LOST OPPORTUNITIES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14009, 14 September 1909, Page 4

LOST OPPORTUNITIES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, — Your editorial article on the above subject was timely and to the point. You referred to the deaf ear being turned to the wise counsels of Sir George Grey on this matter. Alas ! how shortsighted we have been in many respects in our settlement of this dominion. For instance, our national neglect of the most important industry that any civilised nation can engage in — I am now referring to the iron and steel industry. Great Britain became the mightiest nation, in the world owing to the fact of developing her iron ana coal measures, as the British Navy depends on pig iren for the construction of her mighty battle ships ; therefore Britain's prestige is built, as it were, upon pig-iron, f&utoff Great Britain's supply of raw' materials, such as iron ore, coal, etc., and her fate would be the same as the Medes and Persians, or the Grecian, Roman, or any other empire recorded in history. The present state of affairs in the world to-day demands that the Parliament of New Zealand should for the safety of the dominion embark upon the manufacture of iron and steel at once, as any an ter prising hostile Power could conpier New Zealand owing to our neglect of allowing our first means of defence to remain undeveloped, as we must depend on fast cruisers and a lightning flotilla squadron to defend us in tiuie of peril. We can manufacture armour plate out of Taranaki iron sand, also j quick-firing and long-range gnus of such unsurpassable quality that we would become the most dreaded eea Power jn the Southern Hemisphere. Time will yet prove that these statements are true. J4ow, Mr. Editor, I call upon you to demand that a Royal Commission be set up by sanction of Parliament to ascertain and prove that we have all the facilities at our disposal for the manufacture of munitions of war in the dominion. Firstly, iron and steel deposits cheaply worked, relieving the congested labour market , also charcoal, sulphur, etc., for tl.e manufacture of explosives; also we. can oroduce gun-cotton — in fact, lucking nothing to become the Britain of the South trom every point of view. We are destined to become a maritime nation, but if we neglect our golden opportunities, by the law of stern, inexorable progress we will have to yield up these Fortunate Isles to some superior jea Power. We do not want the St:u-, and Stripes, nor the emblem of the Rising Sun, nor the Kaiser's flag oV authority to wave over us. We «»rl the grand old Union Jack, and, failing : that— God forbid I— we will huve tin dominion's own glorious standard, the flng of the Southern Cross, to flout. over us. We must always remember that we arc to a great extent arbiterof our own fate in this matter. Wh;»t is it to be— a strong, virile nation. whose flag is to be respected, or are we to become, like the Madagascurians not fitted to govern and develop ourselves and country despite our hoa.sted democratic institutions ? To those wlwi are in authority and |x>*cr hy the will of the people a sacred trust is given, and that itf"tp legislate that we become more self-reliant, as a self-reliant nation always becomes respected in tineves of the world. We luve now cast off our garments of infancy and youth ; now let us play the man. — I am, etc, PATRIOT.