PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17756, 28 January 1926, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION.

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING. OVERSEAS CAPITAL. Outside the sphere reserved to the State by national policy, there is a wide field for capital investment in New Zealand, but the public must realise the truth of Mr Coates’s observation, that overseas capital w’ill not be attracted unless confidence in the country's attitude is created. Mr Coates’s expression of the Government's sympathy will help to create that favourable impression, especially as it will be generally interpreted as an indication that the Government will oppose any proposals of unnecessarily embarrassing restrictions upon • new capital enterprises. The interest of overseas capital in the Dominion has been displayed in several directions in the last year or so, and it could be further stimulated by an official assurance of lower taxation. There is no doubt that high taxation has seriously checked the progress of the country by discouraging industrial development, whether by domestic or overseas capital, and though the rates have been reduced, the system of graduation according to the amount of profits, without regard to the scale of the operations producing them, makes the present taxation an oppressive burden, particularly on new companies, and in all cases where service to the community is rendered on a large scale but at a modest rate of profit.—“ New Zealand Herald.” EXTINCTION VERSUS ABSORPTION. The reported refusal of the Government, or to be perhaps more exact, the Meat Producers’ Board, to grant a license to Messrs Thomas Borthwick and Sons in order to complete the purchase of the Wellington Meat Export Company’s freezing works, involves a far more important principle than may be apparent on the surface. New Zealand Meat Companies, looked upon as a sound investment a few years ago, have become a very dqubtful asset in the eyes of the average banker, and the happenings in connection with the Poverty Bay and Wellington Works have hardly improved the position. The principle involved is the “ right to sell,” and by abolishing this right, or at least considerably restricting it, the Meat Producers’ Board has undoubtedly considerably added to the New Zealand meat companies’ many troubles. We do not -wish it to be thought that we are advocating the unrestricted or indiscriminate sale of existing meat works to any company that may be prepared to buy. As a matter of fact our sympathies are wholly and solely with the struggling companies, and we are simply pointing out the bare and unadorned facts. There is a struggle going on in the New Zealand meat industry just now that will end only in the survival of the fittest, and in which New Zealand-owned companies will come off second best.—“ Manawatu Daily Times.” DISARMAMENT. The German Government has accepted the League of Nations’ invitation to Germany to take part in a preliminary disarmament conference. It is the most important of the many important decisions made since the war. All these were steps towards the high level where the permanent peace of the world is possible. The German decision means that Europe has, with one exception, reached that high, much-desired level. Russia is the exception. To wait for Russia is to postpone indefinitely the great settlement which has become immediately possible. When the settlement is actually made, Russia will have no cause to fear hostile interference from abroad, and no reason to think there is danger of being drawn into international quarrels as in the old way. Russia will, as soon as she is stabilised, be anxious only to take a share in the stability of the world. The German decision is a recognition of the greatest issue before the world, which has experienced the strangling effect of great armaments, which shut up too much of the manhood and many of the nations in employment ruinously unprofitable, and drifting fast towards great wars. Disarmament is, of course, a difficult and complicated matter. But since the war the world has found ways of dealing with difficulties and complications. On this momentous occasion it will not fail. The benefits of disarmament are too obvious, and the disasters of war are too great and too recent. The Disarmament Conference will discuss preliminaries first, and with the stage thus set, final agreement will not fail for lack of a clear atmosphere.—“ Dominion.”