EMPIRE DEFENCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1705, 24 March 1913, Page 3

EMPIRE DEFENCE.

DEBATE BY COLLEGE TEAMS. OTAGO WINS. A WORD ON THE NOISY-STUDENT ELEMENT. : Is the Town Hall Concert Chamber on Saturday, a vital proposition was debated by teams representing Canterbury College, Auckland College, Otago University,, aim Victoria College.' . Tho Htfh. .A. L. Herdman, H.P., presided over the gathering, and the contest was, judged by ins Honour Mr. Justice : Sir John l , 'indiay, 1i.G. l and the Very jtte\\jji': iveunedy. Tho teams : were Canterbury College: It. JS. Gray ana IJ.1 J . Carinigcon;' Auckland Umversny .Xoiiege: :!!!'. Hi'Lever'aud L. . Phillips; Otago university, jf. .B.' Adams ana L. H. Hunt; Victoria College: C. A. L./\i read well and G.G; Watson.,'. ' The proposition .was: It.is desirable that .New snould federate with Australia'for the purpose oi uelence by land and sea. CUnteroury and Auckland utarhied .'the. proposal, and Otago and '"Wellington.''negatived it. " . r The Chamber was well filled. The gallery inciuaed an ample proportion of the noisy-, 'student element. Tnese youtns are allowed I a i great deal of license at many college and' University! functions, but it might reasonably have been expected that they would havo refrained , irom doing anything which, ini'ght spoil' the debate. Their conduct was nnfair to the/debaters and uncomplimentary to the judges. It is . 0110, thing., to delay' a. practised plati'om speaker by good-humoured... uproar : 011 a festive occasion, but a different and entirely wrong t lung'to' take advantage ol! tile toleration there shown .by frequently! interrupting young debaters who. have the honours ot victory, at stake. : ' .

; . The, Quality of the Debating. '■.Thequaiity■■'of tho debating;was fairly high. . The'chief'fault of all the better speakers, was an obvious for, ef-16et---a lapse from naturalness. 1 She com-' iii cuts of tho'gallery on th - various phases of this probably did gotkl-by teaching the speaker concerned a valuable lesson. - '~ ■ ■ . ' ;Otago'a win was expected by the audience, .but the Wellington pair must have been a close second., • Wellington, indeed, produced the finest;speaker cf tho debate—Watson. Adams, of Otago, came with,a big reputation, and he' gave the impression tliat lie-Was by no means ii lib.vice;. but Watson excelled him 'n delivery and style, and,; quite apart from the value/of tho points hiade, had a woro cohvihcing-'method-of-making 'his points. The Auckland pair were far tho weakest in"-the contest. -M'Lever,; who led: off, failed more completely than anyone! else : ii"; deportment; during his * wholo allotted fifteen minutes he kept : one arm waving aiid whirling; as though its motion wa'9 ,aii. essential iii tho ,flow. of' his oratory. Phillips,- the other -Au'cklander, ■ w'as burdened with v a'.rather\ unsuitable .1 voice, whicli he strove, hard to make up for by simplicity in > language aiul clarity in statement. , This simplicity: of his was far more acceptable than'some of'Otago's magniloquence. • •' Canterbury and Wellington. ' E. Ni. Gray, of Canterbury, who opened '.the, debate, said that; at' present there 'was deal of. unrest in the/world,.. and tKat the . nations weye ,devoting. ; .their attention' :to tho question of. detenco. Tho. Question concerned hone mora- than GreatBritaih. . The British dominions! vera willing to share ill ■ the defence of the Em-, pire, and isvvr Zealand .believed that her . beat, means ..of .developing ah- ellicient defence system : was, to tederate (for delence. purposes)•'.with Australia.; .--INew Zealand' could never, hope, to havea navy 01 her own. forial'purely' 'Jiew. Zealand navyrwould'botp,waste strength. By- helping 'Ourselves. ; -in- these ;'seas «e would help the .Mother County, by-reliev-ing her ot the necessity, of keeping: ships; hero..* "Iti'addiin'iiii. -iv- tho North Sea menace, there was a' Pacific probieiu, . the-southern dominions had theinselveV to look ' after,V, and , . a -defence -federation would asMst. that end.' Australia had offered Us" her h-eip. The cost of an effective system would be insuperable to Zealand ■' alone, but with Australia it could be borne. 1

