The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1913. THE WEEK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 19 December 1913, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1913. THE WEEK.

There is an instructive difference between what is still happening in the British Isles with respect to Home Rule for Ireland and what has lately taken-place as. between Denmark and Iceland in regard to a constitution for the latter country. With regard to Home Rule for Ireland, the facts are- so well known thatl it is quite unnecessary to dwell upon them. In the other case, it will, perhaps, be sufficient to say, that the question of the reform of Iceland's constitution has for some time caused differences of opinion between Denmark and Iceland, but the Danish Crown Council, in conference with Iceland's special Minister, has lately reached a settlement on the subject. It is true that this settlement is at present provisional; the chief representatives of both. countries have - mutually agreed to it, but it has still to be submitted to the electors, who, because of its reasonableness as a compromise, are | fully expected to endorse it at the polls next Easter. Under the proposed arrangement Iceland is to deal with all its own special home affairs ! without interference from the Danish State authorities, but all Icelandic Bills and resolutions are to be submitted to the Danish Government to see if they include questions relating to State affairs common tp Denmark and Iceland, for it is provided that where this is the case, Iceland will have to reach a decision in conjunction with the Danish Parliament. In other ways Iceland's new constitution is to be comprehensively democratic. Women are enfranchised, and the suffrage is to be universal, and certain members of Parliament heretofore appointed by ihe King are to' be elected by the •pieiople. ;yK Tvoiild%ratiry\hiilny i .triie British heart were a similarly amicable arrangement reached with respect to Home Rule for Ireland.

There is still a good deal of backwash, from the central disturbances caused by the Balkan war. Russia's strong objection to German officers controlling the Turkish army (at Turkey's invitation) is an instance, and not only unpleasantness, but critical international conditions may arise out of it. A new and somewhat reassuring factor may, however, come into existence with the prospective order of things in Albania, where, during the present month, Prince Frederick of Wied will (it has been stated) be elected- King by the Albanian clans. Prince Frederick, who is forty-one years of age, is one of the richest princes in Germany, and it is said that the Powers have favored his selection for the Albanian throne- largely' 'because of his non-aggressive character. He has the reirtarkable trait of his family, displayed through hundreds of years—that 6f religious tolerance. This alone will indeed be a new thing for Albania to be brought into' intimate contact.1 •with —too hew, perhaps, for her primi- j tive people to tolerate; so it is just! possible that, on that account alone, Prince Frederick may ere long return to his ancestral halls in Wied. On the other hand, his high and rare er-

ample may make new men of the Albanians. Many will cherish this larger hope.

With their win'at South Lanark, the Unionists have now gained thirteen by-elections since the general election. It is said, too; that at South Lanark the polling has just testified to a falling^.off, of over, lppO votes for. the Liberal side. It is, however, questionable whether this statement is fully warranted by the figures. The votes recorded at the recent poll were —for the Unionists, 4257; Liberals, 4006; j liabor,. 1674; while at the previous election the voting was —Liberals, 5160; Unionists, 3963. The recent total poll was thus 818 ahead of its predecessor, and the Unionists made a positive gain of 294 votes, while the Liberals lost 1154 votes. But readers who are disinterestedly interested in Home politics had better also, for the sake of their own information, consider the 1674 votes recorded for Labor at the recent poll, for, with Labor eliminated, most of these would probably be given to the Liberals, not th-s Unionists. This is not written through, bias one way or the other, but in the interest of the essential facts, or, rather, in that of the reader's information.

The trouble in connection with the British Post Office employees does not appear to be diminishing, for the amalgamation of postal employees' organisations indicates a determination to insist on the demand for an all-round increase of 15 per cent, in salaries, to meet the higher cost of living. The statement that a small syndicalist section of the employees threaten sabotage in the shape of misdirection of mails and sending telegrams nowhere, need hardly be taken seriously, especially in view of the declaration officially made a week ago on behalf of the men, that there would be no Christmas strike, though an early revival of their demands was certain. This was said immediately after the PostmasterGeneral (Mr Herbert, Samuel) had told the men that the concessions they asked for could not be made, though the Government were still prepared to give effect to the recommendations of the Select Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry. It has been estimated that it would cost £1,000,000 a year to give effect to the Committee's recommendaI tions, which provide for increased pay in certain branches, a forty-eight-hour week for postmen, overtime at time and a quarter, or time and a half, or double time when the overtime is excessive; no abolition of Christmas boxes, and recognition of trade unions. But the Committee proposed no increased pay for telegraphists, women telephonists, overseers, .women supervisors, women clerks, and girl clerks, and the employees, as a body, ask for an all-round increase. This is the rub.

