NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16842, 28 April 1915, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

As far as mere numbers go, New Zealand already has more than repaid

patching troops to defend the colonists' homes against the rebel Maoris. There were ten thousand British troops, infantry and artillery, in tho colony fifty years ago, and it was not until 1870 that the last British regiment left New Zealand's shores. Now New Zeala.nd returns the compliment handsomely, for, as the Defence Minister stated in Wellington yesterday, she lias so far dispatched fifteen thousand men to the seat of war. This number, a£ was mentioned lately, will bo more than doubled, in fact, it is estimated that if the war should last another year New Zealand's contribution to the fighting force in Europe will total quite forty thousand men. The Boer war, of course, gave this country an opportunity of displaying its gratitude to and its oneness with the land from which its people came, but the present tremendous emergency touches tho national heart as the South African conflict could not, and.it is realised that at last the old debt is being paid in full and more. It is interesting to remember, however, that.the ten thousand British soldiers of the line and tho artillery who fought in tho Waikatoandin Taranaki wevo not''given" to the colony free of all charges. There was a little bill to settle with the Imperial authorities when all was over. There was, too, in those days, a widely-spread feeling among the troops that they were acting in a measure as mercenaries, brought iu to fight a foe with whom "they bad no quarrel and whom, in fact, they rather liked and grew to respect. That sentiment certainly cannot be said to exist to-day among the regiments which the young lands are shipping off to meet the foe wherever the British war lord thinks fib to place them.

The political changes which the conclusion of the war will scp> in the Pacific were discussed at an Auckland gathering a few days ago by the veteran Dr George Brown, the oldest of tbe South Sea missionaries, who was in Christchurch not long since. Di Brown's opinions on South Pacific questions are more worthy of attention than those, of many politicians who talk largely on island subjects, but for once he and all who discuss the future administration of the South Sea groups are at one in the expression of a firm hope that New Zealand will never give up Samoa. As for Tonga, Dr Brown is inclined to think that wheu the " clean up " comes after the war there -Will be a change in its administration and that it will become connected with New Zealand politically as closely as it now is commercially. Tonga's position certainly is not altogether satisfactory under present arrangements. , The group is under British protection, buo the relations between its native Government and the Imperial authorities are not defined with clearness or precision,'and in consequence there are frequent misunderstandings, to use a mikl term, between the Friendly Islands King and Ministers and the official who represents the British authority as Consul and as deputy for the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific.

This High Commissioner is a. Crown official fir whom there will be scarcely any necessity when South Pacific matters are squared up after the war. The office of High Commissioner for the Western Pacific has for many years been vested in the Governor of Fiji, who receives £IOOO a year in addition to his salary as Governor for overseeing after a fashion a number of groupi and separate islands to which it was his custom to make a semi-royal visit in a British man-of-war. His jurisdiction formerly extended from .as far east as Suwarrow and Penrhyn to the Solomon Islands in the west. His powers were absolute; he could deport at will any person whose presence on an island he considered subversive of his authority, and the British cruisers in the Pacific were at his disposal for the purpose of implanting a proper respect for Britannia in the peoples of the tropic isles. But year by year his kingdom hagrown smaller. New Zealand has taken From him Niue and half a dozen smaller islands; he has nothing to do with Samoa; the Solomons are administered by a separate Commissioner; and Tonga is about the only group of importance in whose affairs he still has a voice. With New Zealand and Australia taking a leading part in the administration of the South Pacific of tbe future, the High Commissioner will find his occupation outside Fiji gone-

There is a good deal to fascinate and stimulate the imagination in the latest idea mada public by Mr W. B. Griffin, the man who designed the Federal capital in Australia. Mr Griffin's.suggestion to tbe Commonwealth Government is that after the new capital has become well established, steps should be taken, favoured by natural topographical advantages, to give the seat of government a beautiful mountain bake of large area. This lake could bo obapparently, by damming up one end of a valley, ana it would extend from the Canberra city front across a barren plain and through the hills and mountains for fifty milesjust about the length of our own windin"' Lake Wakatipu. In this way Australia's Capitol would be provided .with several hundred miles of deepwater frontage, and not only would its site become, in.a single rainy season, one of tho most beautiful in the world, but the amelioration of the climate produced by the presence of a largo body of water would be a distinct gain, fully worth the million sterling which the work would cost: Such is Mr Griffin's idea, and it must be said for it that it is decidedly attractive and should make a big appeal to tho people of Australia, to whom an odd million or so should be neither here ror there. Australia, needs all the lakes it can make, and although Canberra's fresh-water sea is still a long way in the distance,' the future will probably prove it- something more than a mirage.

Tbe prejudice against the touring motorist who scours along the main roads, leaving a cloud of dust and a trail of petrol behind him, is strong among many country road boards and county councils. The settler not unnaturally resents having to maintain road's Largely for the benefit of outside traffic and for people who escape all liability for the up-keep of country thoroughfares, no matter how much they may use them. In one or two districts much frequented by travellers there is even a tendency to return to the antiquated system of the tollgat<j as a device for obtaining a share of tho cost of maintenance from users of the ..*„** besides those who are residents

gates in Taranaki, and the latest proposal is to erect one on the Mountain Road. leading from Stratford to Mount Egmoiit. The Stratford County Council does not believe in expending money en the .road for the benefit of teuring motorists from all over the Dominion, .--net so the Minister of Public Works has been asked to sanction this means of extracting cash from all wayfarers. The Minister, in his reply, states that the Government is averse to authorising any additional tollgates except as a last resource, and where no other reasonable means of raising money for tte upkeep of the road can be devised The present position is that a commission— the Government's sovereign remedy for all problems, big and little —has been appointed to look into tho tollgate business and take evidence and report. The principle involved concerns many places besides Taranaki, but it is scarcely likely that the old-fashioned stand-and-delr/er gate on the public highway will meet with wide approvy.l, . oven from local bodies worried for ways and means of road maintenance.