PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17461, 12 February 1925, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION.

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING. CERTAIN OF WELCOME. In a message from Washington, it is announced that a party of Congressmen may accompany the American fleet in its Pacific manoeuvres, and possibly on its visit to Australia and New Zealand. Our own Government, through the * American Government, might very well extend a cordial invitation to the Parliamentarians in question to carry out this tentative suggestion. Occasional and detail differences apart, high importance is attached in this country to the cultivation of Anglo-American friendship, and the visit of a party of American Congressmen would be valued as providing an. opportunity for friendly contact and exchange of ideas. American public men. no doubt, would be heartily welcomed in these southern dominions, and they themselves might be expected to find their visit interesting and informative*.— “ Dominion/’ Wellington. PAYMENT OF DEBTS. Mr Winston Churchill, who was accused a week or two ago of risking the wreck of the 'British Cabinet by his doterminal ion to cut down the Navy Estimates. is now finding better employment for his talents. He has taken in hand the problem of the war debt of France to Britain, witji which none of his predecessors hail been a hie to make any progress at all. and he has made an exceedingly promising start. The Note in which lie has opened up a very delicate subject has not been received in France with the suspicion and the resentment attending previous efforts of the same kind. M. Merriot is genuinely pleased. Atmosphere and predisposition count for sev much in these matters that the contrast between this reception and that accorded to the attempt of even so true a friend of France as Air Bonar Law is highly cn couraging.— Wellington “ Post. WATERSIDE HOURS, j The number of hours worked per man per wee’: is the real issue in *be waterside workers' dispute, states Mr .lames Roberts. We may. however, be pardoned for failure to appreciate this, tor the Waterside Workers’ l nion itself, upon first consideration ot the new award, also overlooked the point. It had much to say in expression of its "dissatisfaction, disgust, and contempt towards the majority of the Court." Now, however. Mr Roberts has stated that the real issue is the hours worked, and he offers on behalf of the federation *to guarantee freedom from industrial trouble if the workers are guaranteed a weekly wage. We may pass over the point that freedom from trouble is no more than the unions are now actually bound to since they have accepted the Arbitration Act for the settlement of industrial disputes. But, apart from this, what encouragement has there been in the past for the institution of a system of weekly employment P—Wellington. “ Post." SHIPPING AND THE EMPIRE. There can be no gainsaying the position taken up by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in his speech at Liverpool, as to the vital importance to the Empire of its shipping. The mercantile marine plays a groat part—one too lightly esteemed, it is to h© feared—in preserving Imperial unity. The Royal Navy’s service is occasioned very largely, in peace as in war. in securing right of way for the merchant service. "The liner, she’s a lady." and the man-o'-war is proud to keep the road for her, for she and the less handsome of her kind do much for the Empire and do it well including, for the Mother Country, the very loaf-giving duty that was the distinguished and distinguishing task *of a “ lady ” of olden time. \\ itliout the ready transport ot goods, mails and passengers, there could he no Greater Britain at all. Picture the United States without roads or railways. Their absence would deprive the nation of cohesion. So, but in an immensely larger way. does the British Empire depend upon the inviolability and use of ocean highways. Herald." Auckland. AT LAST. Many followers of cricket* will be surprised to learn that . Otago’s very meritorious win over Canterbury at Dunedin yesterday gives that province the Plnnket Shield for the first time. Wellington made a plucky but unsucecsstul light against Canterbury, which side, by the way, is much stronger than, it was last season, and seems to j ust il’\ the w isdom of the captainselector and ot the management in giving ham a free hand. Oil the other hand. Wellington beat Otago. I iic results ot these matches were such that when Otago went in for its tourth innings yesterday it had to get the runs for the loss of not more than three wickets, otherwise the shield would have gone to Canterbury. 'Hk* present method of awarding the shield is much better than the old one, by which a challenger had to play the holder on the holder's ground, and the development of an i nterprovincial competition on the lines of the English county championship and the Sheffield Shield matches should lie good for the game. - “Star." Auckland.