The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 31

mm D. ODMM 1 BY ONLOOKER I UNHAPPY NEW YEAR? AWE approach a new year with the same optimism with which we approach a new job, a new house, a new country. Somehow the world is going to shed its old inadequacies. The past will be forgotten. Reform is in the air to touch friends and foes.

In the end of course we find we arc 5till stuck with our own faults. It's worse when we contemplate the wonders of a new year, because from 197! to 1972 is really only one single page of the calendar, however different it looks. Still 1971 was particularly unsatisfactory. The mining boom went bust and the stock market slumped. If 1972 ofTcrs any comeback it will be modest, though perhaps more soundly based.

Inflation, depression The rural economy decayed. With wool prospects no brighter and with British entry into Europe becoming a reality, 1972 can seem to offer nothing but continued drawings on Government bounty. Inflation went galloping on. Wc begin 1972 with a new series of white-collar wage rises likely, and with a political decision on the Australian dollar exchange rate that can only add to cost inflation. The year 1971 saw the Liberal Party continually divided and most sharply at odds with its coalition partner.

Can 1972 offer anything better? One of the most melancholy years for strikes seems hardly likely to be succeeded by a year of industrial peace. And so on. Just the same, Government and people, we make our own destiny. Unless we can do better, we can't blame the calendar, and there is little point in blaming other people. The new year is a challenge to us all.

have Grand Masters in depth. But they have been only in championship control since 1937, when I)r Max Euwc, of the Netherlands, lost the title. Of the legendary names of the past, Capablanca was a Cuban, two other boy prodigies Morphy and Rcshcvsky came from America, and Alekhinc, though a Russian, was a French citicn. Bank stick-up OUTTING aside the broader economic implications questions of the inflationary effects of flow-on and unrest among unionists the five per cent in-crease for bank officers threatens us from a more immediate direction. The banks, who have to pay the salaries, will be looking around for ways to bolster their own incomes.

We can expect higher bank charges. The State Government is already in for its extra one-cent levy on cheques. If the banks take more of our loose change it will be a burden on business and extra worry for the little man with his humble and barely balancing account. Friday nights TAPPY memories of pre-war Friday A nights brought me to suggest the other week that the public should be consulted on their preference for Thursday or Friday as the night for shops to open. There may have been good reasons for the Christmas season of Thursday nights.

In talking of permanent arrangements, it might be assumed that more workers arc now paid on Thursdays. But apparently the enthusiasm for Friday shopping is still there. A McNair survey taken in the second and third weekends of November found 76 per cent of Sydney people in favour of a late shopping night, and 18 per cent not in favour. The McNair people go on to tell me that those who favoured a late shopping night were overwhelmingly in favour of Friday night. In fact 55 per cent of all Sydney people preferred Friday, 13 per cent Thursday and 6 per cent Wednesday an opinion the authorities may like to consider.

Vandals in the park lEW visitors to Centennial Park these days would take much notice of the statues. Those that arc left tend to be armless, handless or generally maimed. Sir Henry Parkcs, though was someone different. It was his park. He set it aside for the centenary celebrations of 1888, and anyone who has used its broad acres since ought to have looked kindly on his stately figure.

We laugh at the bygone generation and its self-important statuary, but perhaps if we took more care of our pieces from the museum of the past the vandals might have less chance. Harris of Ultimo ONE attempt at saving a memorial from the past is worth noting. The grave of surgeon John Harris in Parra-matta cemetery is in disrepair, and the local medical association is trying to do something about it. A doctor's letter in a recent "Medical Journar seeks to arouse general interest. Harris, surgeon's mate with the NSW Corps, arrived in 1790.

His "Experiment Farm at Parramatta is preserved by the National Trust, and Harris Street and Experiment Street are memories of his land grant in Pyrmont. In fact, the locality name "Ultimo, was his, too. He backed Governor King against the Rum Corps, and when they tried him by court-martial he was able to escape because a badly drafted charge gave the date as the 19th "ultimo" in stead of 19th "instant. 70V will find, among the "Wit and I Wisdom" or Sir Robert Mcnics, flic a)ing: "I have never understood the principles on which headlines are allotted. I always seem to get them at the wrong time.

