WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Evening Star, Issue 14163, 13 September 1909, Page 1

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

A GOOD SCHEME MARRED. New Zealand certainly has never succeeded : in developing any intelligent idea as to what sort of naval defence she really does want, and it looks now very much as though an ' excellent plan of Imperial naval defence j has been marred from a desire to please ! the one Dominion of the Empire that is ' alleged to prefer to stay at home and hire. I her kinsmen to defend her instead of bearing the responsibility herself. New Zen- | land and Australia together could go a I very long way towards relieving Great j Britain of the cost both of providing and maintaining the whole Australian unit. Canada is building a fleet of four or five cruisera, and South Africa v<U probably be doing something of the same sort once it« Federal Government is established. Fantastical, freakish New Zealand, calling ilself#the Britain of the South, the one Island Dominion, a country whose chief highway is the sea and whose future is on the ocean—New Zealand alone of the Dominions stands aloof.—Wellington'Citizen.'

- MR HOGG'S VIEWS. Everybody will agree with Mr Hogg that it is of paramount importance that the land should be properly distributed among the people, but as to the method of securing a distribution the majority will disagree with him. The best system of settlement' is that which ensures the greatest and most I profitable use of the land, and it has been proved that the best class of settler, the industrious man who is a good husbandman, prefers the freehold ; and with proper | provision against the aggregation of large ! estates there is no reason why the freehold ' should not be granted. Land settlement! will go far to remedy the evils of poverty and unemployment, but no more certain way of crippling the colony could be found than Mr Hogg*6 wholesale policy of confiscation and universal leasehold. There is no prospect whatever that Mr Hogg will j ever command a following of even six members in Parliament on the land question.— ' Southland Times.' THE STRONG MAN MINISTER. Mr Millar has begun to revive in us the faint hope (which had been all but extinguished of late) that State railways might be made commercially successful. The country owes something to its Minister of Railways for his efforts in the direction we hare indicated. It owes him eomething in addition for his tonic and stimulating example to politicians and Ministers. From it they may learn a lesson, too little remembered of late years, in single-eyed devotion to duty. Of devotion we have had many notable examples; of the fearless and strenuous pursuit of a high purpose, too few.—' Waiiarapa. Daily Times.' THE NATIONAL BALANCE-SHEET. The battery of the Opposition has been unmasked by us on a score of occasions, and its weakness would have been more often revealed were it not for the almost insuperable difficulty of attracting it to a definite aim at a given point. With regard to the national debt, the Opposition tells us that its growth ruvs been scandalous. I and that the burden it imposes on the country is almost intolerable. Yet what ' are the facts about this burden? When ' the new-fledged financial purists were driven from office in 1891 the interest payment on the public debt amounted to JG2 13s 6d per head of population; last year it was £2 7s 3d per head, a decrease of 6s ?d-. Where, then, is the " crushing burden"? We will leave the Opposition to say.—AVellington ' Times.' » THE WARATAH. Grounds for* hope may not bo great, but if afloat the Waratah has slipped eastward on the Agulhas current out of the track of shipping, and should be found bv systematic zigzagging, which brings us again to the matter, which cannot well be exaggerated, of the urgent necessity of installing wireless telegraphy upon all our southern colonial coasts. South Africa, Australia, Tasmania.;' and New Zealand thrust themselves south ward into the most desolate and lonely of terrestrial seas, upon which any disabled vessel may drift for months "with the scantiest chance of being picked up. If wireless telegraphy were installed at suit- ! able points, even without compulsory installation upon steamers, any vessel "similarly equipped would be safe against such an eventuality.—Auckland 'Hera:J.' . THE EXPLORER'S MISSION. The whole theory of cyclones of atmospheric and ocean currents awaits precise knowledge of polar conditions. It is not too much to say that every weather forecast in the daily Press will be the more trustworthy if the Shackleton and Peary observations are collated and tabulated, which will be the work of many laborious r .onth.". Navigation will be safer", and by the aid of ethereal messages ships far twny will be advised of approaching danger, and in a way of which we know not now men wli bonefit by the call to which we owe our Arctic • and Antarctic heroes. Truly their sell-sac-rifice is well worth while.—Wellington ' Post,' 8 » i THE VALINE OF ROADS. New York is appropriating three million dollars a year to improve the roads, Pennsylvania one and a-half milLions, C'onnecti- ' cut five millions, and other States in proportion, and roadmaking has already assumed the status of a political question of \ the first order. Yet it is doubtful if, in ' proportion to our population, the- injury in- ' | dieted by bad roads is more severely' felt | | in America than in New Zealand, or'if. in relation to our needs, the demand for good , | roads is more urgent in New York or ; Georgia than it is to-day in the Waikato or the "roadless North."—Auckland 'Star.'