NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 152, 21 March 1924, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

The latest mails from the United States reveal the fact that the Naval Oil Reserves scandals have stirred American Press and public opinion to the depths. The testimony given by various witnesses, says the New York Outlook, has changed the character of the investigation from a matter of party house-cleaning to an issue of national magnitude concerning the whole relation between the federal Government and the nation’s natural resources. “It has revived on a large scale the almost forgotten question of conservation—it is a question of faithfulness to stewardship.” The Outlook adds a reminder that one of the many services which the late President Roosevelt rendered his country was in impressing upon the public conscience tho duty of holding public officials sternly to their obligations as stewards of the nation’s property: As no one before him had done, he brought people to realise not only that publ.c officials were stewards for the people, but that the people themse ves were stewards for posterity.” Tho Detroit Free Press demands „action that shall serve as a warning to the crooked for a geneiation. Th s is strong language, but it is suited to an incident which has staggered even the American public at the turpitude of the political custodians of its property. .

The Government has decided to donate the sum of £75 000 by wav of subsidising the cost of housing the priceless exhibits and relics of ancient Maori history in a suitable building worthy of the name of the “Dominion Museum.” This is- half the estimated cost of the new building- As to the other half, the interest of public and private philanthropy is to be enlisted. It may be assumed that those who have been moving the Government in this matter have a definite scheme in view.- Looked at purely as an abstract proposition, and altogether apart from the merits of this particular case, collecting subscriptions for a museum docs not strike one as a proposition likely to evoke an enthusiastdc response from the public. Whatever the basis of the proposition may be, it is to be hoped that it possesses the necessary ingredient of practicability, for it is bi K h time that these exhibits were properly housed and so displayed that they will be able to bo seen. The museum should be a centre of interest not only to elderly and enthusiastic ethnologists, but also to the general public and the schools. This interest could be stimulated bv popular lectures given in a suitable hall, which should iorm part of the building scheme. The museum authorities in recent times, and under very great, handicaps, have gone to considerable trouble to enlist the interest of the schools by arranging popular lectures, and with the provision of a proper building this useful work could bo elaborated and extended.

A cablegram from Delhi this morning tolls of further obstruction by the Indian Nationalists in the Legislative Assembly by way of emphasising their demands for further constitutional reforms. There is a popular impression that political unrest in India is based upon the desire of the leaders of the agitation for democratic institutions. This is not a true statement of the case. “Swaraj” certainly means self-government, but it does not mean democratic government Even Ghandi did not moan that when ho raised the banner of “swaraj.” He and other political agitators simply want to transfer the governing power from the “Satanic” British Government to a Government consisting entirely of Indians. As one observer of recent, events nuts it: “Government by the few for the benefit c-f the many is the farthest breadth of their political ideals.” The nearest approach to native democratic institutions in India is the ane’ent form of village government known as the panchayetgovernment bv the elders of the village, each occupational group being represented bv its oldest member. But that is not, strictly sneaking democratic governrnent-it is government by the accident of old age. To nut the matter shortly, India has always accepted autocracy the divine right of ' government, as the order of the universe This does not mean to say that the attainment of “swarai ” if accomplished, would end the activities of the native nolitical reformers. ’ The spread of education amongst the masses would verv probably stimulate a political movement .tending in the direction of a. real democracy, but years would elapse, before such a tendency would be al'ovzcd to take definite shape.