The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1935. SHADOW SPARRING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20542, 18 February 1935, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1935. SHADOW SPARRING.

' | ’'OO OFTEN in a British Parliament discussion on a serious object is interrupted and overdue action delayed because some wildly irate member succeeds in throwing his colleagues into a ferment over a trifle that occurred or did not occur in the dim and forgotten past. For a night or a week, bad temper rages and incidentals hold the stage. A present instance is the warning of Mr George Lansbury to Mr Ramsay MacDonald in the House of Commons that he will publish Cabinet minutes on the subject of his remarks in 1930 on the Means Test if the Prime Minister is not more accurate in his own references to the subject. He hurls the words “ infamous lie ” across the benches and vehemently declares that he will risk imprisonment. Mr Lansbury, no one doubts for a moment, is sincere in his efforts to improve the lot of Britain’s unemployed millions. His outburst, however, can do little more than divert attention from the essentials. A stronger policy with regard to unemployment is urgently needed in England, but it cannot be brought about by petty, irritating arguments. Here, in New Zealand, Members of Parliament are prone to this sort of thing—sometimes for no other reason than publicity—and when the dust of conflict settles after a battle of words and waving arms and thumped desks nothing lias been done to settle the vital issue before the House.

MANUFACTURE OF ARMS. ALTHOUGH the British statement of policy on the Governmental control and sale of armaments appears to simplify the position, the League Committee on the traffic in arms will not advance very far until the French position is cleared up. For in France the arms industry is firmly entrenched as part of the public and industrial life, and munition makers exercise a powerful influence both in the Chamber and in the Press. In spite of this, however, a recent demand in the French Chamber for an arms inquiry was received sympathetically, and M. Flandin admitted that “ Parliament had the positive rigid to control all orders of the State, and it should and could exercise that right.” That is not going very far, but it is at least a concession to the restiveness of the public conscience in this matter. It is worth noting that the committee at Geneva is proceeding along the lines of Governmental control and not State monopoly.

But it is not likely that either licensing or publicity will altogether abolish the incentive to armament firms to obtain orders by questionable methods. Undoubtedly private individuals have powerful ways of influencing prospective purchasers, but under conditions of State monopoly it is conceivable that a manufacturing State might use even more powerful means of extending this highly profitable industry.

RISKS ON HILL ROADS. EVIDENCE at the inquest into the Wangamoa Hill fatality, where a car slipped off the road while trying to pass a stationary lorry, gives point to the suggestion that the narrowest parts of hill roads should be protected by stone fences. These would serve the double purpose of creating confidence at all times and indicating also that these portions of a road are not passing places. Hill roads, strictly speaking, are single track roads. They are widened at corners and bends, because cars come suddenly into view at these points, but elsewhere prudence demands the most careful negotiation when passing. Competent drivers can go confidently on South Island hill roads in the assurance that service and lorry drivers will show the utmost consideration. Nevertheless, lorry loads are growing to such an extent, especially for the carriage of stock, that one-way portions of roads should be marked and flanked with stone copings.