NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 82, 31 December 1929, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

For long there has been talk of a tunnel connecting Europe and Africa under the Straits of Gibraltar. Now it is . reported that the Spanish Government is to defray the cost of soundings and shaft sinkings. The project is a very attractive one. It would open new and swift communication between Europe, Africa, and South America. Not only that, but by linking up with the Cape-to-Cairo and trans-Saharan lines, a new way would be opened between Western Europe, Africa (both North and South), and the Far Last. All this looks very attractive, but the construction of the tunnel will be a difficult operation. The bottom of the Straits is at 3000 feet against only 200 feet at the Straits of Dover. Moreover, the compact rock formation at Gibraltar will prove much harder to work than the easy slaty shale under the English Channel. Although the sea distance between Europe and Africa is at its narrowest only 8-1- miles, the depth of the water will call for a tunnel 33 miles long. It will be seen that, altogether, there are many lions in the path of Eurafrican rail connection. If ever the tunnel is pierced, it will prove a very strong argument for the construction of that lesser work, the Channel tunnel. * * ♦ *

Expression has'lately been given in Great Britain to misgiving that the,bureaucrats or departmental heads arc largely superseding Parliament in the business of government. Not only have they taken to themselves a great part of the administrative and executive functions formerly directly discharged by Ministers responsible to Parliament, but, by regulations, have even been doing much legislative work. The quarrel with this procedure is that Civil Servants are gradually undermining the system of representative government. They are not responsible, like Ministers, to Parliament and, through it, to the country. The process of usurpation is so gradual and insidious that the grave menace to our Parliamentary institutions has not been realised until its cumulative effect has compelled attention. The subject is well treated in Lord Hewart’s book, The Nezv Despotism, as outlined in our news columns yesterday. What Lord Hewart has to say is worth study. For in New Zealand, just as in England, there is an outcry against government by Order-in-Council and the endless production of regulations by Departments. If Parliament continues to delegate its functions in the future as it has done in the past, in the end it will be its own executioner.