CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12087, 16 August 1917, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

$ ANOTHER DODGE. In the Defence Minister's announcement of his intention to call approved . C2 class men into camp at Featherston, " so as to fit them for more strenuous training in permanent camps.''it is not difficult to perceive another attempt io shuffle from under the troublesome Second Division, swag. Sir James Allen and his colleagues are at their wits' end to devise means for evading the necessity of laying upon tho wealth of the counn-v the rightful burden of financing tTio reinforcements and the contingent liabilities, and their desperate endeavours ito protect their friends having been | partially frustrated by the popular revolt against bov conscription, they | have switched their efforts on to the 1 unfit men. The idea seems to be that the "home service" men should be reexamined on a less strict system, with the object of drafting as many as pos- ! sible into camp and so deferring the j calling up of the Second Division, with j the inevitable corollary of additional j taxation to meet the legitimate demand S for maintenance of dependents. The Ministerial intention apparently is that the C2 men who have already been certified !>y the doctors as fit for home service only shall be run through the Medical Board sieve again. There is thus 110 finality to medical examinations. and there is the clear danger, about which so many warnings have been issued, of men being shipped to tho front who could not possibly stand the hard work of the camps, to say nothing of the campaigning ground. The I proposal certainly calls for searching i questions in the House, particularly so as it seems to imply a lack of confidence in the judgment of the medical officers who have already dealt with C2 men. THE METRIC SYSTEM. One result cf the official intervention in Great Britain in the regulation of prices has been to emphasise the confusion and difficulties that arise from the multiplication of weights and measures now in use. Adherents to antiquated systems have had the defects of their short-sightedness brought home to them in a way that makes them "wish for uniformity throughout the country. Government departments even have not been consistent in their choice of a weight or measure for the same article, and this, perhaps more than local incongruities, has induced a desire for the adoption of common standards. The question has been considered by a. special committee of the Tasmanian Central Chamber of Agriculture, and its recommendations, as well as the discussion Mi icon, encourage tho hope that re- ; ::.i in this direction will speedily follow the termination of thft war. The report recommended as follows; (a) That the present legal standard pound be the unit of weight, and that the existing legal cental of 1001b bo substituted for 'the 1121b hundredweight : '2O such centals to bo tho ton of-20001b. (b) That transactions for sales or purchases of agricultural produce and requisites other than liquids, bu't including milk sold wholesale, shall be by weight under the standard system. (c) That all official quotations shall bo given on the basis of the pound and cental, and that 'the Press be urged to adopt the samo basis for all market quotations. (d) That section 8 of tho Corn Returns Act- of 1882 be repealed, and that cho tithe average be adjusted in future upon the cental basis. (e) 'Jliat a provisional period of two years bo allowed beforo the new system be compulsory, after which all contracts under any ether standards shall bo "unenforceable except for foreign trading. CANADA AMD TITLES. Recently we have heard a good deal concerning titles and tho means by which they are sometimes acquired, and even in our own Dominion a measure was brought beforo the House designed j to abolish all titles as far as New ZeaI landers are concerned. However, it failed to receive much support, being quickly numbered among the " slaughtered innocents." The hereditary principle, Canadian newspapers state, has no place in a country so democratic as the Lady of the Snows, and, somewhat xingratefully, they protest against the shower of honours —some of them hereditary—which descended upon the Dominion on the occasion of tho King's birthday a couple of months ago. The Toronto "Mail and Empire" voices a pretty general opinion when it says:— "Tho hereditary title ought to be kept out of Canada. This country does not. want a little aristocracy of its own. Recognition of public service by knighthood is entirely unobjectionable when the honour is deserved. But the hereditary title has no sound principle to commend it, especially in such a country as Canada." This utterance is soized upon by the London (Ontario) "Advertiser" as the | occasion for a sly dig at Sir Robert Borden, tho Premier, to whom the | " Advertiser," as a Liberal paper, is naturally opposed. It then goes on to say: "If the people of Canada were asked to vote on the granting of hereditary titles it is almost certain there would never be another bestowed. Canadians are democrats, and since tho outbreak of war they are more than ever inclined to honour the man for what he is and does, not for what his family was or how much he inherited. As of old. the Tory authorities have failed 'to accept this view, and the reaching out after an ' aristocracy' is part of their creed. They have begun the extensive creation of baronetcies and peerages in Canada, and, in the last few years, have extended tho honour to as many as possible, including some where the excuse is most obscure. It is one of the signs that mark the difference between Liberalism and Conservatism'. " The ' Mail and Empire ' says there is no objection to knighthood when the honour is deserved. It is not always re-

served for the deserving, and since the creation of hereditary titles here knighthood has become, as in the old land, a. cheap form of reward or flattery to be granted with or without reason. "Canadians have 110 objection io heaping honours on those who earn them, and are. proud of their distinguished citizens. But this feeling begins and ends in the men who (Jo things. Their sons have 110 claim to has); iu inherited. glory."