The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1935. QUESTIONS OF DEGREE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20510, 11 January 1935, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1935. QUESTIONS OF DEGREE.

'T'HE ECONOMIC MERITS of the discussion that has arisen with the drastic curtailment of road services from Auckland are overshadowed by a matter of grave public policy,' which one or two speakers refer to in speculating whether the Transport Appeal Board will interpret the Act leniently or carry it out to the letter. We are faced here not only with the consideration that Parliamentary majorities have been used to rush through legislation which members have had no time to consider in all its implications, but that the personal and economic liberties of the subject are being threatened by a despotism that is creeping in under the cloak of representative government. The complaint in the Old Country, which was crystallised in a recent Liberal amendment in the House of Commons protesting against the curtailment of opportunities for individual energy and enterprise, is that economic nationalism is taking a dangerous bypath, and is strangling trade by interference everywhere with private enterprise. This tendency should not be ignored even by those who feel that the public interest in the railways in New Zealand should be protected to the utmost, for a complete reversion to the old railway monopoly' would not be in the economic interests of the Dominion, and therefore it would not be safe to leave it to any' appeal board to interpret an Act leniently or to the letter if its decisions led to a close approach to such a monopoly. A JUDICIAL MATTER. THE POINT at which the economic interests of the country' can best be served is so variable in respect to each district and its existing services that very full judicial consideration, after the hearing of evidence, ought to be given to every' application for a road transport license. If the Act does not ensure such consideration, it may' be as well to have a showdown on the Auckland decision. It has been pointed out that if business firms cannot have their goods carried by contract they will use their own vehicles, but if the effect of legislation is thereby' nullified, and we are to be guided by principle in the matter, it would be logical to prevent business firms from carrying their own goods. Thus wc would complete the cycle of State interference to the point of extinguishing private enterprise where transport was concerned. EUROPEAN UNDERSTANDING. THE SUCCESS of the Rome negotiations puts a more cheerful complexion on the prospect of reaching an agreement with Germany on her rearmament ambitions. During the last two y'ears diplomatic understanding with Germany has been rendered harder by the rise of the dictatorship, for dictators are less approachable than democratic governments, particularly where their newly appointed ministers are strangers to negotiating statesmen. But Germany must soon realise that the industrial recovery', towards which she is straining every' nerve, is largely dependent upon allaying suspicions and creating friendly relations with her neighbours. She is indeed more dependent than most nations on her neighbours. And while she remains outside the comity' of the League her frontier might naturally be regarded as one of the dangerous beats upon which the League might elect to place international police. For the Saar force has created a precedent which might be reasonably extended. Moreover, since the idea of a collective peace sy'stem, now the basis of British foreign policy, is gaining wider acceptance in Europe, the new principle, as contrasted with the old ideals of the balance of power, presupposes that nations shall not be grouped as rivals, but that European diplomats shall increase their efforts to bring the less friendly nations, including Germany, within the influence of one large group working in consultative co-operation for the ends of peace.