NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 754, 1 March 1910, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

An interesting little cable message printed to-day refers to an address which Mr. M'Nab has delivered in London under the auspices of the National Service League. There is little doubt that Me. M'Nab made good use of the action of our Parliament in' placing the principle on the Statute Book, and we do not doubt that. the fact that Australia and New Zealand have made military training obligatory on young men will not be without its effect upon British people. The cable message credits the late Minister for Lands with the statement that the success of the compulsory training movement is due to universal suffrage. This is surely a very odd and a very wrong guess at the reason for a development the true explanation of which is. not difficult to discover. The movement succeeded not only because it was well pushed at a time when even the most torpid New Zealander was quite unable to remain entirely oblivious to\ the necessity for a real defence system, but also because there were no great prejudices to be overcome. And this clear path before the movement was, as we pointed out months ago, the ono happy aspect of an otherwise regrettable state of affairs. Never having been encouraged to think about defence, that is to say, the public had been fr#e from inoculation with the virus of anti-defence prejudices. The success of the training movement owes no more to universal suffrage than to, say, the Native land laws or the Arbitration Act. The only opposition that the movement encountered, indeed, came from those who consider themselves the really advanced democrats. It is impossible to believe that anybody with clear political vision can fail to see that, if tho Navy crisis had not given a strong and decisive turn to'public opinion, the "democratic" opposition to compulsory training, guided by the Prime Minister, would have given the movement a strong set-back, and finally branded it as a "Tory" moye to be checkmated by "all true Liberals."

The item of news published this morning indicating that communication by wireless telegraphy between New Zealand and Australia has been established for the first time, is of general interest. The movement last year in the direction of linking the scattered parts of the Empire by wireless, and more especially the action taken in connection with the proposal to link Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands naturally has given this country a direct and active interest in .■any experiments of the nature described. Of course the actual distance over which the messages reported were transmitted, is nothing remarkable. In Marconi's Empiregirdling plan much greater distances were involved, but suitable land stations were to be provided in connection with these. The installations on: steamers, though very powerful in their way, have only provided for transmission of messages over a lim : ited radius. The great steamers, the Mauretania and Lusitania, for instance, have installations which cover a radiue of from 300 to 400 miles. When the Prince of Wales visited America in 1908 a special installation was fitted on the warship Indomitable and messages were exchanged between the Prince and the members of the Royal Family over distances up to 1600 miles. The cruiser was able to receive messages throughout the whole of the journey, but was not able to transmit them over a greater distance, than 1600 miles. This, at the i-.ime, was considered, a great achievement,' although it was claimed later that messages had been sent from ship to shore over a distance of 2000 miles. At the same time Marconi was building a land station with a transmitting radius of 6000 miles. The installation of wireless. telegraph stations iii the Pacific must prove of very great importance for purposes of trade and commerce, and it will also lead to greater safety in travelling as the larger passenger steamers are certain to be equipped with wireless installations. Unless we are mistaken the Union Steam Ship Company has already intimated that its inter-colonial steamers will in due course be so equipped.

Dβ. Newman's final' decision not to seek re-election to offioe of Mayor of Wellington leaves an open and, at present, an empty field. The names of Messrs. Wilford, Bolton, and J. J. Devihb have been mentioned as probable candidates and several other gentlemen arc known to have been approached and asked to come forward. In most of the latter cases definite refusals were given. Unless a really strong candidate offers his services there may be a fairly large number of nominees for the office At present there appears to ,be an inclination on the part of everyone to lie low and await developments.

The decision of the French Chamber of Deputies to_ increase the tax on motor-cars, which already produces about a quarter of a million sterling per annum, raises a very interesting economic question. There is no real disagreement between Free-traders and Protectionists as to the propriety of specially taxing "luxuries." Is a stiff motor-car tax, then, a legitimate tax as a "luxury" tax ? At first sight it might appear, since only people who are well off , can own motor-cars, and since motorcars are mainly used because they arc luxurious and pleasant enough to l>a worth paying for, that these ma chines arc as suitable as whisky or cigars for the attention of the tax-gatherer. But if one goes a little below the surface of things, it becomes apparent that motor-cars, whether they arc luxuries or not, are agents for the greater development of economy in transit, .and, therefore, of industrial economy generally. To regard them solely as luxuries, things to bo penalised, is to take the view of-tho hansom cabman and the stage-coach driver—the view of those who opposed the introduction of machinery.on the ground that it would throw, thousands of hand-workers out of employment, I'he application of a "luxury tax"

to motor-cars, if it were logical, would simply retard the development of transit improvements, and such a retardation would be as foolish and irrational as a retardation of the mechanical development that has bo hugely increased the well-be-ing, the wealth, of the world. It is very interesting to note how, in one form or another, most of the advances of science in industry encounter the same short-sightedness that once wrecked the cotton mills of Manchester and that still objects to labour-saving devices in coal mines.

We have from time to time referred to the prominence which the "black bread and horseflesh" of Germany played in tho British election campaign. The question figured again in the Address-in-Reply debato last week, when Mil. LloydGeorge sought to justify his speeches on the subject during the election campaign. A cable message printed yesterday reported the Spectator, the leading organ of Free-trade, as having sharply censured Mr. LloydGeorge's methods of defending the policy which they are united in supporting. "It is most offensive," said the Spectator, "that the second Minister of the British Cabinet should speak of the German people's food as Mr. Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, did on Thursday. There is nothing that poor men in all countries : resent more than having their food ridiculed." The following extract from a speech delivered on January U by the Chancellor at York, and reported in the English papers arrived last night, will indicate the kind of thing to which the Spectator objected:

Bnt why don't they eat; black bread, rye bread—it's very good, and horsefleshit's very sweet?—(Laughter.) They are preparing for Protection. Mr. Balfour saul tiie doctors say that indian corn and oats were just as good as wheat.— (Laughter.) Very well, let us put them on ii,dian corn.—(Cheers.) We will have a special trough—(laughter),—fit it up in tho House of Lords—(laughter),—and we will give them a really good feed.—(Lond laughter.) They will talk less about doctors saying there is just as much nitrogen in indian corn and oats as in wheat. hear.) No, he may depend upon it the people of this country are not going to. be taken in by that kind of nonsense. In Germany they have / been forovl to accept it, but they have never had Free-trade. Do you think if the Germans had had forty or fifty years of Freetradu, and white bread was as abundant in their households as black bread is today, that they would throw it over and return to the days of black bread and horseilesh? — ("No.") No; Protection mua 'S driving the people in Germany to offal and black broad. Horseflesh ie offal carrion, and that is what they are Tecoirmending as sweet for their sausages in this country. It is very remarkable that the statesman who thus ridicules and abuses Germany has been foremost in condemning the advocate of a large Navy as mischief-makers villainously eager to abuse, misrepresent, _ ridicule and insult an admirable friendly Power.