NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11366, 8 May 1900, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

TriE London Times, in a recent article commenting on the offer by the Imperial Government of military commissions to the colonies, remarks that the colonists from all our great possessions have exhibited in a signal degree throughout the campaign military qualities of the highest order and an enthusiasm for the British flag and for all that the British (lag means, which it would be difficult to exaggerate. They have shown themselves born soldiers, and the nation at Home has realised for the first time, with a delight not free from wonder, the worth of the resources it has to draw upon in the days of its trouble in its strong sons beyond the seas. It will be, the Times trusts, a main object of our statesmen both at Home and in the colonies to endeavour by all means in their power to make these resources permanently available as a recognised part of the defences of the Empire. The difficulties of formulating and applying a working scheme of the kind are, no doubt, very great, but it is in overcoming great difficulties that statesmanship is tried and known. The offer of the.commissions is at least a sign that the Imperial Government have learned from the war, as the English people have learnt with them, the great lesson of the military value of our hardy colonial populations. It is a graceful recognition of splendid services freely done to the common cause and under the common (lag. But it is, we hope, something more. The nation and the colonies will gladly discern in it the earnest of some wide and far-reaching plan for welding together in indissoluble bonds the might, of the British race throughout the world. There are unmistakabla signs and tokens upon all sides that the efforts of the Boers to destroy British supremacy in South Africa will leave the Empire stronger, more united, and more conscious of its strength and of its unity than at any previous period of its history. The offer of the commissions is only a step, and not a very great step, to the consummation all loyal British subjects ardently dosire, but it is a step which is certainly significant and which may be pregnant with consequences of the utmost moment to us all.

The London County Council is endeavouring to grapple with some of the problems which confront the local governing bodies of vast cities. One of these is street traffic. The whole question of locomotion inside the narrow area in which five to six millions of busy people live and move becomes more and more urgent. Omnibuses and cabs multiply, and yet they do not suffice for the wants of a population which is less and less inclined to walk. The distribution of parcels and goods and the road traffic incidental to the railway service converging in London is a problem of which so far only makeshift solutions have been offered, which are becoming more and more unsatisfactory. More cabs, carriages, omnibuses, vans, and waggons mean more horses kept in or near London, to the- serious decrease of the amenities of many parts of it. The use of electricity as a motor will not remove the difficulties. It is nevertheless an experiment, the outcome of which is to be watched with hope. What will be the character of the city of the future is a favourite speculation with a certain class of theorists who veil their attacks oil tho present order of things by extolling the future. Most of them dismiss as immaterial the element of expense, or they assume that, digging deep enough into the inexhaustible fund of ground rente, there;

mil be ways and means f or and beautiful city, healthy and com M embowered in garden and trees flf; mi titled with statues and splendid L *»- ing, Whether alltherS? attained'without bankruptcy '?'^ ab «, increase of rates, remains to-be * ***** we may reasonably hope that'a. T" B -H fa healthy life will be don and the great cities.:. i t JL 101 * times, it is true, in too limited -, „;-** pure water. One day it rttfpfffr'. pure air. Th County Council? P m clearing the surface of the £ii ' ' known as s ,« ms . S o ra edayit4 f 2S ' air of the smoke and other mm,,,;'' go to make a London f„g "^^^ 6" .'-■>*, .

It is not usually supposed to altoS": agreeable "to see ourselves asotlSpfe but the following extract from a S * **> A '™»- <H*dinaLondonSgl is not wholly unpleasant reading^R# : watched the war all along with I?■*& intent. v^ifisa -such as lam glad to have ii re A' enough to witness The nearly a quarter of a million 0 f men-!; all their ammunition, and food. and ho™ "" - to a distance of 70C0 miles, without. aIS halt or break in the splendid process?: altogether the most imposing ifefis military history. Even the fej ranco-German war, ,n which the domioS force had only to cross a river and faff! of the enemy, is out-pomped by &£ jjl died great transport-leviathans, sailing *itk unerring regularity through three {$& with their thousands of warriors and him ■ dredsofguM. The position of lapcrfj Britain, after such a marvellous exploit t likely to he one which no combination J lesser nations will ever dare to assail,' ;

Complaints aro appearing in the English press of the manner in which many army tracts are being carried out. It is w O B doubt that owing to t>, wont of proper'S vision, and of sound, business-like methods" at the War Office, many of the articles sup' plied to our troops in South Africa are of V very inferior quality. A correspondent of» : London newspaper throws some interestis, | light on the subject. He says the Contract Department of the War Office, a department allocating contracts every year' f or . military stores of the most varied and com* cated character to the tune of several mil. lions, consists entirely of War Office clerks' not one of whom possesses any technical knowledge, any acquaintance with tho. requirement* of the soldier, any experience of manufacture, or any notion of commercial economics. A purely clerical training, in which some familiarity with War Office V counts and methods of audit may or may not bo acquired, suffices for the qualification 01/ a " director of contracts" and his subordinates. Neither lie nor they have the slight est. knowledgo of any of the immensely varied articles and raw material' which they purchase for military pur. poses. To them such articles and' such materials are merely names upon*' schedule. In these circumstances the proceedings of the department are elementary in their simplicity. A list of contractors sup." plying, or supposed to bo capable of sup. plying, particular articles or material is kept. As recent revelations have shown, it is' very easy to obtain admission to this list, and there is no one in the Contract Department qualified to visit the works of a candidate firm, and thus to ascertain whether the articles claimed can bo properly manufactured. When an article is required, the clerks fill np sets of tender forms, and distribute then to the firms on the list. After considerable delay the tenders are returned and collate! upon another form. If the .tenders comply with the conditions, the clerks propose the acceptance of the lowest as a matter "of course, and after another period of consider/, able delay, the order is placed accordingly. I

Lord Roberts, at Karee, lieliograpied instructions for the co-ordination of the British movements. Four thousand Boers held a line of defences at Brace. General Button, with the colonial division co-operating with Generals Hamilton, Tucker, and PoleCarew, arrived unexpectedly east of Brandfort, and opened with a raking fire, driving the Boers on the plains towards the bills overlooking the town. The whole section of Boers eventually streamed northwards, nearly losing a convoy and guns. The IrishAmerican Brigade are said to be in a state of riot, They refused to fight, merely manning the kopjes near the town. At the Vet River on Saturday, after shelling for three hours, General HuttenV -mounted troops turned the enemy's right flank, and dashingly forced the passage of the river in the face of heavy shell and musketry fire. It it' believed in official circles at Capetown thai Lord Roberts will advance rapidly upon Pretoria. The Boers are fortifying and pro-' visioning Lydenburg, north-east of Pretoria, as a new capital. Desperate fighting has occurred in Ashanti. Ten thousand natives, who surrounded Sir F. M. Hodgson, have been routed with great loss, and on May?, the situation was reassuring.