PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17853, 22 May 1926, Page 8

PUBLIC OPINION.

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING

Amundsen's Feat. Assurance of Amundsen’s safety has been quickly followed by the detailed story of his exploit during the days of wondering silence. It is a marvellous story, worthy to be told in after years along with those of his pioneering of the* North-west Passage, his winning of the race to the South Pole, and his heroic effort last year to be the first to attain the North Pole by flight. Of those other exploits, the first and second are together enough to have obtained for this intrepid Norwegian a name supreme in polar achievements. Last year’s venture by aeroplane was not wholly successful; indeed, if Byrd’s recent flight over the Pole is confirmed. Amundsen may be said to have failed then where the American afterwards succeeded. Yet his failure was splen did, so redeemed was it by endurance of terrible hazards and by triumph in a hand-to-hand grapple with imminent disaster and death. That failure, too. contributed not a little to this eventual success. This fourth exploit added to the other three, gives Amundsen an unchallengable eminence in polar exploration. The flight of the Norge will go down in history as one of the world's greatest voyages of discovery- “ Herald,” Auckland. Motor Peats. No one can accuse Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., of excessive severity when he threatens careless and reckless motorists with cancellation of their licenses for a third offence. The driver who j offends three times within a reasonable period has certainly proved himself a menace to other users of the road. In their interests he must be removed. The law requires proof of fitness before a driving license is issued, and there is every justification for withdrawing that license when the holder shows that he is unfit. Traffic, especially in the cit ies, is now too heavy to allow juggernauts to be abroad. Three offences is more than the careful motorist will need, and we are inclined to the view that three may be more than enough to prove the recklessness of some drivers. We do not wish to create a variation of the “one dog, one bite” precedent in our law: “one motorist, three accidents.”—“Post,” Wellington.

Flying Away From Economic Facts. Little by little it is being driven home to the champions of direct action that they are tilting at an invulnerable windmill. Labour intellectuals practically everywhere have come to realise that there is no longer any virtue in the general strike. The late gigantic futility in Britain lends point to that contention. Leaders like Ramsay MacDonald and J. 11. Thomas, none the less sane men and good Britishers because they are of the Labour Party, are no friends of the direct actionists. They have long since learned their lesson. Cramp, of the British railway men, and Frank Hodges, of the miners, have united in condemning the strike weapon. It is the best of favourable signs. Mr Hodges is a Socialist, but a thinking Socialist. What does he say in this matter? “This disaster”the T.U.C. strike—“arises from a notable disposition in recent years to fly away from economic facts. . . . The effort failed because, huge though it was, it was a mere toy in the presence of the economic facts, the social forces and the simple humanity by which it was confronted.” And the net result of that stupidity? “It was a grey fortnight in which trade union efforts over half a century crumbled before their very eyes.” It is truth which cannot be gainsaid. We have been preaching the doctrine expounded by Mr Hodges for some years. The sermonising was necessary, for this reason, if for no other, that the New Zealand Labour machine is controlled by the militants, who overtly or covertly encourage the use of the old-fashioned club as a means of securing redress. They shout “Solidarity! ” when a strike is called. When it fails, they write to the capitalist newspapers, or in their own official organ, interminably windy screeds claiming a “moral” victory. It is all extremely pathetic and wearisome.—“ New Zealand Times," Wellington.