EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11612, 20 April 1912, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The lessons of this catastrophe are many. First as to the The Titanic Dis- sanctity of human life. aster. When the news was . . spread nations were astounded, Legislatures standing in reverence, for the dead passed resolutions of horrified sympathy for the living, the Princes of the Peoples raced one another with their [ telegrams of sympathy to -the afflicted relatives and the stricken rnation. It is a spectacle to compel ouu Xadmiration. But before we thank God that such, sentiments are the controlling .force, of the 7 world let us look at the :,other side. .The other day'there was a one of the greatest iaiid most stubborn of history, in wlreh : :.|he loss.of life was/far greater than the /mortality bill presented by the Titanic vat ,the bottom .of the'ocean two miles below the reach of human eye. In a ■single- assault the, Japanese sometimes ylpst whole battalions" killed to a man .before the Russian forts among the V/ivire Now a battalion ; is aboiit 1000 stroiig, and the loss in the .JFitanic was. short of 1500. It follows : .one 'side ; alone ;' during _ the sieges up££ Port .Arthur in., a single, > assault—one of many —there were ••it -least three, times the,:missing record ..qfi'the. Titanic. Take the last battle of 'the war, one of niahy battles, and that- 100,000 men were struck battle , : ..by.:the number of .the fights and find the average. It will be an astounding re/cord; of reeking corpses -and. of land Jsoaked with jblqod,. of/streams, running fjed, ;of every 'kind of : horror, despa'r ;and'pain; and behind these holocausts taCdark shadow of mourning, alive with the voices' of widows and: children, and dark with the: blackness,. of hopeless poyerty.; Tiirirjtp the;., material losses. ' thei wqrldfc.jyou; observe,.is holding up its hands with a tale of some five millions gone to the, bojttom. of the ocean : : and' perhaps.-.beyond jfche, bottom of the dnsurances- ■ibusgsl >\ v .But., the Avar in : ? q'uestioii cost many hundreds of millions /sterling, ■ every one as much wasted to the.cause of humanity as the comparative "mite taken .down by the big liner. , But no single voice was ever raised to heaven publicly in sympathy or protest during the great''•human cataclysm. Nations were silent, Legislatures passed 'no resolutions, the' princes looked on cold, and the peoples read the news supplied by; air enterprising press with the eagerness of the gladiatorial spectators of a heathen age. Why do the nations not make use of the feelings they express so glibly when a big ship gops . down with a few soujs, for preventing immense disasters which destroy hundreds of thousands of lives, and paralyse industry to amounts incalculable, scattering poverty, and misery .-.broadcast in their hideous - wake?. To answer in detail woud fill a volume with:interesting and for the most.part debatable matter. But there, can be but little doubt about the summing iip'.of .the whole by any impartial mind.; It wpiild be that there is unhappily; more evil,; than good iii Tinman nature:- Perhaps the better way to put it is that the evil in human nature being ■'. stronger predominates." silencing at critical moments .the sacred feelings which. Tare at the basis of the; "belief" that man was made in the image; and likeness of Him his Maker, jji other words, the world is rilled xinde'mbcratically by minorities, and the result is war tinpreventible, and all-devouring, with a complex civilisation arranged for the rapid and effectve supply of its insatiable wants. Such ideas ought to make. for.true"arbitration, not the im:perfect thing that- now masquerades as .TheVHague :peace ; compeller. _ls it too mucly to. hope .that they may urge the Iworld-up a step forward in the progress which hnist;lead to the amendment of the international peacemaker into something more nearly approaching the meaniugof its name. In the meantime lei lis offer, our share to the vast tribute :to the dead and the big sympathy' for the stricken hearts which has been raised by an astonished, tender,' but unreflecting world.