In a speech made by him in London the other day, Mi* James Bryce (sometime British Ambassador at Washington, and a sagacious student of worldhistory, past and present) -touched a singularly interesting point/ with respect to Imperialism in Australia. There had (he said) been a dangerpoint in■< Australia when the Britishborn portion of its people became a small minority. He added, however, that that point had been passed, and that, now, the benefits of the Imperial connection were more appreciated in Australia than they were thirty years ago. This states the fact fairly, we believe,^ and there are doubtless in New-Zealand toany persons qualified to speak on the subject. New Zealanders and Australians nave always had a most neighborly regard for . each ' other, and jot there still lurks in some thoughtful minds in this Dominion a misgiving as to anti-British feelings in Australia. This may be a survival of. the danger c point period mentioned by Mr Bryce, for there was then, in various parts of Australia, a good deal, of perfervid sentiment about independence and a new Australian nation. No oae m New Zealand, except-perhaps an odd unthinking youth here and there, had anything but dislike for this, and the idea is probably more than ever obnoxious to New Zealanders as a community. '" Indeed, it is perhaps not to reason too curiously to ascribe the Dominion's reluctance to follow Australia in the matter of its naval pohoy to thi» source.

And yet the danger-point referred to by Mr Bryce has, perhaps, been passed more completely' by Australia, than even his words indicate. What happened in connection with the welcome recently given to Admiral Patey and the first ships of the Royal Australian Navy would seem to justify this view. When Mr Joseph ,Coo% the^ Liberal Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, proposed, in the Sydney Town Hall, the toast of the "Royal Australian Navy," he said, amongst other things: c 'May I stress for one moment the words 'his Majesty's Australian ; ships;'' m The ships are none the less Australian because they are his Ma- ' jesty's ships. They are none the ; less his ;Majesty's ships because they are Australian ships.—(Loud cheering.) Our fleet may have in the future a different coloring and a different setting arising from tern'; peramental or climatic.or other forces differentiating it from, other units of the■; British naval forces. But what ever the; result of environment may be in this respect, it will for ever remain, we hope, the Australian section of the Imperial Navy.—(Cheers.) Whatever minor differences there may be, our fteet here is, man for man, ship for ■ ship, gun for gun, training for training, and discipline for discipline, to-subscribe to a thorough standardisation of the whole Imperial fleet, wherever it may happen to be located, and we hope that , when the time comes for it to be used —-may that time be^ long distant—OUT fleet i unit wiir fit, in some such way as a' section of one of those expanding bookcases, into the Navy, and make it a perfectly complete whole."—(Cheer s.^ ' i

Assuredly there is -nothing liere that is suggestive of an antiilmperialist bias; and in. addition to the cheering of those who heard Mr Cook speak, there is the fact that, though, h«T" is not a Labor politician, he is a man of the people, and may safely be taken as their mouthpiece in such a matter on such an occasion, especially as the whole subject of defence inmost praiseworthily kept apart from party politics in Australia. Anyway, there is no occasion for doubt in the matter, for, at the same time and place, Mr Andrew Fisher, till lately Labor Premier of the Commonwealth, spoke in the same strain as Mr Cook. Hence, surely, the youthful yearning that long ago acted as a kind ot Etnti-British yeast in Australian sentiment may now safely be thought of as "a streak of morning cloud that has melted into the infinite azure of the past."

,In South Africa, however, popular feeling is, for the time benig, less settled in this connection; indeed, there is a distinct pro-Boer and anti-Imperial party, which is not likely to fall off so long as it has extremists like General Hertzog to appeal to racial prejudices, and to purely South African; as opposed to all-British interests. As time goes on, this factor will doubtless dwindle, and, with expanding interests and enlarging outlooks, finally, at no distant date, pass away for ever. Still, the facts as they exist should be steadily considered in this important matter; ror should it be forgotten that people far away from South Africa itself do not hesitate to encourage anti-British feeling amongst the Boers. For instance, not long since, at a meeting of the Defence branch of the Pian-German League in i Berlin, Major-General Keim, speaking as .president .of ..the branch, said that "the German race in South Africa mtist be supported. Only if the national antagonism of the Boer race against the British race were kept alive could the Germans hold their own against British expansion. In the interests of the Boers in the South African Union and of the German colonies in South-West and in East Africa, the maintenance of Boer or German feeling was an absolutely vital problem." There may be a touch of bombastic bumptiousness in this; still, the words were spoken, and it may be well to remember them.