NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1866, 27 September 1913, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Very few people in New Zealand, probably, arc in a position to appreciate the full meaning of the brief cable message which wc publish this morning relating to the collection of subscriptions towards the millionpound guarantee to indemnify volunteers and relatives in the cvent_ of injury or death in Ulster following on resistance to Home Rule. The message reads: Sir Samuel M'Caughey, M.L.C., Now South Wales, has cabled to tho Treasurer to ask him for any sum required.

The bulk of the public will no doubt regard this magnificont offer as a mere figure of speech. Not knowing Sir Samuel M'Caughey they will probably fail to realise that what ho there offers ho means literally— that is to saj', that he is prepared to give any sum that may bo required, up to one million pounds, to assist .the Ulster fund. Perhaps no nwre Striking evidence of the spirit which is actuating the people of Ulster in their determined resistance to severance from tho United Kingdom could be found than is discernible in this offer. Viewed in the light of the surrounding circumstances it illumines the depths of feeling which have been stirred amongst loyal Ulstermen not merely in Ireland itself but the world over. Sir Samuel M'Caughey is an old man. He came to the colonies nearly 60 years ago from Ireland, and has prospered through his own efforts, until be is to-day probably the wealthiest man in Australia. • He is unmarried and practically without further ambitions so far as his own personal advancement is concerncd. Possibly he has at tho most only a few: years to live; and his interests and associations for over 50 years have been mainly confined to the land of his adoption. Yet at the threatened dismemberment of the United Kingdom and the forcible exclusion of Ulster from her old association with British rule, he in his old age finds himself stirred with the spirit of revolt. He, like his fellow Ulstermen, would 1-csist to the uttermost the attempt to separate tho country of their birth from Great Britain ; and having no other means of assisting in the struggle, he is prepared to throw his wealth into the scalc to ensure that tho dependents of those wlio may fall in the fight may be provided for. Why should a colonist of 60 years' standing worry deeply about the question of Home Rule for Ireland 1 ! Why should ho give the Ulstermen carte blanchc to draw upon his fortune in the manner stated? Does it not indicate the intensity of feeling underlying the whole movement to resist tho inclusion of Ulster in the Home Rule scheme 1 If an old man who left Ireland nearly 60 years ago to make his home in a land 16,000 miles distant still retains such feelings as prompted the magnificent offer of Sir Samuel M'Cauqhey, what must be the strength of feeling amongst Ulstermen who have never left their nativo land 1

The Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa must have been deeply moved when from a mountain-top in Central America he firstsaw the Pacific Ocean. It was a sight that no European had previously seen, and one can only wonder what would have been his thoughts if he could, however dimly, have realised that the ocean on which his eyes rested was destined to be one of the great highways nf the world's trade, and thai; it washed the shores of an island continent on which in the course of a few hundred years European civilisation would be established and nourishing ciliet built by men of British

