The New Political Party.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17105, 29 March 1921, Page 6

The New Political Party .

Mr C. E. Statham, M.P., has accepted the leadership of the "National Pro- " gre'ssive and Moderate Labour "Party," and he announces the fact in a statement which our Dnnedin correspondent sends us to-day. "Natur- " ally," he said, "attempts would be "made by political opponents to be- " little the movement." Mr Statham does not quite understand the technique of launching a new political party. Otherwise he would not thus speak of "political opponents" of his organisation. For it leaves it open for anyone to Bay that a new organisation does not arouse opponents until the purposes of the organisation are known.We ourselves, for instance, are not "opponents" of the new party. We have stated very briefly some reasons for our belief that Mr Statham and his unknown (or at any rate unannounced) colleagues are wasting their time and their euergy. When we know a. little more about the party, we shall know whether it will merit opposition. In the meantime it seems to us to be a party of excellent intentions., It will

be "representative of the whole of that " great loyal section of the community "which stands between extreme Con- " servatism on the one hand and revolutionary Socialism on the other." It will provide a comfortable abode for " loyal Labour." Its platform will he based on "the principles of justice, hu- " manity, and brotherhood." It •will " stand for sound and Bane finance, the "development of the country, the encouragement of primary and second- " ary industries and commerce," etc. It will "suoceed in bringing about a new " era of industrial peace and a period " of progress and prosperity that would " be enjoyed not by a few but by every " section of the community." Who could oppose so admirable a party as that? We venture to say very few people indeed would think of doing so. Loyalty, justice, humanity, brotherhood, peace, progress, prosperity, and all on a basis of sane and sound finance —this is just what everybody desires. At the same time, there is a strong vein of common sense in the public, and we are afraid that the promoters of this new party are doomed to disappointment. The public can hardly believe that the dark, unfathomed caves of political discontent have all this time been concealing the saviours of society. The war, as everyone knows, was the heyday ,of the inventor, and of that much moro numerous class, persons with ideas which, in their opinion, only needed "working out" by someone with a base mechanic mind, to become of enormous value to the War Office or the Admiralty, or botH. Such suggestions rolled in upon the authorities, sometimes to the number of several hundreds in a day. Most of them were of a very crude character, were made in complete ignorance of what had been done, or attempted, in the same direction, and were described in the vaguest 6f terms. Upon their claims and those of actual inventors to reward for their •services, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors has been sitting for some time, and has just issued its first report. The ground taken up by the Commission, that a claimant to be entitled to reward must prove that his invention was "a link in the chain of causation leading to the u'se of the invention." disposed, one imagines, of a good many claims at the outset. The Commission found that a large number of claimants, particularly those possessing little education, were convinced that Government officials bad appropriated and claimed credit for inventions and suggestions submitted by the claimants. This was due partly to the fact that the claimants did not know what had already been done along the lines of their suggestions, and also because most of them assumed that they were the first and only persons to make the suggestion. Tho consequence was that if months, or years later, they read in the paper that a certain invention or improvement had been adopted similar in any degree to their suggestion, they jumped to the conclusion that some nefarious departmental official had stolen their ideas. For unpatented inventions, which constitute the subject of most of the applications, the claimants have no legal right to compensation, and their claims" only come before the Commission on the request of the Treasury. In regard to the use by the Government of patented inventions, the Commissipn holds that the patentee has a right to compensation by the Crown, and only has to decide the amount of compensation, usually fixed on the basis of a royalty. The awards made so far include £IO,OOO to the inventor of the incendiary tracer bullet, £14,000 for a certain fuse, £35,000 for carburettors, £IO,OOO for improvements in machineguns, £SOOO for a method of casting bombs, and £IIO,OOO for engines for aeroplanes. When the latest mail left London the Commission had jußt finished hearing claims in respect to the Mills hand-grenade. Mr Mills, inventor, engineer, and manufacturer, of Sunderland and Birmingham, said he had detected deficiencies in the Roland bomb, and corrected them, working day and night at the task, and spending £2OOO on it. Of the seventy-five million Mills bombs that ivere subsequently made, his firm made only four millions, and lost money on the job. Sir John Keir, of tho 6th Army Corps, said the Mills bomb superseded the rifle, and held the field throughout the war, being much superior ■ to the German weapon. Counsel for the claimants suggested that a fair royalty on the seventy-five million bombs woidd be a penny each, or a total of £312,500. The Commission not unnaturally "took time to consider" its award. The hope that one day wo in New Zealand would be enabled to listen to one of the greatest of English singers, Mr Gervase Elwes, has been destroyed by his untimely death in America. For fifteen years he had occupied an unchallenged position on the English concert platform and at all thetejjreat musical festivals, being especially'Sioted for his rendering of Bach and the religious works of Elgar. This was particularly the case with his singing of the noble tenor part in "The Dream of Gerontius." Ho was a devoted member of the Roman Catholic Church, and it is said that he regarded the singing of that musio as an act of religion, never undertaking it without first attending Mass. For a professional singer he had had a curious career. The son of a large landowner in Lincolnshire, lie went to Oxford to prepare for the diplomatic service, of which he subsequently became a member for several years. His ability as nn amateur ginger led some of his friends to advise him to abandon diplomacy and adopt music as a,career, and never was advice better justified. Even when on the death of his father he succeeded to a large estate, he continued his professional work, while not neglecting his responsibilities as a landowner. His death was the result of an accident. He had left the train at Boston when, discovering that he had taken another passenger's coat, he ran back, and in handing it to the conductor fell between the train and the platform, receiving injuries from which he died in an hour pr two. * Mrs Edith Cowan, the new member for West Perth in the West Australian Assembly, and the first woman in all Australia to be elected a member of Parliament, is a lady who holds strong views on a number of subjects, particularly education. As mentioned in our columns the other day, she is a firm believer in every girl over the age of ten being taught domestic science. She