The second lesson regards many ■"■■ '■"-.. ■■ 'the saying : of lifp, .Another-Lesson; of the,keeping of regutheDisaster, latibris for the pre--servation in good;; order of the ; appliances, and for the;, : practical- efficiency of. those who have to handle them, in the hour of need 'under:', pressure." Now the first; provision for. saving life..concerns the construction de-v par'tment, "and that department has alLways is recorded in the story: of the launch of almost every ship of I modern times—that nowadays ships are; by. reason of their compartmental construction unsinkable. But in practice,; i-'.tke ships , in compartments sometimes, , sink,with appalling regularity. Reasons have always:been found, as for instance, j how.one.of the oartition doors of a great :Cunarder was blocked by a fireman's coal-barrow, causing the ship to sink. 'But-'the'explanation of the official experts of the-sinking, of the Victoria with Ad-; m'iral Trvon. and most of her gallant company "established the- fact that the Compartment ship enjoys but..a.- small, measure of safety as compared, to the; other class. Later on, "Put not your; trust iiv compartments" was the moral: strongly enforced by the Russian dis-;: asters in the- battle of Tsushima.. Twenty, years before that the loss of the. Quettah snowed that...there is one .circumstance which must be always ■ fatet to the compartment ship as to any others namelv the grazing impact with a rock; or other obstruction which, not stoppings *he vessel, tears a.great skip put of theside of her, thus admitting water ; to all | the compartments, at one side,, with ; a certain and swift capsize. On the other hand, compartments have beeivJpiown:: to- save vessels'-in--'disastrous colhsions... Vessets have come into Canadian, ports, saved by-their compartments after collisions with.the-ice...in,the same neigh-; borhood as .the Tita W>-met her,-fate.s They had stem7.oiv collisions. Ihe - Wg liner if the statement of one of the* officials be serines to ■ have perienced a similar fate to the 1 Quettah,; having had her side ripped for somedis-' tance by. running an ice f10e... But there is room for doubt,/tor the; ship floated—.as., is,; .proved less record of that dismal morhrag—tor two hours: which; is too long for a. ship; with- a hole iu Jier .side for her,.entire length. She was, .it;is,supppsedy going slow But what is slow? A: vesseloor;f r ; that size does not steer well under ten knots, and the momentum of 40,0UU tons at that speed:isanconceiyable. Iso-Uiing-ever built by human hands cou la stand naainst it. . : The berg..would_be shattered, but so would the„:ship. Details are wanting for definite-opinions:,, but it seems; probable that there.; was a head-on * collision, followed. at .•yariousuntervals by other, collisions with, ice hittlii"- tliesliip at various angles during the"helpless drifting'to which-the first reduced her- Whateyer,happened it ,is clear that the reliance, on compartments —which are. of, course, indispensable--; ought'not" to be. too extensive. Ofihe boats it is said.:that there-'.were enough: for the' Board ;Trade - regulat-ons--; double the requirements.-in fact—but not enough' for 'saving, life'. "It is a severe condemnation of thevreg-ulations.; Unhappily;it isnpt.the;;first-;;Fdr;many' years it has been weil : understpod that: the regulations do -not-nearly cover the liability entailed on owners .by.rthe re> quirements of- safety. liv. this country; the anomaly--was-seeri-soine twenty years. ago and_was "removed by -legislation 5,0011 after the .discovery- But' British, ideas do not move quickly in such matters, and the hard-he.adedness of, skip-: pers is always-at hand to back. up. the unwillingness of owners ; to spend-money, New Zealand was horrified to learn that ;i stonmer running on'he Beef Barrel? in Cook Strait saved rfll- the passengers and crew, and in doing so exiiaiisted all her life-savum appliances, although:she, had but small proportion of her allowance of .passengers.;on board. ..: The. flections caused by,, that, case forced ;aV clianee in the. :law : . . .Britain is never, shocked by the deaths of sailors and 'tlyise. who ; godown, to,.the,.sea jn ships.and ■therefore the law:,remains : stupid. AVhat else can you expect froiiv a people that allows the .mercantile;' marine to beeomo the happy huntiflg-ground - of-

■ill nations —black, white and yellow—except the nat on that guilds the ships and has built the Empire? Now, that 1000 souls June been through thih disgraceful regulation, perhaps tlicie I may be power enough to get the law alteicd. Moreover, theie are regulations tor iea practice with boat?, and other appliances, but there is not too much ceitaintj that the} ate onioned as thev ought to be. It up-to-dato on all ma'teis connected witn launching boats, \\ 1)3 did it take two hours to launch the boats:* There is, howeioi, a doubt on the lace oi the account whether tho two hours, weie taken up with the launching. That rests on the evdence that all the boats .ire accounted for. Lt is possible, theicfoio. that the launching may have been over considerably betoic the ship sank It =o we may. imagine the scene, with 1-300 men facing death on the groat ship going down without the means ol floating one of them to safety, after the\ had consecrated every boat to the service qf the women! Then theie is the precaution of the route. Going t,o ,iNew York tlie vessels can, during th'o ; ce season, take a course to tho south to avpid the'beigs, making longer passages, but safer. This ought to bo orifoi cod h.\ ltf«, no matter how much tlip voyages ate piolonged. But to Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the ice season, there is no way of escaping the ice. There ought to be no traffic, therefore, then. .That, in view of .the recent dis- > aster, ought to be sectired bv lasw. If the precautions necessary with boats ■and courses are .taken in future, the 1500 of the Titanic will not have'died ■in vain. But-whatever legislation major may 'not do, travellers should take warning and do for themselves.

