A GERMAN ECONOMIST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2568, 31 July 1909, Page 2

A GERMAN ECONOMIST.

CHAT WITH PROFESSOR MANES. Dr Manes, ah eminent German political economist, and a Professor in the University o-f Commerce, Berlin, who is at present visiting New Zealand for tho purpose of studying the social and economic conditions here, and the effect of rocont labour and social legislation was interviewed by a Christchurch “Press” reporter last week, Profsssoi ' Manes said he considered the present the best time to visit New Zealand, for then the value of experimental legislation could bast .be tost'ed. In good times the worst legislation would' work well, but the best test was in bad times. He wanted to find out what part of the New Zealand social and labor legislation could be introduced into Germany, and lie would, of course, want - to know how the laws would work 1 in bad times as well as good. Germany did not always have the good times such as were experienced in New Zealand during the past eighteen years, and on coming to this country, he was rather /'astonished to find unemployed here at all, much less in such quantities. “I find,” added Professor Manes, “you have just the same problems here 1 as we have in Germany, only of course you have them on a very much smaller scale. We har« to admire the * ,'rect •way you set about dealing with these problems, and the quick way you put your legislation through. You can also change your laws quickly if you want to do so, but in Germany, once we have a law, we havo to keep it for a number of years. You make laws quioker than we can formulate principles, and that is what makes the'study of your ""social and labor conditions so difficult, and at the same time so interesting. Wo can no doubt learn a lot from you, but,, on the other hand, you can learn a lot from us. With our social legislation we , are really the New Zealand of tho other hemisphere. We, however, study your laws very closely, but I am afraid you do not study ours. For instance, I you might woll look’ into our-system of compulsory .workers’ insurance, which is based on a mutual arrangement between the employer, the worker, and the State, and tho profits which would otherwise <ro to the insurance companies are thus retained. “There are some things in New Zealand I like very much,” continued Professor Manes. “Your employers are very much more friendly to tho workers than they are in the older countries, and the workers are much more friendly to the employers. You do not have tho extremes iwe have, but I am afraid you will get them in time. On the one side you have a Socialistic party growing up, and on the other you have the capitalists banding together, and tho question is what will be the social conditions of New Zealand when New Zealand gets as old as our country. It is very difficult to make a comparison between an old and a young country, for what might suit tho one might not suit the other.” . _ Professor Manes had a word or two of strong comment to make regarding the cable service through which European news was transmitted to New Zealand. “I cannot understand,” he declared, “how the people of New Zealand, who are certainly among the most intelligent people in the world, rest content with tho sort of European news retailed to them by tile present cable service, and I think tho best thing New Zealand could do would be to establish a State cable service which would ’be cheaper for the papers, and better for the public, for accurate information o: a much better type would then be sent. 1 am sure if you only got proper information about U;>, instead of tho scaro messages you receive now, you would take a much more favorable view of our country and its people.” What about the so-called German menace respecting Australia and New Zealand ? “There’s nothing in it,” declared Professor Manes, in reply. “You people are getting quite nervous over that matter, arid all through the cables. Why, one would think that Germany is building a new Dreadnought every day. As a matter of fact, Australia and New Zealand are never heard of in Germany except among political economists and others who are making those studies a special study. Your great danger will be frory the Japanese and the Chinese. There is no white danger, but there certainly is a yellow danger.” “But your country has a large number of its people now resident in New Zealand. Do not they involve a danger ?” “Not a bit o*f it. Those people are nothing to us now. They are not Germans, but New Zealanders; not our people, but your people; and there is no reason in the world why you should be afraid of them.” In conclusion Professor Manes paid a tribute of admiration to the glories of New Zealand as a country. “There, is no other country in the world,” ho said, “which has so much beauty in such a small space, for you have in your country all the attractions of Italy, Norway, and Switzerland, and other places besides. The only pity is that you have only one million people. There is one thing I admire very much in New Zealand, and that is the Press of the country. To look at tho papers one would think there was in the country a population of at least twenty millions of people instead of only one. Their journalistic standard is high, and some of them are most excellently illustrated ; they only suffer from one defect, and that is the dreadful cable news -they publish.” _