PRESS OPINION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 192, 15 August 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

PRESS OPINION

REVENUE FOR THE DOMINION. (

Mr Coates is right in pointing out I that there is no special reason for thinking that the present year will be better than the last. The revenue to March, 1931, is -ess than it should have been because of the late date at which the Government went into the question of the financial position. We shall suffer this year in the same way, though not to the same extent, because tour months out of the twelve have gone before the budget has appeared and the provisions take action. It should not be beyond the resources of the Treasury to have the budget ready at an early date, and the House might well bo en gaged on business rather than on talking at large on the Address-in-Heply. Members are obviously thinking more on the election to come than on the de- ! tailed steps required. It is useless to look for election promises; it is clear . to the meanest intelligence that promises cannot be carried out. If claims are made on the fact that taxation has been resisted there may be people who wil’ be deceived, but the more sensible folks will know that taxation is inevitable, and that the only choice lies in the shape it should take. We may all think that the proposals made by the Government could be shaped differently. Thu great outstanding fact is that in our present conditions a great revenue must be obtained.—Waikato Times. A DISCORDANT NOTE. 44 My side of the House is not prepared to accept the Government’s taxation proposals. That is putting the position plainly enough.” This statement by Mr Ansell on behalf (apparently) of the Reform Party certainly put the position plainly enough to delight the Labour Party. The Leader of the Opposition and the ex Minister of Finance had both spoken previously in the debate, and had expressed a desire to see the taxation proposals modified. But they had done so in a helpful way, stating quite as plainly their wish to assist the Government in difficulties the magnitude of which they ippreciated. It was left to Mr Ansell to introduce the note of hostility. He pre faced this blunt declaration with a complaint that the Minister of Lands had been very ungenerous to the Leader of the Opposition. Unless Mr Ansell found in Mr Ransom’s speech some hidden meaning, we cannot see the justification for alleging lack of generosity. Mr Coates refrained from making a party attack and Mr Ransom freely acknowledged the fairness of his tone. So far indeed the leaders of both Govern meat and Reform Parties have avoided the slippery approaches which would lead to open hostility. It is to be hoped that their followers will display equal restraint. This is surely not too much to expect of them in a crisis such as we are passing through.—Evening Post.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD. The newly-appointed Unemployment Board held its first meeting on Thursday from which, however, one member was absent. The public will bo much disappointed if the Board docs not get into action very rapidly. The Board has a very difficult task before it, and no one is able to suggest how it is to provide useful work for about 50,000 mon. The Board has, however, in its favour the fact that every week it will have a very large sum coming in, and that, during the months in which the old board was in existence it must have explored very thoroughly all the possible avenues for work, though lack of funds prevented many of them being followed up. The view taken by the average man is that he is being made to pay heavily in the form of annual levy and weekly contributions and yet the position does not seem a scrap better. The Wellington Hospital Board told the Prime Minister on Thursday that its relief funds would be exhausted by the end of September; our own Hospital Foard is in nearly as bad a position and the Borough Council has no funds available. Private persons are still having the same calls made on them for help and are often giving assistance which they can hardly afford. It is realised that tne Board h . most impossible task and that as vet no great amount of money has come* to hand, but the revenue is certain, and the Board can work on overdraft for a time. It seems reasonable to expect that in the next few weeks the demands for relief and the calls on local bodies should be lightened, while men out of work should get far more, employment than at present.—Taranaki Herald.

TRADING COUPONS BILL.

1 Another delay in the appearance of the Trading Coupons Bill has occurred, lowing it is said, to difficulties of drafting. When the matter was introduced during the emergency session it seemed iso desirable that so uneconomic a I method of attracting business should bo done away with that there was considerable surprise when Parliament dejcided it was not a matter with which ian emergency session should deal. The 'system was condemned by traders and Iby the public. The former complained that it apparently gave “something for ! nothing” in an endeavour to attract business, when as a matter of fact the {public paid, and in some cases paid l heavily, for the so-called gifts. Traders who regarded this as an illegitimate i method of trading were handicapped by those who indulged therein, and it was I a case of protecting the public from j its own weakness or lack of foresight. Nothing has happened since to show that these views were incorrect. But with the fall iu incomes that is general the appeal to cupidity to get some sort of extra discount in the shape of a ’prize” by purchasing certain goods is likely to have more effect upon the public. It is the purchaser who must pay, , directly, or indirectly, for discount that trading in a legitimate manner will not permit. If special “prizes” are included in the cost of certain commodities it is certain that provision must be made for them either in lowered quality or in an indirect increase in the price charged, though this may not bo immediately apparent. It is a matter which warrants the prompt attention of Parliament, and there seems no reason why it should bo regarded as controversial. The Prime Minister informed the House of Representatives that much evidence against the coupon system had been made available and urged that it be brought to an end. Political exigencies prevented action being taken then, but the matter is one in which political considerations should have nc share. A little speeding up of the Law Drafting Office might well be applied so thai the matter could be dealt with . this session.—Taranaki Daily News. UNEMPLOYED GIRL TEACHERS The recent judicial interpretation of 1 the law in regard to the employment of married women teachers has pro- ■ duced considerable agitation in educa- ■ tional circles, and in uur opinion it conL stitutes a genuine grievance for a large body of unemployed girls. At the meet- ’ ing called on Friday by the Auckland branch of the Educational Institute to ' consider tins matter, it was pointed out I that there are now between 180 and 200 I women teachers in that' district without I permanent positions, and or these more 1 than sixty have had no work and no “ salary during the current year. With the influx of probationers and substitute teachers at the close of the yeai the number of unemployed girls will rise to about 300. The Training College receives students to Drcnare them

iege receives siuuents to prepare tnem for the teaching profession, the Education Board binds them under penalties to teach, but when their apprenticeship is completed there is no place for them to fill. Surely the claim advanced on Friday, that the educational authorities arc morally obliged tc find positions fol young touchers whom they hold bound to teach for a certain term of years, ii fully justified. At the present time between fifty and sixty married women are engaged as teachers in this district, and, considering all the facts of the ease, some of them might well bo weeded out. In view of Mr Justice Herdman’s ruling, this would require some modification of the Act. Wo do not suggest that all married women should be dismissed from the service. But more especially on account of the compulsion exercised by the Education Board over the young teachers who have bound themselves by the conditions that the authorities insist upon, we think that the various cases should be, considered on their merits, and that, where it is considered that married womei engaged in teaching have other moans of support, their places should be filled by girls who are wholly or largely dependent on their own exertions for a living.—Auckland Star. LABOUR AND THE BUDGET. When twitted in the House last week about the shocking record of his Labour colleagues of New South Wales Mr Holland found it convenient to retort 4 4 let other countries take care of themselves. ’ The people of New Zealand ar<> quite content to do that, but they would be dull indeed if they did not perceive for themselves that the Langites have got New South Wales into its desperate position solely by following a policy of legislating for one class at the expense of the whole community— the policy to which Mr Holland and his colleagues are devoted.—Hawera Star.

LOANS AND SAVINGS. i Mr Dqwnie Stewart’s criticism wa« I couched in mild terms, it was friendly an I optimistic, but these virtues made I its indictment of the Government the ; more telling. The economies mentioned tin the Budget amount to £595,000 and there is a hope that the Public Works expenditure will be reduced, but this latter saving cannot be called an economy if it is gained through the transfer of the liability to the Unemployment Board and the Highways Board, both of | whom are spending money, raised by special taxation. Real economies are required, and the abandonment of the extravagant borrowing methods which have marked the three years the Government has been in office.—Southland Times