NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19871, 15 February 1928, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

RACING THE CLOCK. " Incessantly we are impelled to essay beating the clock. We cannot lengthen the "hours or the days; we are constrained to squeeze more into them," writes a correspondent of the Birmingham Post. "The clock not only measures time for us, but has taught us to value it. We hav6 grown to reckon life, not in terms of years, but of achievement, acquisition, knowledge, recreation, travel, pleasure and all that makes up 'life.' The busy, energetic man, striving physically or mentally, utilising his working hours thoroughly, and employing his leisure moments in healthy hobby or recreation, enjoys much more life than the waster whose time is spent in mere easy existence. The greatest benefactor of to-day is not the man who cau make two blades of grass grow where one grew before but who can make one hour serve where hitherto two were occupied. The clock has set the pace for all our activities, and has sent us delving into Nature"s storehouse for any help she can render us in our race against time. Our task is meeting with increasing success. We aro realising that all around us there is much to interest, to enjoy, to learn or to acquire. Our handicap is the scarcity of time." THE BRITISH NAVY. The New Year message of the Navy League recalls that in 1708, the House of Lords, in an Address to Queen Anne, lucidly explained the first principle of Imperial defence: "It is a most undoubted maxim that the honour, security and wealth of the Kingdom depend on the protection and encouragement of .trade, and the improving and right managing of our naval strength. Other nations, who were formerly great and powerful at sea, have, by negligence and mismanagement, lost their trade and seen their maritime strength entirely ruined. Therefore, wo do, in tho most earnest manner, beseech Your Majesty that the sea affair may be always your first and most peculiar care." This address was presented during the War of the Spanish Succession, in tho year of tho battles of Oudenarde and Wynendalc, when the population of England and Wales was about fivo and a-quarter millions, of Scotland one million, of Ireland two millions, and of France 18 millions. The Empire, as we knew it, did not exist, and a century of conflict lay before "the kingdom," during which, on the whole, the "sea-affair" was not allowed to be neglected. The Great War provided an object lesson that can never be forgotten. But for the efficiency and sufficiency of the Royal Navy, there would have been no possibility of a victory for tho Allies. But for tho restoration of the Navy, which began with the Naval Defence Act of 1889, Britain would have become a pauperised province of the German Empire. The "sea-affair" had been neglected by Government and Parliament, and it needed a long campaign of enlightenment to bring about the rebuilding of our naval strength. Propaganda, consciously or unconsciously directed to the destruction of the Empire, is widely prevalent. We have made more drastic reductions than any other Power, and we are bidden to do much more and to trust that our example will promptly be folllowed. Wo are already tending to become dangerously weak in cruiser strength, and naval force requires, several years to create. No League of Nations can guarantee the security of our sea route*, and the anxiety of some member States to obtain the guarantee of our Navy is pathetic. There could be no better proof that we are not suspected of aggression and that the Royal Nayy is regarded as a main factor in preserving -the peace of the world. 1