TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 70, 24 March 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Australasia's dissatisfaction with a condition of naval Pacific Defence : affairs in the Pacilic Dift'eriiig which makes us deViewpoints, pendent >on the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was lately emphasised, an far as New Zealand is concerned, by Mr. Massey. His utterance has drawn forth two _ Sydney press opinions and an unofficial announcement (published to-day) of the attitude of bhe British Government. One thing made clear by the latter, and supported by the cablegram bearing on the deadlock with the Canadian Senate, is tli.it the time is inopportune for a coiilci'onco. Mr. AEquilh'B Ministry hah Ulster and a probable general election <vi its, hands : the Senate frtill blocks a forward inovi? 111 I naval matters by Canada ; the Common- } wpniih is thrcntciied \sith tho titfct f double dissolution in its Mistorv. ; and a j general election low arils- the ond of the year is eei'tain in T t!^^• Zealand. In the miitli'i' of tho centralisation sliaiegy. iho Admiralty is stilled In lie iinuilec'.cd by th? prolrh't, of Mi. Ali.fc-.-'y and of otliT Dominion publicists.-. New Zealand dot.i not iiuiwlioii tlu % ivi^tluni o| centralising tho n;ivy in Eiaopn.in wntors, but docs mi\ that in that event, bho nn.ct begin to jiuild ships herself rather than rely indi'liuitely on the Augl"-.J«ipanese Alliance. It "is not so much ti question of whether the British Government is right or wrong in relying o,i that Alliance for Pacific protection during the next twelve years, but whether Australia, New Zealand, and Canada can reconcile them* selves to the snpine course of relying upon it for all time. If the Admiralty's hope that theso three Dominions will

contribute battleships to an Imperial fleet to patrol the Empire is simply a revival of the Gibraltar squadron project, it must be pointed out that the New Zealand Minister for Defence has already expressly disagreed, holding that Gibraltar, as a striking base for Pacific defence, is too remote. Evciy phase of the issue leads back to Japan, and turns not so much on the present as on the future value of the Alliance. People who are nation-making in thu Pacific naturally look farther into the bpecial future of that ocean than do the diplomats and strategists of Europe. Over a year ago the Hon. Wv H. Herries, Minister of RailRailway ways, took a business Time-tables view of the enterwhich Block prise, and decided Settlement. that it would be worth while to use suburban lines for an experimental encouragement of settlement nenr the cities. That is an ordinary rule _of shrewd business men in older countries, where keen competition forces the captains to use their heads for thinking, and not for butting against sane proposals of reform. In New Zealand, where the railways are a monopoly, and where the political managers have been always able to draw on the Consolidated Fund for any deficiency due lo waste or mistakes of management, many a good suggestion for an improvement has been met either with cold cynicism or scouted as impossible j but it is anticipated that the conservatism of the Department will have its adamant dissolved to some extent by Mr. Hiley. The manager is requested specially to note the grievances of people who reside between Wellington and, say, Paekakariki. For years they have pleaded for rational treatment, and they are usually fobbed off. They had expected a change for the better when the State took over the hne from the private company, but the old grievances remain. The company's attitude was that it could not afford "concessions,'' because the traffic did not warrant them— and this was exactly the way to keep the traffic peipetually below the point of profit. The State's officers have practically the same attitude; they wait for population which cannot come, except at an extremely slow rate, because the railway timetable is exclusive j the rails are practically an iron fence, on which one can easily picture a notice : "Trespassers will regret their venture." Here is only one of many absurdities, which have been published repeatedly in The Post. The train which leaves Plimmerton at 7.20 i a.m. is timed to reach Thorndon Station (remote fiom Lambton-quay) at B.4s— nearly an hour and a-half to cover than eighteen miles! This in 1914, A.D.,on a down grade! But that is not the most peculiar part of the "express affair Jolmsohville, only eleven miles from Phmmertoii, is not left till 8.18, nearly an hour after the "flier" departed from Phmmertoii. There is a wait of nearly twenty minutes for an up train,- and the mystified passengers would like to know why the train should not leave _ Paekakariki and Plimmerton twenty minutes later than 7.20. The time could be used better there than in a railway carriage. Mr. Ililey has much work ahead of him in altering vexatious dispensations for which not one good argument can be quoted. "Scab" was a word so queerly used by . . the Reds during the Again the Cry late strike that in the of "Scab."' end the Reds them- ' selves seemed to be puzzled by the word. Thus, according to various interpretations, shearers 'scabbed" on the strikers by contributing 10s a week instead of nothing ; if they had struck they would have drawn on strike funds instead of paying in. Ihe official organ "scabbed" on the Red federation, and vice-versa. The Red Federation's executive "scabbed" on the shipwrights' section of the old union of waftersiders, and, in fact, it was possible by the reasoning of the Reds to deduce that every member of the organisation, especially the organisers, were "scabs" from some viewpoint. Never did a word play the boomerang more remarkably to its mis-users. Yet, despite that sad experience, the Socialists are taking further risks A'ith their favourite epithet. A new Liberal-Labour Federation, recently formed in Christchurch, is not approved by the Social Democrats (who are the Red Federals in political disguise). Therefore, the Socialist chief has announced that "the move is regarded as hostile, and the new body will be treated as a 'scab' organisation by the Social Democrats." It is, of course, clearly fair for the other Labour men to roar "scab" at the extremists. In Wellington the executive of the United Labour Party has plainly given the Social Democrats to understand that they can have any orgy they fancy with the word "scab," or any other nonsense. The Reds have been told to go their own way, at their own gait. In Cliristchurch the circumstances are different. There the lurid colour of the Social Democrats has not been so plainly revealed as it has been in Wellington, but the moderate Labour men in the south will not long be in ignorance of the real character of the Social Democratic scheme, which aims at the "Socialist Republic."'