NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S VIEWS. The views of the Hon. T. Mackenzie, i High Commissioner for New Zealand, on the war appear in a London financial j paper. Mr. Mackenzie is reported to have J said:— "What puzzles me greatly in connection with the present awful war is: Why do the peace-loving German people i stand the present conditions under which I they live? What can this ruinous war do for them? Germany's industrial population has, by long years of careful study, I the exercise of enormous ability and selfdenial, and by large financial outlays, | developed manufactures and trade and : pushed their commerce into every corner of the civilised world. The success which has attended these great efforts has been i unparalleled in the history of the world. Five-and-twenty years ago the external trade of Germany was about £300,000,000. I That has increased to £1,000,000,000. whilst the British have only doubled their trade during that period. In tho matter of trade opportunities and facilities the Germans are almost everywhere placed on an equal footing. They have access to British markets under terms which they do not reciprocate and everywhere their trade was gradually extended. The result of this war must be, if not entirely to ruin their enterprise, at any rate to cripple it for years. The maintenance of tho German military system has involved enormous cost, and it has compelled other peace-loving communities to spend huge sums annually in training and equipment for their own protection. That applies in a degree to New Zealand. We are training, and we are also determined to eliminate, so far as we can, from the Southern Hemisphere in which wo live the danger that threatens us. If one thing more than another has been demonstrated by this war it is the value of democratic institutions ! by which the communities who enjoy them have the opportunity of controlling the governments under which they dwoll rather than live under a system of militarism which makes for personal aggrandisement and requires for the satisfaction of the ambitions of the few the sacrifice, at the cost of great suffering, of tho real grit of the community." THE WORLD'S DREADNOUGHTS. A statement has been issuod by Mr. Alan Burgoyne, MP., a well known naval writer, showing the strength of the various fleets of the world in ships of tho Dreadnought type. He supplies a summary which shows at a glance the position on March 31 last and on March 31 of next year. The figure given first applies in each case to this year British Empire, 28. 33; Germany, 17, 21; France. 8, 10; i .S.A., 9, 12; Japan, 5, 6; Russia, nil, 4; ' Italy, 3, 4: Austria, 2, 4 ; Brazil, 2, 2 ; Spain, 1, 2; Turkey, nil, 2; Argentina, : nil, 2; Chili, nil, 1; Greece, nil, nil. Mr. Burgoyne confesses that the figures are only approximate, " tho totals in each year being exaggerated if the past ten-! dency to delay be accepted as a probable criterion of progress." Germany planned to have 28 units by tho summer of 1917 and Britain 46, including tho Australia. BELGIAN BLACK COUNTRY. Mons, Charleroi, and Liege, in addition to their strategic value, are the centres of the Belgian Black Country, which is one of the most remarkable districts in Europe. Over quite a small area there are scattered hundreds of engineering works, large J and small, mines, collieries, and other industrial estahli.-htnetits. The district is so thickly populated that one is never more than a short distance from a busy centre, ! and the villages and towns merge into each other to such an extent that the tra- j veller's impression is that of a single huge straggling town with innumerable, suburbs. But even more remarkable than this agglomeration is the fact that everywhere the hand of nature is to be seen. Possibly in no other part of the world do industry and agriculture flourish alongside to quite the eama extenfcj