The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1923.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 39

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1923.) THE WEEK.

**Vnnqnta> «llnd natural, allud sapient!* dldLd •JmxiL. "Good oat are and good sense moat ever Join."— torn. The political preliminaries to the assembling of the new Parliament cover a good deal of 'what may fitly be described / as “bluff,” a procedure inevitable when there is any doubt as to the position of parties. The three party system which was a feature of the general election has produced a situation in which considerable uncertainty reigns and the future is consequently obscure. Mr Holland 5s loud in his protestations that the election figures are a token that the Reform Government has forfeited the confidence of the country and he points to Mr Massey’s diminished following as proof of his statement. Mr Massey forcefully retorts that the Labour Party is in a 'hopeless minority, while Mr Wilford, realising that as leader of the Liberals he holds the balance of power, sits tight and says nothing. The sparring for position between Mr Massev and Mr Holland in regard to the date of the meeting of Parliament is instructive in at least one particular. Whether the Prime Minister actually did meditate postponing the meeting of Parliament until after the election petitions were decided, he as least allowed, the report to go abroad uncontradicted Possibly it was semi officially circulated as a political feeler. Whatever the actual truth in the matter, it has at least given Mr Holland ground for claiming that he has compelled Mr Massey to adopt the constitutional course, and accordingly Parliament is convened to open in Millington for a. short session next week. the hrst business will be the election of a Speaker and there is a concensus of opinion that Mr Rtatham will be unammourly elected for the position. Tor the rest nothing i* certain and much depends upon what arrangements for support Mr Massev is able f-> come to with the Liberals. Tf a satisfactorv working agreement can be reached it is probable that Mr Wilford may abstain from moving a want of confidence motion, thus throwing the onus of attack upon Mr Holland. Since a Reform Liberal combination can command a working majority, in that case Mr Massev’s tenure of office is seemingly secure, although the price paid for victory has yet to be revealed. Failing a compromise with the LnberaJa. there remains the possibility that Mr Massev mav be defeated on a want of confidence motion, and such an outcome may mean another general election in the autumn, an eventuality to be deplored alike in the interests of commerce, economy, and good government. Apart from the expense of a second general election which the finances of the Dominion can ill afford, there is always the danger lest the present discontent, fanned by rising prices for certain essential commodities, to sav nothing of the proposed increases in telephone rents, mav still further diminish the Reform Party s following and nive Labour another access of strength. The constitutional position at least "is verv clear; it is argued, and with a certain show of reason, that the Reform Government was defeated at the general election : the only answer to such an argument is the test of the division list. And no Government should continue to function without faekig that test at the earliest possible moment. The political position in Australia is even more complicated than in the Dominion, although the complication arises from the same fruitful source—vis., the three party system. There is this difference, however, in New Zealand Mr Massey is ;*ecognised as the only possible leader'of a Government which has opposed to it the Labour Party ; in Australia Mr Hughes is the obstacle in the way of any such arrangement. The Federal House of '

The Meeting ot Parliament.

Politics in Australia.