. ,P. - Cariington (Canterbury) maintained that it 'was, very .'necessary that Great Britain should be freq to tight Germany in ■the North Sea, and that'the best way to make,'her free was,to build ships to. defend tho other.' Australasian waters, for instance! A great deal.had been, heard, about "warlike Germany," but might she not have been oveirpraised? "Was she .the military, equal of Franco, or the''naval equal of Britain;? 1 The greatest difficulty, in war was, that of supplies,: and England depended entirely oh other cOuntries.for food—to a great extent she depended'on; her' colonies. ' Therefore, the col-wiies" should put. themselves in the position of being able to get those supplies ; to, her. . 'In . of war, we would nave to'co-operate with Australia, 60 why not co-operaite now, and havo everything working order, lest-trouble arise?. Tho Jominions were past the stage of hanging on to their mother's apron-strings; it was. time'.they attempted.to do something for themselves.' The existence in these waters of -a-navy of some consequence would make,. ,- would-be invadeTS .think twicei before attacking Australia or New Zealand. : C.,A; L. Treadwell'(Victoria College) led the attack on the proposal.. He said that New Zealand's contribution must be to: the. Imperial Navy ; a few 'Breadnoughts here,would be useless; ffhe Empire. must centre for deieiice where the danger; threatened—in tho North Sea. When the present British Government first took office it invited Germany to re- ■ duco its navy-building, and Germany's answer was'an.increase in her Navy Estimates. ' Was it to be imagined that a tew warships in these waters could stand in the light of a 'great navy? If the German ; navy got command of the sea, it could send its huge army Any where, to do anything. As long as British supremacy at sei was maintained, the.British doininiojis'could never be propeny conquered.' "We' are slow to-recoguisa the need for Imperial unity," he concluded, "but there is.-'yet time to achieive it." • _'G. G.'Watson (Victoria College), speaking -with.'-particular regard to land, defences,'held that Australia and New Zealand could be. made capable of defending themselves,: and ' that it wai our great duty to concentrate, our efforts on bringing our land defences to that stago of effi'ciency. "It is said," he proceeded, "that it'is necessary to keep our,lines of communication open, but' if you take your 'New Zealand Year Book' you will find thdt.our exports are mostly toodstulfs and materials for the making of clothing, and our imports are merely "the luxuries tf life" .

A voice in the gallery: Servant girls! If we widened the'scope of the admiuistrat ou oi'.vur (irience system, the'cost of its administration would increase. Federation nail ra.ieu the cost of. government ill Australia, and the same would apply to a defence combination. , Auckland'and Otago. ' F. M'Lover (Auckland), in. affirming the proposition/ said that the protection afforded . the dominions to-day was quite inadequate; we could not deiend ourseives successfully against one first-class cruiser. As ttiero : was no local navy in Nov.- Zealand waters, there was no.incentive for New Zeaianders to become naval seanwn. If reciprocity in trade was desirable, reciprocity in defence was. The communities oi Australia and New Zealand could build up a fighting power Jiot contemplated by' Britain's.foes, and not.reckoned on and provided against by them, in Australasian -navy'could keep our trado routes free, and ; would help, to form a oembined' navy which would be able to stand without fear against tho machinations of the world. ~ "\Ve .wish to light for this country, not to buy our defence," was tho view expressed by L. Phill'ps, Auckland's other representative, "we wish to defend our.- country ourselves, not' to do it by proxy." The assiduous mothering bestowed upon us by-Britain had, ho continued, bdon rather humiliating and degrading. An enemy's entire fleet would never bo sent tn attack tho colonies, because that would leave tho fleet's country unprotected did excosecl • to. an attack, by Great

Britain. ■ In concluding, ho declared that oil tho ono hand there lay a system of national independence, and'on tho other a system of Inational irresponsibility and decadence. L, 11. Hunt opened for Otago, who opposed tho proposition. ' Ho said that our safety hero depended upon tho Imperial "i'leet. Ho lettered that tho fleet would protect U9 in tho future, and thought that tho best thing tof do would be to assist in making it impregnable. "We need not," lie went on "talk about tho coming warfare. That war is at present in progress. Not a gun has been fired -yet. It is a silent, bloodless war. It is taking placo.in tho dockyards of Germany and '/Great Britain. (Applause.) All tho support given to a merely local navj; is support withdrawn from tho Imperial Navy. Assuming, there was a federation, what would bo tho basis of control? If a population basis, New Zealand would have a very small say. How would the scheme operate? .Tho gallery: Co-operate! Mr. Hunt: It would result in the destruction of tho Territorial system. Ironical cheers from the gallery. I'. B. Adams (Otago) concluded' tho debate. Ho expressed the ' hope that in tho future Britain might look, with success, for an enduring alliance with the great white -nations of tho south, nations peopled by teeming millions .of the British stock. Supposing wo. united with Australia, and a crisis arrived, concerning the merits of which we differed, Australia might say to us: "You shall not go with the Empire, you shall como with us, and wo shall be neutral." It was'desirable that' in times of war the whole Navy should be under ono control; otherwise tho directors of operations would not bo able to centre their forces precisely wljero they 'wanted tliern. AVhat part of the cost of the keeping-whole of tho Empire had we paid—South Africa's war, Canada's delivery from French. rule? Nothing! And now the Mother Country expected us to do something; the days for the spoon-feeding of the colonies were over.

• The Decision Rccoived. The judges were not long in arriving at,a decision, and in a few minutes they handed Mr. Herdman the result of the contest. ; Mr. Herdman: Otago is .first-— Loud cheering, protracted war-cries, "Hale Britannia," and "For They Are Jolly Good Fellows" from the gallery. . 'Mr. Herdman':- Victoria College is second. -.. _ \ More cheering,more war-cries, and "For we are-Jolly Good' Fellows."' After sonic delay Mr. Herdman announced that Canterbury had been placed third, and Auckland fourth. Ho then presented the Otago team with the Joynt Challenge Shield. He congratulated the winners, and expressed the hope that it. would spur them to further activity in future life. He was confident that the people who had listened to tho oratorical performances of the evening were, satisfied that tho competitors had done credit to themselves and>th'e institutions they represented. ' , . ! During tho evening a. violin solo was played by Miss Sandilands, of Otago University, who was accompanied by Miss' E.. Jouglnn, of Canterbury College.