The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1934. MATTERS OF PRINCIPLE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20277, 11 April 1934, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1934. MATTERS OF PRINCIPLE.

Gloucester Street and Cathedral Square CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALANa

T\4TR ARCHER’S APOLOGETICS ■*■*■*■ for a tramway rate could be endorsed by every student of politics if he proposed to impose a rate on those who enjoy the benefits of the trams —that is, assuming that a rate is necessary—but it is clear enough that he is not adhering to the principles that guide his party. For instance, Labour inclines to a betterment tax, but the most that Mr Archer can say is that although tramway tracks increase the price of property automatically, the Tramway Board gets no benefit from the increase. Obviously it could and should get a benefit from the increase if it rated the properties so increased in value, or, in other words, if it rated the areas served by the tramways according to the losses incurred in running the service. Mr Archer’s sudden discovery that Christchurch is so flat that bicycles compete with the trams involves no principle of tramway management, or at least no principle that was not discovered long before Mr Archer came to New Zealand. Nor is it true that “ all roads in the city on which tramway tracks have been laid have been financed to a large extent by the Tramway Board.” Parliament provided that the board should maintain the narrow portion of the roadway on which its tracks were laid, but the City Engineer will readily testify that tram tracks, especially in wet weather, are the greatest obstacle to good roading. Mr Archer is correct in saying that improved road services encourage cycling, but they also encourage motoring, so that what emerges from these considerations is the fact that trams are going out of favour, and this only stresses the principle that tram users should have to pay for using the trams, just as certainly as motor-car users or bicycle users should have to pay for using motorcars or bicycles without retying on some other section of the community to share the expense. What the Tramway Board ought to do, therefore, is to see that the rate, if there is to be a rate, and the “ Star ” is not at all satisfied that a rate is necessary, should fall where the losses fall, in accordance with sound Labour principles. IRELAND’S CRISIS. TRELAND’S FUTURE relationships with other members of the British Commonwealth are, as Mr de Valera has said, a secondary matter, but there is more significance in the remark than he himself probably realises. Under a republic, the Free State could not be much worse off, if anything, than it is to-day, and therefore the question of primary importance is whether to-day’s conditions are tolerable or bearable to Ireland itself. Mr Stanley Naylor, commissioned by the “Saturday Evening Post ” to investigate the problem, found that the farmers who, with their dependents, formed nearly 80 per cent of the population, could not make their businesses pay, and the loss caused by the virtual closing of the English market was at least four times as great as any compensation they received from being now asked to pay only half of their annuities. Of de Valera he says:— Unsupported bv the Labour Partv he probably could not stand alone. The Sinn Fein Party, led by Mary M'Swinev. do not sec eye to eve. and a worse thorn in his side is the Irish Republican Armv. who have armed camps ip the mountains, bivouac in the glens and openly carry on military exercises. Then again, the United Ireland Partv—lately organised under General O'thiffy's leadership and embracing Cosgrave, Mac Dermot and Dillon, with their wide following—mav yet pull him down. Truly, this Irish quarrel is eternal, and though the gravity of the English side of it cannot be overstated, it 'still remains mainly a quarrel between Irishmen themselves. For these reasons the local Government elections on June 2(5 and, in fact, any constitutional expression of political opinion in the Free State itself are of really vital significance.