would go further, and have domestic efficiency and knowledge made part of tho science degree course. The present university education, she declares, has gone mad. It was cramming boys and girls with a number of subjects, but was not turning out men and women of practical use to the community as it should. For the compulsory teaching of domestic science to girls and one of the manual trades to boys, there is much to be said, and Mrs Cowan will do good work if she can impress her views on these points on Parliament. One may approve also of her opinion that all children should attend State schools, at least for part of their school life, "so that there might be social mingling." Incidentally one would like to have seen in Mrs Cowan's self-con-gratulations on her victory some mention of the part her opponent played in it. For by an irony of fate the At-torney-General whom she defeated was the Minister responsible for the measure, which he personally piloted through the Assembly, giving women the right to sit in Parliament. Gratitude is, of course, an unknown element in politics, otherwise Mrs Cowan might have sought another seat. Ohristchurch horticulturists who for the past vcar or two have suffered sorely from the ravages of earwigs should be consoled by the pronouncement of an English naturalist that these insects do much more good than harm, and destroy other more injurious insect plagues. For the most part, however, we fancy our amateur gardeners would prefer to chance tho possible damage that these victims of the earwig might do rather than put up with" tho very real injury that it does to their carnations and other flowerß. It would be interesting to know how the insects came here and why it is that recently they have developed into a plague, and still more interesting to know the best way of getting rid of them. In at least one suburb of Christchurch they have become a nuisance, not only in the gardens but in tho houses, and housewives, who have a womanly honor of them, would welcome such information. They haunt pantries, have, apparently, a special liking for the cool retreat afforded by a bath sponge, are found among bedclothes, and have been known to pay an unwelcome visit to a dinner table. They are quite so far as human beings are ' concerned, but their appearance is so much against them that were they as venomous as the katipo, or as obnoxious as the ordinary house-fly, they could not be more heartily disliked.