DAY BY DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17898, 19 December 1929, Page 4

DAY BY DAY

Every day for the past week Federal Ministers have been

A Dofiolt or A Surprise.

issuing warnings to manufacturers that they must not take advantage of the new

tariff and raise the prices of their commodities. This will rather take the gilt off the ginger-bread for the manufacturers—if they take any notice of the warnings (says an Australian paper). They probably will not, because it is quite patent that, although the Minister for Customs (Mr Fenton) has declared that the hand which gave protection can lake it away, the Government cannot blow hot and cold in this matter. Once the duties have been put on they must stick for a fair time. Trade would be impossible altogether if business men bad to watch a movable Customs barometer as they watch the Stock Exchange quotations; and, anyhow, manufacturers can get no benefit from a tariff that is unstable. It is absurd for the Ministers to issue such a warning; it is like giving a boy a gun and telling him not to shoot. If the Prime Minister and Mr Fenton thought that prices would not rise as a result of their new Customs duties they must be simple indeed. Their belated fears, evidenced by their warnings, indicate that they have not the unbounded faith in Protection that they have expressed. Mr Theodore, apparently, is also not too sanguine that the tariff will do what is claimed for it. He anticipates a record Customs revenue of more than £44,000,000, in spite of the fact that the new tariff is expected to check imports. Mr Theodore is either in for a deficit or a surprise.

Every time father becomes critical of

Tho Decline of Penmanship.

Junior’s handwriting as displayed on his latest sciiool composition, ■perhaps lie will do well to consider wiiat kind

of signature he himself attached that afternoon to his pile of outgoing mail, (says tiie Christian Science .Monitor), if father's signature is at all like the average pen tracks, Junior need not l'eel greatly ashamed. Probably son’s handwriting does not exhibit sucli a gorgeous assortment of angles and curlicues as father’s, but it is doubtless more printlike, more, restful to the eye. The increased momentum of the business day, the necessity for signing letters in job Jots, has played havoc with present-day script, declare teachers of penmanship. The copperplate dignity and legibility that characterised the correspondence of a former generation is now studied under a glass case, along with the feathered pen and the bowl of blotting sand. Our jiggling chirography is.but another striking example of the modern demand for fast work. No wonder army regulations insist that all official correspondence must have the typewritten name of the writer in close proximity to the inked signature, so that no time will be wasted in deciphering scrawling penmanship. Indeed, this system might well . be adopted in many civilian organisations. It is fortunate that the typewriter and telephone have come to the aid of the busy executive. If he were compelled to drive a pen many hours a day, recipients of his letters would probably require a board of high-salaried puzzle experts to interpret their meaning. As it is, many a majestic signature needs the swift attention of the well-known pruning knife.