The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1922. STILL HARPING

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11222, 30 May 1922, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1922. STILL HARPING

Like Shylock, Lord NorthclifFe is always harping. The man iu the play harped upon the loss of liis daughter and of certain ducats taken from his bursting coffer. The man of affairs harps about certain ducats that somebody refuses to find for proper upkeep of the naval defence of the British Empire. In Lord Northeliffe’s eyes, New Zealand is- the offender. Every opportunity' that offers, he cries, “New Zealand is not doing her share.” When there is no opportunity, this wonderful busybody makers one, and again is heard the raucous sound of his harping, so that it is impossible for anyone not to know that New Zealand is not doing her, share, Is there a vast naval expedition being organised against some great naval Power bent- on toppling the British Empire into the dust? The question is, of course, superfluous. It is only another way of asking why this hurrying up of New Zealand's indebtedness on account of the Navy. Here, however, it may be as well to ask how the lord of paper hosts manages to find New Zealand is not doing her share. It is quite well known to anybody who knows anything, that when the overseas Dominions discovered that none of them were “doing their share,’’ in this matter of naval defence, the whole cost and responsibility being cast on the Imperial partner, New Zealand agreed, like the rest, to pay something. The proportion was right, and the sum has been considerably increased, like the share of the others. Moreover,* New Zealand donated a battle-cruiser, which gave a very good account of herself in the greatest war in history and the greatest naval battle on record. For this New Zealand is still paying, in terms of a loan comparatively short-dated. It is certainly^true that New Zealand did not start a navy, as Australia did. In other words, New Zealand did not waste money on the obsolete. The Dominion’s only cause for regret is, not that it did not “do its share,” but that, after having wisely avoided useless expenditure for some years, the Dominion has, by reason of the lack of moral courage on the part of certain of her statesmen, undertaken the upkeep of some vessels of war of no use whatever for any purpose of war. That expenditure is part of our share of the cost of naval defence, and that part is being wasted just as completely as if the money had been thrown into tho sea. If the lord of paper hosts means that, therefore, New Zealand is not paying her share, he is right. But has he forgotten the main feature and sign of our time? It should not be necessary to remind him that the world has declared a naval holiday. Tho pact is set for about fifteen or eighteen years, with good prospect of doubling the period. There are even sanguine persons who would have us believe that there may he permanence of peace. From <J.apan round the world the nations possessing ships ‘ of war have arranged great squadrons of them for sacrifice. Battleships, cruisers of every class, destroyers, mine - layers, seaplane - carriers, are waiting their end in squadrons. Their owners have choice of three ways of execution. They may sink the ships in deep water. They may break them up; they may use them for targets, to be broken up by guns on trial and bombs in practice from aloft. Such a hecatomb as this now about to be offered up has never been imagined. Vot, forsooth, we must still hear that

monotonous, senseless old harping. Wc must still have it dinned into jaded cars that “New Zealand is not doing its share.” Disgust readies the climax with the thought Hint this criticism, perfectly unnecessary, as well as false, is made regardless of the Dominion’s service ill tile war. More men and more money were found in proportion than by any other Dominion. No division in the field got more credit or endured greater losses, and nowhere is the financial burden after the war so heavy as in New Zealand. New Zealand ought to have been spared this eternal harping, which carries an edge to its criticism, probably suggesting slacking and disloyalty, and certainly insisting oil the impossible and the unnecessary. But is this a time to harp about more expenditure? The leaders of tlife Government seem to think that it must be, for they take the great man’s harping l as a deserved rebuke. The man ought to be .shut up with the sharp rejoinder busybodios always deserve, and sometimes get, when they stray into vanitous ways. He gets instead ; protestations of willingness to pay more, far more, and half-hearted expostulations that New Zealand is really not doing so badly, after all. They know quite well, at the same time, what the state of tho Dominion finance is. They know that the land is under a slump; that the springs of taxation hare shrunk; that costs are mounting everywhere. They are proclaiming that reduction of taxation is out of all qumtion; they are insisting that further retrenchment, and on a gigantic scale, is the only hope for the Dominion. Yet they go on declaring they will be glad to pay more for ships and wasting the money badly wanted for other tilings on th 6 thing which, to flatter our people, they call a navy. It is high time to get sensible over this naval question. The cost of the Imperial Fleet is being reduced greatly. WWy not reduce ohr contribution accordingly? Burt, if not, then why seek to increase it, and why waste the money we do pay?