Representatives numbers 75 members, ot whom no fewer than 46 are pledged to oppose the Labour Party. But these 46 are divided into 27 Nationalists, under Mr Hughes, and 19 members of the Country Party, and during the election campaign Mr Hughes fought the Country Party as fiercelv as he did the Labour Party. In the last Parliament Mr Hughes had a following of 38, and he explicitly declared, in his election appeals, that any diminution in that number would make it impossible for him to continue in office. The general election left v him bereft of nine .of his supporters, no fewer than five of the defeated candidates being Cabinet . Ministers. This is interpreted as tantamount to not only popular dissatisfaction with the Labour Party's programme, but I also an expression of want of confidence in Mr Hughes as leader of the Nationalists. The oidy possibility of an efficient Government for Australia, able to oppose ; the polities of the Labour Party, lies in some agreement being entered into between the Nationalists and the Country Party ; and the Country Party will have none of Mr Hughes—that is the simple logic of the existing position. On the other hand, Mr Hughes is incidentally desirous of retaining office, even to the point of sacrificing the good of the country to his personal ambition. There is the possibility of a working arrangement being made between the Nationalists arid the Countrv Partv, under the leadership of Mr Bruce, Treasurer of the present. Government, but such a contingency is dependent on the retirement of Mr Hughes, and Mr Hughes is not inclined to give way. Moreover, Mr Hughes has been for lo long a time the dominating personality in Australian politics that he represents an influence which may by no means be ignored. Up to the present Mr Hughes has been busily engaged in scheming and intriguing with a view to the retention of office, but apparently without avail. The existing indecision cannot indefinitely be prolonged, and the evolution of the political situation in Australia will-be watched with interest. The Senate of the New Zealand University has concluded a lengthy sesE(location at 6ion ‘ n Dunedin, the prothe Cross-roads gramme of business being pleasantly varied by a number of successful social functons. The most notable feature of the deliberations of the Senate marked what may be dubbed Education at the Cross-roads, the passing of the old and the oncoming of the new. The passing of the old was symbolised in the resignation of the Chancellorship of the University by Sir Robert Stout, who has been closely connected with educational matters since the foundation of the Otago settlement nearly 75 years ago. The oncoming of the new was seen in the suggestion that the time is approaching when the one New Zealand University must be resolved in four separate but cooperating Universities. All through the discussions the conflict of idea between the more conservative element in the Senate and the younger men, with their modern notions, was continually discernible, and it should be said that the conservatives more than held their own, and checked a too sudden onrush of newfangled notions. After all, this conflict of idea is no new thing, as a reference to Charles Lamb’s essay on “The Old and the New Schoolmaster” —written more than a hundred- years ago—clearly dis- ; covers. “Rest to the souls of those fine old pedagogues,” exclaims Elia, the breed, long since extinct, of the Lily s, and the Linacres, who, believing that all learning was contained in thejanguages which they taught, and despising every other acquirement as superficial and useless, came to their task as to a sport. . . . Revolving in a perpetual cycle of declensions, conjugation, syntaxes, and presodies, renewing constantly the occupations which had charmed their studious childhood ; rehearsing continually the part of the past; life must have slipped from them at last like one day.” If this picture be as reflective of the conservatives in education to-day as it was a centurv ago, how true is Charles lamb’s description of the modernist. “The modern schoolmaster is expected to know a little of everything, because his pupil is required not to be entirely ignorant of anything. He must be superficially, if I may so say, omniscient. He is to know something of preamatics, of chemistry, of whatever is curious, or proper to excite the attention of the youthful mind; an insight into mechanics is desirable, with a touch of statistics; the quality of soils, etc., botany, the constitution of his country, cum multis aliis.” The passage of a hundred years has made little change in education ; Charles insisted that he was what he was, despite the system of ! education to which he was subjected, and ■ not because of it, and there is a good deal to be said for his side of the case. Newspaper correspondents agree, so highly ooloured are the conflicting France and accounts, that it is imGermany. possible to arrive at the truth of what is going on in the Ruhr at the present time. At least it is manifest that a trial of strength is proceeding between France and Germany, of which the result is doubtful, while the consequences are disastrous to Western civilisation as a whole and to Europe in a special degree. France seems determined to conquer by military might, even to the point of assuming control of a large part of industrial Germany; hut she is meeting a solid passive resistance, which paralyses commerce, and puts an end to business, and before which seventy-fives, tanks, and all the panoply of militarism are largely useless. To what extremes French measures of compulsion may go, and what the degree of German resentment and opposition may proceed, it is impossible to foresee, but the immediate outlook is such as to give ground for the gravest apprehension. A popular history recently published, under the title “The Story of Mankind,” concludes with some

Education at the Cross-roads

France and Germany-

words peculiarly applicable to the critical situation as it unfolds itself to-day. The moral of the story is a simple one. The world is in dreadful need of men who will assume the new leadership, who will have the courage of their own visions and who will recognise clearly that we are only at the beginning of the voyage, and have to leam an entirely new system of seamanship. They will have to serve for years as mere apprentices. They will have to fight their way to the top against every possible form of opposition. When they reach the bridge, mutiny of an envious crew may cause their death. But some day a man will arise who will bring the vessel safely to port, and he shall be the hero of the ages.”