The Hastings Standard Published Daily SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1897. CURRENT TOPICS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 405, 21 August 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1897. CURRENT TOPICS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, Vor the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Thebe is a big outcry on the part of the seaport towns of the colony for a naval training ship, and this in itself is one of the outgrowths of the cry of consolidating the Empire. It is a distinctly good feature, and it is to be hoped that a suitable vessel will be obtained for the colony. But there is danger that the jealousy between the ports will defeat the object in view. It can be said even now that there is rivalry between Auckland and Lyttelton in this matter, and the Northern City has gone one better than Lyttelton by fixing upon a vessel and preferring a"request that it should be handed over by the Admiralty. If Auckland succeeds then the Lords of the Admiralt ywill be inundated with requests from the various port authorities for disused or obsolete warships. We quite concur that a naval training vessel would be a valuable thing for the colony to possess, but we think that instead of this and that Harbor Board importuning the Admiralty the Government should arrange the matter. The proper place for any training vessel that may be obtained would be Port Nicholson, Wellington being more central and therefore more convenient for the purpose than cither Auckland or Lyttelton. If we could get two vessels it would no doubt be right to assign one to the North Island and the other to the South, but it would be too much to expect Her Majesty's Government to make a present of two gunboats to New Zealand. However, we trust that whatever efforts are made to obtain a suitable vessel will be attended with success.

While there is a strong desire to provide the colony with well trained bluejackets, it is to be hoped that the other branch of the defence, the land forces, will not be neglected. The rapidity with which troubles assume a serious aspect and the repeated calls upon the British to defend the outposts of the Empire necessitates that even in this remote spot we should be ready for emergencies. That we are not so prepared goes without saying. Of course we cherish the notion that we will never be attacked. Possibly not, but there is ever present the fact that France, Germany, Japan and the United States are our neighbors in these colonial waters, and at the present time Japan and America are at loggerheads over Hawaii. At any moment Great Britain may be involved, and although an attack upon New Zealand would be a difficult matter it is not beyond the bounds of possibility. There is, however, another aspect. Even supposing that we are beyond the sphere of hostile attack, there yet remains th 3 fact that we conld be of assistance to the empire by being ready to supply the Home Government with soldiers and sailors in time of need. At the present moment India apparently requires more British troops, and while England is able to supply these from her own shores, she does so at the risk of weakening her forces available for service nearer home. The Turkish question is by no means sttsled, nor yet has the South African trouble disappeared. If Great Britain has to confront Turkey, the Transvaal, Afghanistan, and the Soudan at the one time it is conceivable that her military resources will be greatly taxed. In that hour of peril the colonies should be ready to add strength. Are we in any condition to do so ? We think th&t when the Jubilee get

back to the colonies volunteering will receive a rare and needed impetus; indeed it is already experiencing a revival.

Tue necessity for the concentration of a powerful army on the north-west frontier of India, while a deplorable circumstance, is not without its good points. The men and transport animals must 'og fed, and as India is suffering from drought and famine there should be an outlet for colonial produce. Compressed fodder for the horses and mules and tinned beef and mutton should at this moment be ours by right to supply. But there is no enterprise in the colony, or if there is it is hot exhibited. Drought-stricken Victoria can do better than us, and the Compressed Fodder Company of Victoria has demonstrated the fact that the colonies can supply the fodder. It was this company that sent to Loudon a few weeks ago compressed hay, which was tested by the War Office and pronounced of excellent quality; the price, however, was too much. New Zealand with her wonderfully good climate and prolific soil could beat Victoria in this matter, and if the Department of Industry was alive to what was passing the matter would not have been neglected as it is. New South Wales and Victoria are in perpetual rivalry. The policies of the two Governments are diametrically opposed. The settled policy of Victoria is protection, while New South Wales has struck for freetrade. The freetrade colony, it must be admitted, is leaving her rival behind, however much the publicists of Victoria may try to prove the contrary by the distortion of statistical figures. A striking illustration of the effects of the two policies is furnished by the railways. In New South Wales, as we were recently informed by cable, the railway revenue for the, year ending June 30, 1897, showed a profit after paying interest on cost of construction of several thousands of pounds. In Victoria the railways show with unfailing regularity an annual loss. A Sydney paper thus deals it out to Victoria " Although the Victorian railways leave an annual loss of scores of thousands of pounds sterling from the inadequacy of traffic, it is not thought improper to pay 14s 2d per ton for 137,448 tons of inferior Victorian coal, when a like quantity of superior Newcastle coal can be supplied at 12s to 12s 4d—-the bulk of it at 12s. But for political reasons, a sum of fully £14,000 per annum in the price of coal alone would be saved by the use of Newcastle coal, while the saving would be considerably larger if the smaller quantity of the superior article were taken into consideration. Of

course all this loss falls upon those who use the railways and all who have to pay for them. A federal control of the railways would probably save £20,000 to £30,000 per annum on the one item of coal alone in the working of those of Victoria."

The ingenuity of the investor seems, for the moment to be directed against the unfortunate " comp." The advent of the linotype meant the departure of the typc-snatcher, and surely enough the machine is displacing the men. In the other colonies the linotype is doing the work that was formerly done by a large staff of compositors and, sad to say, the intruding machine has come to New Zealand. But the linotype, marvellous as it appears to be, is outdone by the monotype, which is the latest freak of the inventor. It is a machine which consists of two parts—one a keyboard the other a type-cast-ing apparatus. The keyboard, in appearance not unlike an ordinary type writer, perforates a paper ribbon which when placed on the casting machine, governs all the movements of the latter, which is a purely automatic machine. Having once obtained the paper ribbon it can be kept, and at any time put upon the casting machine. The casting machine has special methods by which four signs are interchangeable, and it is also the only machine in which the free use of all the characters of a full font of type is possible. It has arrangements by which the justification of lines can be made, and this enables any mistakes that may be made in the perforated paper to be easily corrected because all the types as they are cast in the machine are separated from each other, and therefore the characters can be made singly without taking out the whole of the line, as in the case of the linotype machine. One of the great points claimed for the monotpye is its great simplicity. The mechanical movements are minimised to such an extent that the perfected machine is only 3ffc. by Bft.J3in. in size and weighs but 9001b. The manufactured parts are small in number as compared with those of other machines, and there is consequently less liability to repairs, wear and tear and machinist's attendance, and at the same time greater durability. The paper ribbon containing the perforations of the key-board, which constitute the copy for the casting and composing machine, can be preserved for future editions in lieu of electrotype and stereotype plates and that means the employment of less labor. A practical printer, Mr Blades, of Messrs Blades, East and Blades, of London, has after a thorough examination and numerous tests given his certificate that the monotype machine performs all that is claimed for it. This is enough to make the average comp. seek consolation in a cup of prussic acid.