NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 52, 25 November 1930, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

Internecine strife within the ranks of British political Labour has developed into an open challenge between Mr. MacDonald’s supporters and the Independent Labour Party at the East Renfrew by-election. It is not very often that disaffection goes as far. as that. Even although the Prime Minister has definitely and publicly dissociated himself from the I.L.P. group, open warfare on the hustings with the attendant risk of defeat for both sides would ordinarily be regarded as political suicide. In challenging the I.L.P. candidate Mr. MacDonald has evidently decided to risk much on the prospect of gaining little. A defeat would be a severe blow to his prestige, while a victory might conceivably intensify Labour’s internal disaffection without adding materially to his strength in Parliament.

It has been suggested that to the untutored natives of the Persian Gulf the replacement of' double-funnelled naval, sloops by. a single-funnelled type may be regarded as a sign of Britain’s declining might. The installation of additional “dummy” funnels, it is considered by apprehensive officials, would correct this impression. It was well understood among shipping companies handling the emigrant traffic from Europe that the double-funnelled ship was preferred to its single-funnelled rival, because it conveyed a suggestion of greater strength and speed; Therein was demonstrated the persistence of the human tendency to judge by- appearances, notwithstanding the moral of experience that they are deceitful. The psychology of deception enters largely into the economy of Nature in forwarding the various schemes of mice and men. Beetles disguise themselves as leaves and twigs, crocodiles as logs of wood, tigers as jungle-grass, swindlers as clergymen, while a certain type of politician can as conveniently cloak his real identity as a chameleon can melt itself by a change of colour into its immediate environment.

At no distant date flights from England to Australia in light aeroplanes will become a commonplace of aviation. In the meantime all honour and encouragement is due to the adventurous pioneers who have risked their lives in demonstrating a probability that few would have entertained ten years ago. To Mr. Oscar Garden, who arrives in Wellington to-day, such, distinction is especially due. This young New Zealander has shown to the world that what may be done by skilled airmen can also be done by those who are, in the aeronautical sense, mere tyros. This young man, with but a limited experience of flying, “traded in” his motor-car for a light aeroplane, and with the laconic remark that he was going to Australia, hopped off. To experienced heads, it was a hare-brained enterprise But it succeeded where many more experienced had previously failed. More than that it had a signal finale, for Garden took the unknown trail to Wyndham instead of the plotted route to Darwin, and made the crossing of the Australian continent over the air-line that nearly proved Kingsford Smith’s undoing. These are substantial achievements, a unique triumph deserving of the appropriate applause and congratulation with which his fellow-countrymen will welcome him to-day.

From the reported statements of members of the Moera Ratepayers’ League it appears that residents of the settlement are suffering under a real grievance. Each winter brings with it the possibilities of flooding from the Awamutu Stream. An engineers’ report presented to the Government last July recommends the carrying out of certain work, estimated to cost £3300, if the Moera Settlement is to be relieved of the danger. But the Government and the Lower Hutt Borough Council are unable to agree as to who shall pay. or the proportion each shall pay, and nothing has been done. The Government is willing to pay in the proportion of £3 to £1 and the Lower Hutt Borough Council is prepared to spend £lBO, its proportion of the cost of reclaiming land under its immediate jurisdiction Neither will concede the other’s claims although there is no question about the urgent necessity of the work. With so much unemployment in the Hutt Valley, the present affords an opportunity of giving temporary relief by undertaking a job that can more easily be justified than many other relief works, ft surely ought not to be impossible for the Government and the council to come to an agreement so that the work can be carried out without further delate