TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 121, 23 May 1914, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

As Mr. Bonur Law has declined to assist the Speaker of the Homo Rule House of Commons in and Exclusion, quelling the disorder , , , , .. , . raised by Unionists to block the third reading of the Home Rule Bill, it must be assumed that the Opposition Leader condones his followers methods. He had not sufficient courage to censure them, nor enough assurance to endorse them; and in taking the third course, that of refusing to answer the Speaker's , question, he has probably chosen the least heroic. The main interest in the debate, however, is not the riotous performance of tho 'constitutional" party, but the remarks ot (lie Prime Minister concerning the amending Bill— tho tail which (if it materialises) will wag the dog. Mr. 'Asqmth referred to a Bill "establishing sell -government and an executive for three parts of Ireland," and, said that vie new proposal would deal with a limited area and would give the Ulster people at the poll a chance of saying whether they were prepared to enter the new system." In this, special interest attaches to the phrase "a limited area." Exclusion of any part of Ireland from the Home Rule Bill meanß an alteration in the financial and administrative arrangements^ In particular, the financial provisions will be dependent on the nature and tho area and the population of the excluded territory. Under tho Government's original compromise proposal (time-limited exclusion by means of referenda on a county basis) no one could say how many counties would exclude themselves ; and therefore the administrative and financial ai> rangements were dependent on an unknown factor. This created a machinery barrier to any complete settlement. As Lord Dunraven pointed out, "the Opposition cannot assent to the principle (of exclusion) till they know the form of government offered to the excluded counties The Government cannot settle that form of government till they know how many of those counties there are to be." Mr. Asquith's mention of "a ljmited i area" seems to suggest a delimitation that will give some territorial detinitencss, at any rate for _ a start. Whether such a delimitation will satisfy both or cither of the Irish parties is another question. Dr. Elizabeth Gunn's report on school \ children of tho Hutt Neglected Valley and other parts of School Wellington Province is a Children, ycry unpleasant revelation of the apathy, carelebsness. or thoughtlessness of many parents. In Taita nineteen cut of forty-two children were found to bo ill-nourished, seventeen out of i'orty-tlnee at Upper Hult wove in similar poor physical condition. "All of them born in New Zealand and not from poor homes," is a note on tho Taita cases of malnutrition. The suggested explanation is that the children have breakfast hastily, and feel hungry before they roach school. The lunch bags are opened and emptied, and the pupils may have no more food till they return home in the late afternoon. Whatever the cause of the starved condition of body the parents should have noticed the thinness, and should have made an effort to find a remedy. "Leave it to Nature" seems to be the axiom of numerous parents, who stupidly miss the truth that the trouble is due to a flouting of Nature. Here are other deplorable passages in the report s»— "A great many ox the children examined and reported on last year in the Petone High School, Petone West, Lower Hutt, and Eastern Hutt Schools had had no treat' ment^. .. . Masterton.^Not 30 per cent, of the children examined last year had been attended to." Poverty may be mentioned as an excuse for some of the neglect, but that plea could apply to only a minority. Moreover, a parent's fear of a "doctor's bill" is no good an» swer to the charge of neglect, because there is provision in the State for the treatment of such cases. Our belief is that many of the parents have a very defective sense of responsibility, and tho prevalence of this happy-go-lucky scheme of life is very regretable. It is an injury to the community as well as to the unfortunate victims of parental haphazardness. The announcement by cable message in yesterday's Post that in The Safest the new RoyaJ Aircraft Biplane Factory's biplano the British Government have the safest flying machine yet constructed, will not come as an entire surprise to those who have followed the progress of aviation closely. The British War Office has been subjected to a good deal of obloquy over its air policy, and Parliamentary critics have been voluble in condemnation. Yet it was known that even in its earljer biplanes the Royal Aircraft Factory had led the way, and there were probably oven then no better machines in the air. From the first tho War Office, through its experts, scien> tine men of high standing, notably Messrs Mervyn O'Gorman and De Havilland, attacked the problem on scientific lines with a close study of aerodynamics and the strains and stresses, resistances and powers, involved. The mathematical basis of flight is far from completely worked out yet, but tho "aircraft" men have been quietly, through all the popular clamour over sensational feats and records in the air. experimenting on sound lines in their well-equipped laboratory. It is so that all modern problems in chemistry, industry, engineering, and allied departments in the arts and sciences of civilised life are solved— not by arm>chair dreaming, but by arduous experiment and the observation of countless details until tho data arc complete for constructive work. Analysis, then syntheses— that is the process. Of tho actual machine it is impossible to say much, except to emphasise the statement of Colonel Seely, that the stability of the machine is entirely due to its shape. This is most important. No mechanical device for supplanting the pilot coufd over be satisfactory. What nas veally been wanted all the time has been a machine so built and formed that it tends under all conditions to maintain its equilibrium in the air— -just as a bird docs. Given such an aeroplane, soundly designed and soundly constructed, with sufficient strength in every part, and an engine that can be trusted to do its work, the pilot/ can safely bo loft to do tho rest himself. Tho success of the new biplane brings tho accomplishment of the Transatlantic flight nearer. All that is now wanted is an engine that will go like a clock. There is room for British enterprise in, .this.