TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19052, 16 September 1933, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Leisure the Real Problem. It is leisure rather than -work that is rapidly becoming the main factor in the situation, states Mr W. E. Lishman, a noted British engineer, in the Quarterly Review. It is to no purpose that we introduce labour and time-saving devices if the only result is that certain sections of the community continue working, at high pressure, and another large section stand idly by, depending withal upon the good offices of the other sections for their very existence. The logic of the matter forces us to the conclusion that respite from toil should be equitably meted out among all, so that all may reap the benefits that are to be derived from what after all is a common heritage. In short, so-called unemployment must gradually be transformed jnto well-appointed leisure. If this means —as indeed it must —shorter hours without reduction of wages, this eventuality must be boldly faced. * It may well be that such a policy does not fall within the four walls of our present economic system. But that system was built up on a doctrine of scarcity and cannot remain sacrosanctunder widely altered circumstances. The Fruit Embargo. Last December the New Zealand Government retaliated with an Order-in-Couneil prohibiting the introduction from Australia of fruit and vegetables, states the Sydney Morning Herald.. In an explanatory, statement the New Zealand Minister of Customs declared that, deprived of an Australian market by the Australian embargo, New Zealand fruitgrowers were seeking one in the United States; and that the United States had been prohibiting New Zealand fruit because of the fruit fly danger, not in New Zealand fruit, but in Australian fruit which New Zealand allowed to be imported. Accordingly, New Zealand must prohibit Australian oranges in order to obtain that market in America to which the Australian embargo was forcing her. There was the plain retaliation, and the Australian protest must be ruled quite out of court. Era of Talk Over. The conference leaves behind it a definite feeling in this country that as Mr Lloyd George said in the House of Commons, the era of conferences is over, commented the -Daily Mail on the adjournment of the World Conference, The nation will therefore have to grnpplo with these problems itself, with the aid of the Dominions and of the Empire. The sound course now is to cultivate economic nationalism, or the most rapid development of protection and preference within the Empire. This is the programme adumVr.ated in the declaration of British Empire delegations to the conference, which covers monetary policy as well as tariffs. We are glad to learn from sources in close touch with our Government that British Ministers will, in future, proceed along these lines, which are those of far-seeing Imperialism.