TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1780, 8 July 1926, Page 5

TOPICS OF THE DAY

COMMENTS OF SOUTHERN PAPERS

VARIOUS OS-INIONS.

Even the Socialist has wit enough to know that man cannot alter the law of gravitation and the properties of matter, but he sees the! Legislature dealing with money and work and trade and wages, and he concludes that legislation can do with money and work and trade and wages anything that it pleases. Hence, he believes that .economics if after all not a (science, hut a doctrine —a mere theory of)' what ougJiJt to be done), which will vary according to the temperament of the teacher. So he fails to see that it is just as absurd to talk of capitalist economics as distinct from democratic economics, or something like that, as it would to talk of capitalist mathematics or democratic chemistry.—Christchurch. Press.

The figures gathered from the Government Statistician's returns for last year indicate that some progress has been made by secondary industries in the Dominion, and are a subject for congratulation if regarded as a foundation for industrial development in ! the future. . . .. It is satisfactory to note that the development of hydro electricity in New Zealand is being fully justified, as evidenced by the inCreased demand for power, and with the completion of the schemes projected by the Government, and those already in hand, the Dominion should be provided with an abundant supply of cheap power that should, give a much needed stimulus to our secondary industries. The incompleteness of. the figures published makes possible only a general view of our industrial progress, but even from this limited data there is some ground for satisfaction. —Lyttelton Times.

While it would be idle to suggest that unemployment in the Dominion is not serious enough to demand earnest attention, there its evidence that the situation is not as serious as reports would have us believe, and that •the position show s signs of growing easier. It is an unfortunate circumstance connected with seasonal unemployment that the temptation to make political capital out of the workless is too much for some writers to' resist. These people;, for the purpose of heaping blame on the Government of the day, enlarge on the situation at frequent intervals and in extravagant language paint a serious situation as far more serious than it actually is. It is wise to remember in connection with all comment on the situation that New Zealand has an unemployed surplus of workers every'year, and that this experience dates so far back that blame for it cannot be put on the shoulders of anyj GovernmentSouthland Times.

The patriotic societies will do well to retain control of their funds, which we believe they are administering throughout the Dominion with a great deal of success. The local adminis'trators of funds are better able than strangers would be to deal with local needs. They are in a position to obtain first hand knowledge of the cases which! come before (them, and it hat knowledge often induces in them a very desirable sympathy. A national organisation could not work on similar lines; it would be bound rather by rules and practice than by personal knowledge. In the interests of those for. whose benefit the patriotic funds are intended local administration is desirable.— Wanganui Chronicle. Sir George Fenwick inclines to the opinion that the period of high prices for primary products is passing and that world values are gradually, and without violent fluctuations, returning to what may be' said ito be normal values. If this be the accurate view —and it is one that is shared with Sir George Fenwick by many leading financiers and economists—there is obviously the greater reason for insistence on the need of "an all round increase in our production and exportation." At the same time the warning must be repeated, and repeated ad nauseam if the occasion demands it, that there must be a restriction of importations, especially in respect of luxury goods.—Otago Daily Times. Only three in every hundred of our children have sound teeth, and 30 per cent to 50 per.cent or the teeth of the 97 per cent are defective and infective. To cope with the enormous task which this condition presents there are, say, 700 qualified dentists in the Dominion; mostly concerned with adult troubles, the State service of nurses, and the dental school, with ove r 100 students. The seven maids with seven mops labouring to sweep up the sea sands' dio not suggest a more impossible task, unless the publice are to - do more for their own health. Preventive methods, including a right use of fruit, including means by which the problem can be satisfactorily dealt with, but the public are slow to give itheir assistance, first through indifference and secondly, because 1 fruit is too dear Dunedin Star.

In order to give a fillip to business we must also try to produce more goods and services for local consumption. When we find our expenditure outrunning our income, we try to increase our revenue; that is the simple rule in all business. Generally speaking, we can increase revenue by providing ourselves with more goods or more services to dispose of. We want more production as a means of overcoming the temporary depression, and that means that we all ought to be putting, all the energy we can muster into our various jobs.—Wanganui Chronicle.

The House of Representatives has gone through the mediaeval rite of appointing a Speaker, and the 'Hon. C. E. Statham, member for Dunedin Central, has been elected for a second term! . . Mr Statham's predecessors have included .several men of marked distinction and ability. One of them, Sir Maurice O'Rorke, is destined to become a 'legendary figure in New Zealand history. But there is good reason for predicting thait the present Speaker will rank higher, when the story of '.Parliament comes to be written;, than any of the seven Parliamentary judges who have preceded him. He has shown himself capable of filling a very difficult position with tact, courtesy, and consistent firmness, and the knighthood that has be-

come a conventional rank for Speakers in their third year of office should, in his case, be a distinctive recognition of worthy service.—Christchurch Sun.

The chief value of the Trade Balance Bulletin prepared by the Economics Department of Canterbury College was its clear revelation of the fact that what matters is not so much how many million pounds'' worth .we import as how much we produce and have available for export. It would be very easy to keep the country prosper-,, oub 'exchange were a mechanical business with the State exercising a Wind of mathematical control. But as the bulletin points out, payments to and from a country) in the long run must balance, so that interference with trade by the State eventually restricts exports as well as imports, and the only effect of a mechanical attempt to correct an, unfavourable trade balance is to leave us still with an unfavourable balance on a smaller total volume of itrade.—Chrlstchuirch Press.