ISOLATED ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16675, 20 October 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

ISOLATED ISLANDS.

.7'. -fit* ■' .V' "- •' '• i : ' \ • BY; FKAXK MORTON.' ' x/V !v-V-> ,• .v.-v>- v\' ■"

NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA.

Nowadays, when ono :. gets a mail • from New Zealand in Australia once a fortnight, and gets a mail away , from Australia to New Zealand on ;an average onco in twenty days, one begins to realise the comfort of modern advantages. There was a timo when Australia and ew Zealand were isolated from the rest of the world. We can have no conception of what ■ that isolation' meant, even now, because !wo still have the tables. 1o be out of the world and away from it, to have news from great centres of population as ono might have news from a distant planetthere is a certain romance about the _ idea, but it ' must havi,been; dreadfully inconvenient. Life: was slower then. ■ " ..v: , r . A returned soldier was ; talking to me the other day about the unwillingness of the Australians now left in this Commor wealth to enlist in the King's service, an he argued that if the average Australii could once realise what the war means an threatens all Australians eligible woul volunteer, in a body. I have no doul that there is something in' it. If 11 Germans could isolate us utterly, as the are vainly trying to isolate v should speedily begin sit up and thin] If they could manage in any way to -ci our deep-sea cables, the position in Au; tralia and New Zealand would bo appa ling— it not, of course, for the poi sibility of wireless. But wireless alone i undefendable .. experts tell me. It is.nc always easy to determine whether an given message is authentic. A-Powt with a keen intelligence department an an unscrupulous secret service could cas the most misleading though apparentl genuino messages into the air. ■ ... j:; The Result. ! Suppose that wo were cut" off fror Europe and America—that all telographi communication, ceasqd and ships were fe\ and slow.' How should we feel? . There would , be, to start with, an un endurable feeling of suspense. The moder: conveniences to which wo are accustomei have becomo necessary' to our life as civi Used persons. If there wero no steam ships, no cables, nothing dating / later thai 1040 or so, we should emigrate' in a bod; J and go to live in Europe. or s America In any big population ' you will only fini hore and there one man or woman fittei for the solitary life on some such placi as Tristan < d'Acimha. •. Australia isolate! would bo Tristan d'Acunha enlarged, ant Now Zealand would bo Australia s litth brother ; Bill. As it is, I know . men ii Australia who havo been trying for week; to get passage to New Zealand anc that is absurd, bccause this is the twen tieth century. • ■ , The ;■ main contributory cause, of -Australia's isolation ; at- this time may >b< found in the contumacy of recalcitrant labour unions. They see in tho striko means of holding society at the'end of s leash. .Their feeling'is that if t'.ey caiik us loss and inconvenience enough wo shall yield them anything and submit to anything. ; ■

; That feeling must not ;be encouraged, because once it is encouraged it may run to any ;' length. /. _If tho public ' submits tamely .to,hardship' and outrage we; shall sooner or later have the One Big Union these wild. industrialists aim at, and the only logical weapon of the one big, union will be the general strike. A general strike' in '-Australia would not * only I cut communications with •-New/ Zealand; ;■ it would infallibly; interrupt or suspend com-' munication . with Europe and America. . It would assume : the form, of . such an absolute revolt against the State and the whole fabric of Government, as would necessi- : tate -strong repressive /measures/. in ', tho interests ;of '■. public safety/ It is not to be thought of. J The ;/ Tendency. .: /: '.But".the tendency of militant unionism in Australia .is to. break completely away from'.; the old '-. moorings. This week the unionists -refused to man a,hospital',ship that'it was urgently ■ necessary to - get away, and it was promptly manned by volunteer workers; The other day, the .wife' ; of a volunteer worker in a'; mining town was about to be brought to bed, and every .woman/ in the ; town—wives '-' of unionists -all—refused to lift a',' hand to serve or succour her. Unionism in Australia - is ; throwing off the mask. It no longer pretends.'.to; be ; humane. It; does not seem to: consider it necessary to mako any 'longer pretence of being decent. 1 Its journals are filled with the most grotesque? and; disingenuous ' misrepresentations of its opponents./ /' _

All this must have an effect and influence on tho world outside.. The .more , orderly nations will . lose confidence in Australia; and that loss of confidence will assuredly react on all our industries. -Men in : England and men in America, men in France and men in Italy will begin to ask each other whether: Australians ; have any real right to hold : Australia. •-; Wo are but a handful,- in: any case,; and the; handful of us;is -seeking to -maintain; a; close monopoly, of -.'a;.' continent, If we manage our democratic concerns so ill that we are for ; ever shaken by l disastrous and inexcusable class wars,;how;can wo ever ■ hope to | develop our manifest possibilities '■% If Australians don't care a farthing for the ;future; of v Australia, what L are they doing in Australia,'anyhow? t Big Questions. '<) These are big '~ questions, possibly ,the biggest questions that l Australia has to face. And we are frittering away a lot of time and energy over little questions— i questions such as " Should a soldier person be allowed, to drink beer?" and "Should any person be allowed to, drink beer .'after six o'clock p.m.?" Wo havo so much trouble with' our local cranks and our local politics; that wo never seem to get time to deal with the.questions that matter most. There is the question of a frightful pestilence ; that is vitiating Australian manhood and monacing generations yet. unborn. There is no other problem so grave, 'no other that cries so urgontly for solution. But we ' are doing next to nothing; in regard to ; it,, because tho " wise old women who feci well-bred" don't think it; is a subject that nico peoplo can deal with. 'And there are other things that might be 'cited. • • ..,.''■' Salvation. '-■ ■ The i war may ■ prove:at last to 'bo our salvation. Those hundreds. of thousands of strong young men who will come back from the battlefields of Europe' on tho conclusion of peace will come back. with reformed i ideas and ' wider outlooks. : They will not agree that any clique or faction shall be at".liberty to' tie up transport and dislocate industry \ at its : own whim and pleasure.;; They will not agree that it,is ■ a matter, of primary importance ' to see that Brown 'and Tomkins are not allowed to ; get a drink.... They will, 'on tho other hand, insist that something shall bo done with.regard to that pest alluded to a moment since. .They will demand a real democracy. . ;; ' , •,

''If they don't 'do. something -- of V the sort,. or if V something. of the sort : isn't done,- Australia . will ; probably be a poor place to live ; .in : . a : few years ■ from now.And.God'meant;it: to bo ,ona ; of tljo finost places in, the world. • , : 4