blood. Thursday last was the 400 th anniversary of Balboa's discovery, and the day was not allowed to pass without some recognition of the great, event. In.a rcccnt lecture, on the discovery of the Pacific Sir Clements Markham said it was impossible for any man who achieved greatness to have begun in moro depressing and apparently hopeless circumstances' than those which at the outset beset Vasco Nunez. He went out in the ship of Encisco, the famous cartographer and surveyor, headed up in a cask in order to escape from his creditors. On his arrival in the New World lie was a penniless fugitive, with no authority, no official appointment of any kind, but such was his genius that lie was at once recognised as a born leader, so that even the fiercc Pizarro, who 'was older and was actually in charge, bccame his follower. The task of Nunez was a difficult one, because of tho robbery and treatment of the natives by his predecessors. But he succeeded with tho natives, as he succeeded with his fellowcountrymen, by his just and conciliatory methods. His life was full of extraordinary hardships and sufferings, and was ended by a tragic death. Probably few lines arc better known than those of Keats: Of stout Cortes, when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific, and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise, Silent upon a peak in Darieu. Therein, as Sir, Clements pointed out, Keats was wrong, for it Was Nunez, and not Cortes, who was the first European to set eyes on the Pacific. Very general sympathy will be felt with tho appeal made by Messrs. C. K. Wilson,. W. D. S. Mac Donald, J. A. Young, and other members in the House of Representatives yesterday for better educational facilities for back-blocks children. The qur;tion„ no doubt is a difficult one to deal with in communities where the sottiers arc few and far between, but the fact that such difficulties exist does not relieve the State of its responsibility in tho matter. The lot of tho back-blocks settler and his family is hard enough in most cases, and too little is done to better it. A short time ago wc published a special issue dealing with the needs of the farming community and in response to! an invitation to country people to express their views on the subjeefc we received much interesting and valuable first-hand information as to the best means of encouraging people to follow farming pursuits -and also as to what might be done to improve the conditions of- life of those living away from the centres of population. Many of the letters so received were published in our columns, and were no doubt read by Members of Parliament. One of the initial needs in connection with providing educational facilities for tho children of, settlers in the outlying districts is better roads. Indeed in' many eases there are no roads at all. No money could be spent to better advantage than that wisely expended in the construction of roads to open up land for settlement, and in providing proper access to lands already settled, and wc should like to see the Governnicnt proceeding on' even more extensive lines than it is proposing to do in this respect. Reverting to the question of the schooling of back-blocks children it should not be overlooked that it is not merely a question of justice to provide for wio children tho same advantages which their fellows nearer the centres of population possess. There is a larger principle at stake, and that is the cffcct on our national life of neglect to provide reasonable facilities for education for those who are to bo the future citizens and rulers of tho Dominion. Our country population needs to be as well equipped in their own particular lines and as much abreast o£ _ the times as those who live in the cities if Now Zealand is to hold its own with the nations' of the world.

' Another war has broken out in the Balkans. The Servians and Albanians are now in conflict, and it is quite possible that' the .other Balkan ►States may bccome involved. The cause of the trouble is Albania's, demand for autonomy, and it looks as if the Bulgarians aro stirring up "discord in order to make things as unpleasant as possible for Scrvia. Finding that no one has seriously disputed her rcoccupation of Adrianople, Turkey is asserting herself once more, and appears to be looking for trouble with Greecc by demanding an indemnity for the families of 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Greek prisons. Turkey has received numerous warnings from tho Powers,' but she knows only too well how to take advantage of the. difficulties and dangers of active intervention. Only quite recently Sir Edward Grey stated in tho House of Commons that "if Turkey docs not accept tho advice of the Powers, it will from the beginning paralyse any policy dependent on their goodwill. One of ■ tho Great Powers or another may bo so provoked that it may take matters into its own hands, in its own. interest, and tho others may admit tho provocation is such as to justify its action;" Turkey is evidently going to take the risk of losing the goodwill of the Powers in the hope of getting back some of her lost territory. The other Balkan States are so exhausted by the strain of tho recont fighting that they are not at all anxious to start another war, and the knowledge,of this fact has emboldened the wily Turk to make another forward move and risk the consequences.

The House of Representatives at time of writing looks liko having a lato sitting on the Estimates. • It' has been engaged all the afternoon and until past midnight on the Education Department Estimates, and whilo much of the discussion in the earlier part of the proceedings was quite legitimate, there has been since an inexcusable waste of time by Opposition members in covermcc old ground' again and again. A most" unpleasant innovation introduced by the Opposition during the present session has been the indulgence in personal criticism of persons outside of politics, in order to make them a medium through which to attack the Government. It will be recalled that certain unfortunate episodes on the part of a gentleman who had been appointed a member of the Wcstport Harbour Board were dragged up by the member for Nelson, and presented to the public in the worst possible light, in an attempt to prejudice the Minister of Marine. The attempt failed, so far as the Minister was concerned, but the injury and needless pain inflicted on the. unfortunate private individual by the callous raking up of his past offending, lor which he had already borne the . full penalty, remained. Again, in connection with (ho Horn (J.uimck inquiry, several of thuse members of the Opposition

who were most active' in this matter were not content to attack tho Minister, but deliberately, in face of tho evidence, went out of their way to injure Mb. Gaulick in his professional capacity, and pursued him with a venomous persistency that showed an utter disregard for all sense of,fairness. It was hitting below the belt—and hitting a man powerless to retaliate. Last evening, however, even a deeper depth was reached. In connection with the appointment of an inspector in the Education Department, the Opposition did not stop at personal criticism, but descended to dragging tho religious views of Public Servants on to the floor of tho House. In their bitter and malicious efforts to attack the Government they spare neither private characters nor religious convictions.