NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15567, 26 March 1914, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

TEE NAVAL SITUATION. The Imperial Maritime League has issued the following statement on the existing naval sit lation :—"The Admiralty, through the Firs' Lord, has stated that it is necessary to maintain over the next strongest naval rxwer a superiority of 60 per cent, in capitil ships for world-wide defence and 50 per cent, in Home waters. The principal factor in the world-wide defence scheme - ras to be an Imperial Squadron ot heavy Slips, consisting of the three Canadian vessels, the New Zealand, and the Malaya. Where are these ships. The three Canadian ships are not even begun, and the building has been postponed indefinitely. The New Zealand is serving in Horns waters, ; and the Malaya is earmarked, when commissioned, for similar duty. The Imperial Squadron, therefore, does no; exist, and the 60 per cent, standard for world-wide defence in short by no fewer than five heavy ships. The 50 per cent, margin in Home waters is maintained mly by the inclusion of the New Zealand and the Malaya, which were specifically intended for other purposes. By the spring of. 1917 (when tue 1914-15 programme i of the countries concerned will be completed) we shall have only a bare margin of 50 per cent, in Home waters, even if i our ships are laid down this year. By 191"i Austria and Italy together will certainly possess 12 heavy ships, and probably will have completed more than that number. Sir E. Grey has said we must maintain a ' respectable fleet' in the Mediterranean. What constitutes a respectable fleet' in comparison? Lord Charles Beresford says the least should be eight modern' heavy ships, with all necessary auxiliaries and two flotillas of destroyers. The fifth Battle Squadron should also be placed and kept in full commission (aw advocated by the Imperial Maritime League; backed by over 70 flagofficers). The present serious situation contains practically every feature foretold by Lord Charles Beresford in 1909, and, failing a programme that year, he continually pi-edicted increased Navy .Estimates in the future. The same thing will happen again, but we shall then be faced by an expenditure which will be absolutely crushing."

ADVANCE IN TELEGRAPHY. What promises to be an. important advance in telegraphy has been made possible by an invention of Mr. Donald Murray, who das. brought up on a farm in New Zealand and was for some time on the staff of the New Zealand Heeald. Mr. Murray prophesies that in a few yeara anyone who can nse a typewriter will be abl<!, by paying a. small fee in the nearest telograph office, to click out his message on an ordinary typewriter keyboard. The message will be printed almost immediately at the other end printed so that it will be intelligible to anyone who can read. The British Post Office and the Western Union Telegraph Company of America have bought the rights to his system of printing and transmitting telegrams. Mr. Murray's system is based on the Baudot, a French system. Invented about thirty years ago, a'ad widely.used in Europe. The principle of the Baudot system is that a number of operators, working on a single wire, are by automatic interruptions of the current given in turn control.of the line. The' Murray invention does away with the five, keys of the Baudot system and the necessity of learning their intricate combinations. The operator usee a typewriter keyboard and does not need to listen for his turn. The machine prints directly on the delivery form and automatically pages .up for the next message. With the ntw keyboard and transmitter messages can easily be transmitted at '.he rate of forty-five words a minute. Mr. Murray has recently ' been on a visit to New York to enquire into the progress made with his system! ?n the United States. "Telegrams will be sent with more speed and accuracy than ever before," said Mr. Murray, "and. of course, so far as the operators are concerned, their work on the typewriter keyboard is much easier than on the Morse key, and they are relieved of the labour of reading and typewriting the signals from the Morse sounder. The girl operators on the multiplex, working on the line between New York and Boston enjoy their work. Still, considerable skill and some months' practice are required to operate the typewriter keyboards to the best advantage."

NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT. The originator of the British National Insurance Act (Mr. Lloyd George) has been reviewing the position of doctors under the Act. "There are, I believe, 22,500 general practitioners in Great Britain," said Mr. Lloyd George. " The number on the panel to-day, excluding duplicates within the insurance committees, but including doctors who are put on more than one panel, is over 20.000. The vast majority came in on January 15, 1913, but since then 2500 have come in. We have distributed amongst them nearly four and a-half millions sterling. The average for each doctor was £230. In London the average was £330, Birmingham £380, Manchester £295, Liverpool £370. and Durham £230. There was nothing for drugs; that was net profit. Nine hundred and thirty-three thousand pounds had been spent in drugs in addition, and there was a balance of £310,000, for which they were having a struggle with the chemists. This was for barely one-third of the population, and assuming that the doctors were paid at the same irate as the rest it would work out that the average for a London general practitioner would be nearly £1000. Birmingham would get £1100 a year, Manchester £900, Liverpool £1100, and a Durham practitioner £700 a year." CANADIAN PARCELS POST. The coming into operation of a Canadian parcels post has been hailed with widespread satisfaction by the general public of the Dominion. The parcels post is something which has been sought for as a desirable extension of the activities of the postal departments in Canada and the United States for many years, but until recently the opposing interests, proved too .strong. The United States led the way about two years ago, however, and Canada has now followed suit. The majority of the North American telegraph lines still remain in the hands of

companies .instead of being operated as a branch of the post office, as in other parts of the.world. Whether an effort will now be made to secure the taking over of the telegraph system by the State and thus bring North America into harmony with Europe and oversea European settlements remains to be seen. The inauguration of the Canadian parcels post affects the express companies, which are mostly owned by the big railway interests, but to what extent it is likely to curtail- their earnings is the subject of considerable

discussion. According to Mr. John Pullen, the president of the Canadian Express Company, it is a little early to determine the' amount of business which will ba transferred to tie poßtuoffioa,.