TOPICS OF THE BAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE BAY

A thrill at work well done mingles with sorrow in the An Imperial Frontier news of Dr. Southward. Mawson's explorations in Antarctica. Like Captain Scott, he has achieved a splendid victory-— at a price, though the leader of the Australian expedition reports himself safe in isolated winter quarters. Two of his helpers, Dr. Met?, and Lieutenant Ninnis, have found untimely graves in tho frozen South, and thus the people of the world have a, sad reminder that the cold white guards of the Antarctic arc in a mood to take toll. Men cHmo und went, and lived to look back on roniarkablo endurance and escapes from death— and now come the fatalities for that inexorable law of averages. Unhappily, Dr. Mawsen, in ( his latest wireless message to Australia, does not say how his companions died. Most of* his words concern his discovery of a new bleak land, between Victoria Land and Adelie Land —another piece to be coloured red on the map. This hardy Australian has pushed the Empire's frontier towards the magnetic pole, and, though there will not be much trade to follow the flag, the feat is something to command thfe admiration of Britons. For the present, however, any feeling of joy in this achievement is hindered by anxiety By one word, "sickness" or "accident," the leader could have checked speculation as to the deaths of his friends, and in the absence of that word an uneasiness must be in many minds. A telegram today remarks that some people in Christchurch have a fear that more sad news may yet come. The cable messages leavo scope for a gloomy filling of gaps, and this apprehension of further cause for sorrow will increase till more definite statements come from Commonwealth Bay, where Dr. Mawson and a few men have their winter quarters.* At the meeting of the Education Board yesterday Mr. A. W. A Remarkable Hogg was allowed to • Tirade. indulge in a violent and foolish tirado against the Defence Act and the authorities responsible for its administration. Seeing that the tirade was as irrelevant aa it was silly, we cannot understand cither why Mr. Hogg should havo been allowed' to deliver it or, having been delivered, it was allowed to pass without at least a lew words of stinging rebuke. The Education

Board is not responsible for the Defence Act, or for its administration, or for the salaries paid to officers, or for the prosecution of defaulter or for the Dreadnought. Why, then, should Mr. Hogg have been allowed to deal with all these extraneous issues in his wild and wandering speech? Addressed to a legislative body the tirade might have had some relevance. Such a body is free to unmake the law that it has made, and is, therefore) concerned to hear tho beat that can be said for or against any law on the Statute Book. But what has an administrative body t6 do with the defects of ft law which it neither makes nor administers? There was really no logical point in Mr. Hogg's philippic except in so far as it was a plea for lawlessness and anarchy. The law is a bad law ; therefore, let us disregard it— that is the essence of Mr. Hogg's logic. He might have argued, with plausibility, if not with force, "The law has nothing to do with us^ therefore, let us ignore it," but be tm'saed the chance nnd took plainly untenable ground. As a public body the Education Board is clearly bound to respect the law as it stands ; and though, aa we have said, it is not concerned to administer the Defence Act, is there any reason why ft should not take notice of proved lawlessness nn a disqualification for the special privileges of scholarships^ and free places winch it is empowered to dispense? WitJi regard to the particular kind of lawlessness in question, it is to bo remembered that the Education Department h«as always had particularly intimate relations with the Defence Department in relation to the training scheme, and after a period of concurrent jurisdictions hfts now been given sole control of the Junior. Cadets. There is, therefore, very good reason why the Education Board should Bet their faces against the evasion or defiance of the law on the part of the Senior Cadets in the manner proposed. Wo trust that the Wellington Board will show conclusively that, it estimates Mr. Hogg's outburst at its true value.