The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1928.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3890, 2 October 1928, Page 47

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1928.) THE WEEK.

"Nunquam allud natura, allud sapientia dixit.” —Juvenal. "Good nature and good sense must ever join.’’— Pops.

At the end of the present week, or at the latest early in the General Election week following, the presProspects. ent Parliament will dis- ) solve, and attention will be concentrated upon the general election, to take place some six or seven weeks hence. The political prophets will shortly be making their voices heard, and the clamour of the contending factions will make the- welkin ring. The keenest interest will be displayed in those electorates in which a threecornered contest is billed to take place, and in which the Reform, the and the Labour Parties will all be represented. It can scarcely be anticipated that the success of Reform will be as sweeping as it was three years ago, but wnile for a variety ot reasons the Government may have lost a meed of its popularity, there is little ground for supposing that the Labour Party has made any advance in the general regard. Indeed, it will be well within the mark to declare that so long as the Labour Party remains under its present leadership it will be permanently debarred from power. Accepting this view as correct, it remains to be seen whether the United Party, under the leadership of Sir Joseph Ward, will be able to win a sufficient number of seats to entitle it to become the official Opposition in the new Parliament. A further element of interest is the appearance of Mr Rushworth in the Waikato as leader of the Country Party, but nothing much can be expected to come from this slight diversion. . The farming community in the Dominion is exceedingly well represented at the present time, and what Mr Coates and the Reform Party is unable to do for the man on the land would be quite beyond the power of any country party to accomplish. The election promises to be a lively one, and while there are certain elements of uncertainty in some quarters owing mainly to local conditions, the mam result is beyond a doubt.

It was a grievous disappointment to the

New Zealand and Aviation.

people of Otago that Captain Kingsford Smith and his fellow-aviators were hindered by ad-

verse weather conditions from making their intended trip to the south. Even now the little company are waiting at Blenheim for a favourable opportunity to “hop off” on the return voyage to Australia. The disappointment, while severe, may, however, serve as a wholesome chastening to those enthusiasts who visage a regular service by air between New Zealand and Australia in the near future. From Australia comes news of the tremendous impetus given to aviation by Captain Kingsford Smith’s feat in flying the Pacific, and already there is talk of a regular service between Adelaide and Perth, and between Sydney and Newcastle. There are those who doubtless anticipate similar speedy developments in the Dominion. The moral of Captain Kingsford Smith’s experiences is that the Tasman Sea is an exceedingly difficult proposition for aviators to negotiate, and that the flight may only "be

attempted with any regard for safety under the most favourable weather conditions. . Not only so, but Captain Kingsford Smith’s experiences in the Dominion itself go to show that New Zealand is far from being an ideal flying country, and this by reason of its peculiar configuration. It is obvious that considerable developments will have to take place in the art of aviation and great improvements made in the flying machines themselves before aviation in New Zealand becomes a general practice.

The people of Australia are troubled by a strike nuisance which

The Strike Nuisance in Australia.

liuibancc WHICH in one form or another threatens to become perpetual. Its latest de-

velopment has been in connection with a group of waterside workers who declined to accept Judge Beeby’s award and register' under the transport Act. Not content with passive resistance, the strikers at Port Adelaide proceeded to overt acts of violence directed towards intimidating the voluntary labour offering, the violence in some instances being of a peculiarly brutal kind. There is a strong suspicion that the bomb outrages reported fiom Melbourne have their origin in the same spirit of lawlessness, a spirit which has prompted the Premier of South Australia to organise a citizens’ defence brigade for the purpose of preventing fuither intimidation and putting a stop to attempts at violence. And while the conference of Waterside Union representatives hove explicitly denounced the outrage, and have declared that the men on strike were not responsible for these dastardly acts reported, it is not possible to disregard the connection altogether. With considerable forbearance the Premier of South Australia has intimated that no additional volunteer labour will be engaged until the strikers have Had opportunity to register under the Act, and the test will come should they persist in their refusal.. The warm ing issued to Australian trade unionists may not be disregarded. “ Whatever may be the instigation of the present violence,” says Mr Walsh, “it is clear an attempt is being made to terrorise the free people of Australia into submission to an ugly form of tvranny.” And the time has come to make “a stand.

Ihe tone and tenor of the American Note on the FrancoBritish Naval C o nt-

Naval Limitations.

promise must be read in

the light of the Presidential contest now pending. To the average inhabitant of the United- States at the present time world happenings are of importance only in so far as they affect the prospect of Mr Hoover or Mr Smith going to the White House. It is this which lends significance to the that the Hearst press—an antiBritish organisation—secured and published a letter apparently from the French Foreign Office to the French Embassies, which contained a reference to the understanding reached by France and Britain, and this before the United States Government had received official intimation of the compromise. The American^attitude is that of a vigorous i ejection of the Franco-British proposals, which are regarded as more objectionable than those offered at Geneva. There is no indication that any serious developments are likely to spring from the reply of the United States. The situation is summed up in the statement that the matter will be allowed to simmer for a while. The comment of The Times puts the position from the sober British point of view. “ The motives of Britain,” says that organ of public opinion, “ are evidently not yet fully understood in America. The Washington and Geneva Conferences, and all that has happened since, are in the nature of preliminary investigation into the big question of the relation between naval armament and security in the modern world. This inquiry will bear fruit in time. The absence of immediate results is not' a condemnation of the sincere efforts that have been made to achieve them.”

The Otago A. and P. Society has

reached the wise decision ■- to thoroughly explore the

Tahuna Park.

proposal of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association to join hands in a scheme to shift the Winter Show’ into suitable premises which it is proposed to erect on the show grounds at Tahuna Park. The arguments in favour of the scheme are well nigh overwhelming; indeed, the only practical objection urged against it was whether the crowds would go so far out of town to attend the show’. It may be remembered that much the same sort of objection was advanced w’hen it was first proposed to locate the Exhibition at Logan Park, an objection which the subsequent patronage disposed of entirely. If th< combined efforts of the •A. and P. Society and the Manufacturers’ Association make the VV inter Show sufficiently attractive there need be little fear of the attendance of the public. It only lemains to push the scheme to sneedr fruition. ' * «i

Advantage was taken of the presenta*

Mr Sterling's Salary.

tion to Parliament of the Railways Statement to raise the question of Mi

Sterling’s salary, and of his preferential treatment in regard t< superannuation. It has to be recognised that this is an exceptional case, and which calls for exceptional treatment The problem of the railways is an ex tremely serious one for the Dominion, since the srim of money sunk in these undertakings is very large. I’robalfijy

Mr Sterling ia the one man who was willing to shoulder the responsibility of placing milway finance upon a sa isfactory footing, and already he has won rolden opinions from those engaged with him in that endeavour. Under the circumstances Mr Sterling was justified in naming his own terms, and the Government had practically no option but to accede to them. And if Mr Sterling succeeds in his endeavour the general verdict will be that he has richly earned his salary, large as the sum may appear to be.