Suddenly he is in the headlines again, and it is the wrong time because the headlines are so melancholy. The stroke that seemed a minor one just a month ago has assumed a graver look. In the years of his retirement, Sir Robert's stature has not diminished. The Elder Statesman has remained a powerful enough background figure for the Uhcral Party he founded, but he has seldom emerged from the background. The last time he came forward was with a stales-man's plea to the party to mend its quarrels.

The opening words of his last book are: We arc, in the nature of man, redoubtable partisans." No partisanship now. Well-wishers of every party would say: "Get well, soon." Muscular giant THE notion of paying the $17,250 in Arbitration Court fines as a preliminary to the creation of the biggest trade-union in Australian history may have irked the ACTU and the unions concerned, but the money is a tiny counter in a giant game, and one "industrial principle" just had to yield to another. Mr Hawke made it clear that if paying such fines was not in line with ACTU policy, the amalgamation of the three metal trades unions was. Whether he and the ACTU live to regret it remains to be seen. The Australian public and the arbitration system probably will.

The union (200,000 if the FEDFA joins it) will easily eclipse the Australian Workers' Union. Size alone is not the question. The AWU, hewing its own independent path so often throughout its history, has in recent years been more often on the side of moderation. The new amalgamation of metal trades workers amalgamates, some of the country's more militant leaders, men for whom political strikes arc a recognised weapon. On the one hand wc may hope the union consolidation could reduce demarcation disputes and wildcat strikes.

On With Emeric holidays.) CLEAR AS CRYSTAL fPHE seers of the world, their opinions for 1972 gathered together by an American survey, have seen a year of earthquakes and attempted assassinations. But clear through the crystal came two visions. One was a landslide victory for the Democrats, the other for a decisive win for Republican Nixon. The Delphic oracle itself could not have done better. One of those seers is brilliant.

nonnv fischeu from Umtiant the other it will produce a missive confrontation throughout our key industries between powerful employers and a powerful union. It is a significant step in the left-wing move to replace arbitration with collective bargaining which means with trials of strength, usuall) with the public in the middle. And it creates a powerful tiger that will take strength and nerve for Bob Hawke and the ACTU to ride. Bombs for Christmas AJON-STOP waves of bombers over North Vietnam for nearly five days provided a sad reminder that there are 160,000 US troops left in South Vietnam. It is very important that wc protect them," said US Defence Secretary Mchin taird.

It is also important that they be disengaged with a minimum of risk. If the bombing raids, which depressed so many Americans, were meant to accomplish that, they made a cruel sort of sense. Hut it is hardly one that a work! grown weary of a war can be expected to appreciate; and it is an ironic outbreak for a Christmas when peace thoughts for once seemed appropriate. Christmas at least found most of the Australian soldiers home. The bombs arc a reminder that others still pay a price.

No white knight IT was never very likely that America's chess genius Bobby Fischer would have to go to Russia for his World championship series with defender Boris Spassky. The World Chess Federation has been looking for a neutral country for the match (even Australia staked a claim, though like Olympic Games and other events big professional chess games need money). Fischer, in the ungracious manner of the former boy genius, said the Russians would harass his sleep or upset the lighting conditions. He could be right. There is as much gamesmanship in big chess as in other international contests, But Fischer himself, for all the temperament that has had him walking out of contests before this, is a popular figure in Russia and other chess-playing nations America," he says, "I'm But every chess expert agrees that Fischer is the world's best player.

He will be world champion, if not this time then in four years' time. To break the Russian grip now may seem world shattering. The Russians THIS WEEK (In the absence of Eyre Jr on 32 THE SUN-HERALD, JANUARY 2, 1972 32.