PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17832, 28 April 1926, Page 8

PUBLIC OPINION.

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING. THE MORALS OF THE AGE. It is quite refreshing in these days of head-shaking and denunciation of the moral code of the age to find an optimist with sufficient courage to come out in its defence. “We deplore the present age, but it has been the same all through the ages,” said the Rev C. A. Fraer, in Christchurch. “The first British historian bewailed the moral Standard of the British race.” Another speaker brought up his batteries in support. The world -was not so bad to-day as it had been, he said: today things were brought out into the open, which formerly were hidden, and a wrong im- ; pFession was thus created. A sane and cheerful outlook upon present day conditions, such as is held i by these speakers is unfortunately rare, and its expression is a service to the community. The past can be reviewed from entirely different stand- 1 points. One regretfully regards 4;he “golden age” the age lor reverence and glory, as dead; the other thinks, that on the average the people of to-day are wiser, better, and happier than their ancestors. It may be a little priggish to say that improvement has come with enlightenment, but inquiry will leave little room for doubt on the point. It is not claimed that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds,” but the general tendencies of the age are not by any means so deplorable as some purists would have us believe. Lord Hugh Cecil, a deep student of the social conditions of the past, and by no means a violent, protagonist of today, recently made an emphatic protest against the fashion of decrying the twentieth century by contrast with “the middle ages,” a period not well defined or well understood.—“ Star,” Auckland. DOMINION INDUSTRIES. The periodical demand for higher customs for the protection of local manufacturing industries has been revived by the Canterbury Industrial Association. Seven months ago. the annual conference of the Industrial Corporation proposed an organised effort to pledge Parliamentarj’ candidates to a higher protective tariff, but it evidently received very little encouragement. as the question was never prominent during the general election campaign. Now the affiliated organisation boldly proclaims its interpretation of high protection as an increase of not less than 10 per cem. duty on all manufactured goods. Instead of 20 per cent, it proposes to charge 30 per cent, on British goods, and instead of *35 per cent, would levy 45 per cent, on foreign imports. Something more than a merely general reference to low' w’ages in European countries and an even vaguer hint pf unfair competition imperilling wages in New Zealand is necesary to justify such a revolutionary policy in customs taxation. It will certainly not be accepted upon the mere affirmation of an industrial association that it is a matter of urgency.—“ The Herald,” Auckland. STUDY OF SPANISH. Not for the first time the Otago University Council has rejected, on the advice of a committee, a suggestion that it should establish a course in Spanish. The reason given for the refusal was that the number of students offering to take the course—only nine in all—was not sufficient to warran its inception. At the back of the committee's mind was probably the idea that new co\irses mean new expense, not to be wholly covered by the fees obtained for them, even when their students increase in number, and that the state of the council’s finances, ruefullv commented on by the treasurer at yesterday’s meeting, must make it very careful of new commitments. The students -whose attention was given to Spanish would probably be taken from some other subject, still requiring to be maintained as part of the University’s curriculum, and a small university cannot cover all the departments of knowledge. That of Otago does exceedingly well now—almost too well for its resources—in the comprehensiveness of its scope. A new course in music has- just been established, but that is assisted by a special bequest. The proposed lectures in Spanish, though it would not be necessary to go beyond the present staff lor a professor on the subject, stand on another footing. Probably in all the circumstances the decision that was come to in regard to them was the wisest that could have been reached. —“Stir,” Dunedin. FREER TO MOVE. Every country in the civilised world is experiencing more or less to-day a condition of transport in the throes of transition. Transport along fixed lines of communication is facing unprecedented competition from transport that is freer to move off the beaten track. The railway and the tramway are alike feeling the effect of what, in most places, they consider the encroachment into their province of the motor-lorry, the service car. and the motor-bus. In New Zealand the aspect to the general public is one of a transport war between the rival means of locomotion. The railway tightens its belt, rolls up its sleeves, so to speak, and goes for the road carriers, but after a year's hard struggle can no more than make a draw of~ it at the best. The municipal tramways take a leaf out of the book of bus companies and put more and. they would claim, better ’buses on the road, with the result that such fortunate suburbs as Lyall Bay are revelling to-day in a luxury and abundance of transport that gives a welcome relief from the strap-hanging of a year ago. In so much the public benefits from competition, even if it may not pay the competitors.— ” Post,” Wei-