Tiik scene to which we have alluded—the 1500 men waiiThe Bright Point, ing calmly for death,

in the after saving tho Wreck Story. women gives the

brightness to the latest and greatest of tlie sorrows ot the sea. Whatever the nationality of the cnew, mixed British or otherwise, those men had the instinct of discipline, the spirit of duty, in the face of death, the bravery, the unselfishness and the strength which distinguish a man among men. We say it. was the British [ example, and, after all, it happened under our flag, wjiieh has floated over ' many scenes ot the kind. But we must admit that it is to the credit of human nature generally. There is a nobility t and grandeur .about it that moistens the eve, sends a lump iiv'o the throat, and hushes the tongue. Millionaiio rind stoker, Flaneur of the stieets and hustler Of the.offices,,toiler of head and toiler of hand —all these pleasure and austerity, mirth and stolidity, passion and principle—all bowed to the decree of fate, all did.their duty with brave nearts. all went .down in superb equality to a great peace. : Thk mteiview published in the north with the Canadian Trade With Commissioner. Mr BedCanada, doe, is rather a revelation of cur- backwardness in trade than a triumph in tho fields of competition. He'said that-the last quotations for our butter in EasternCanada ran up to 1? 7d per lb, whereas the-quotation for the local- article is Is Bd. The price of ours is undoubtedly high and remunerative, but it is not equal to che best Canadian. That,"however, is bj no means the gravamen of the revelation. With but one penny of difference it would not- take our farmers long to square matters if theie .were a market oi sufficient importance. But the market is the question that ; s weak. Mr Beddbe mentioned that Canada subsidises a number of steamers specially furntMie'd to earry refrigerated produce to New Zealand, not because she wants to send such produce heie, but, because she can supply cargoes ot other things less perishable, encouraging us to reciprocate through the refrigerators. But these steamers which carry cargoes regularly from Montreal to the Dominion never take 'anything back to Canada. The> invariably take cargo to Britain either from here or from Australia. Yet it is certain that our mutton is so much better than the Canadian article that it w-otikl command a great price and a steady large demand if once introduced. Canada gives us ships provided with the means of carryuig this, superior aiticle to a market hungering for it. and we take no notice whatever. There is the case of-butter abovementioned -which commands as much as Is 7d to-day, yet these ships go away to London without calling at a Canadian port. Potatoes are selling in Canada at prices which must seem to us fabulous, yet- those steamers return to Canada, empty, so far as New Zealand produce is concerned. The value of the Canadian market is yawning, for lecognition. and we are deaf. ' What are the Chambers of Commeice doing?

The debate on the second reading, like ' , all debates on tlie Home Rule, second reading of measures which stir the public feeling, is resulting in the great strengthening of the case for the measure. This follows from the speech of the ex-leader of the Opposition, which was evidently a piece of very argumentative stuff, furnished' with adjectives in bright array and predictions in great profusion. But the other side needed no more than the retort that the speech of Mr Balfour was verv much a duplicate of the-speech he delivered against the grant of union to the Boers The champion .skates on thin ice and finds it too slippery to boot. It U the usual rluty of Oppositions in Parliament who have bad cases. If there had been an>thing {rood or new in- the case for his view, Mr Balfour would have trotted it out. But he was silent except on the points called for by Parliamentary custom,, which arc.largely niattf-r of invention. We know our Parliamentary Opposition too well to be taken in b\ Mr Ba'ltour's sp'endid array of sophistries. ,On the other hand.,in the couise of such debates there are always points on which general agreement bas freed the measure from fear of the ''bogey man." Thus. »vheu Lord Hugh Cecil, a determined Oppositionist, declared that the Ulster fear on the religious score .\ as but a bogey, and that Ulstormni would have iust as good a chance of election as any other Irishmen, he showed how the path of Home Rule has been cleared of some of the verv worst obstacles.. Then, in finance, the fact has come out clearly that the tTad_. finance of Ireland-is proof of the bad government of esnturifcs., and the Bill is ai, attempt to enable'lrishmen bv bef r tcr management ±o improve that finance pnd nay the deficit, giving /them help in the beginning to start them on the way to solution of a problem which England long ago gave up as hopeless For oui- own part Are confess that the nrovision for ultimate control of the Gusto'V'.s and Excise of the Iri<di Parliament does not snuare with the of the men who pointed to ,f]ie Australian ;>'id American models But-the grant of Home Ru 7 e is a first towaids.the fo-m'ntion of a British Empire in which tin* federatvur or co-oneratme states—call them what vo'ii °aoh the their own Customs- ieveniie Tf Ti eland can get her nrod'iire—pol ->to"s. onions, beans, eto things now svllirt at-exorbitant prices in e r n States, n rd oxhangc for some «niti able rimmod'ties on the free or reeinr„oi'il list it will rend tho nrice of land up in Treln"d and add to the piosperity of the people vastly.-