bullying or nagging heads. Efficiency experts say that in the latter circumstances nearly half the working time may be wasted.