NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1552, 23 September 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Judging by. tho cablegram from London, which we publish this morning, some- very exaggerated and distorted statements concerning the new defence system are being published by certain English journals. It may be a little surprising to find a pnpeV of such standing as the Manchester Guardian 'lending itself to the circulation- of such misleading and obviously biased stories; but the reason may be found in the antagonism of a section of the English press to the moveincnt iu favour of eomtutl-

sory training. The so-called Peace Society has been fighting vigorously against the contentions of Lord .Roberts and others who have endeavoured to arouse the public to a, recognition of the necessity of strengthening Britain's land defences; and Australia and New Zealand have been used for their purpose. Every prosecution under, and every point of criticism of, the new defence scheme, is sent Home by the local anti-Militarists, usually embellished with comments which may represent the views of the anti-Mii-itarists themselves, but which are in many cases a gross distortion of public feeling on the subject. The mattor is _ one in which the new High Commissioner might with advantage make known to the British public the true state of things here. He should be in a position to do so effectively. Perhaps on his arrival the Government will deem it advisable to communicate with him on the subject.

The Oamaru Mail, which is said 0 be owned by that distinguished •rnamcnfc of the Upper House, the Jon. G. Jones, unwittingly paid Piie Dominion a high compliment a lay or two ago.' Like a good many ither.of the remnants of the decadent 'Liberal" party Mil. Jones, who in Parliament is a very amiable- and ometimes amusing gentleman, has 1 quite strong sense of resentment tgainst this paper, which we sus)ect sometimes finds expression hroiigh the columns of his own modst sheet. Last week'it had, for it, i really ferocious leading article ailing The Dominion all sorts of iarsh names for republishing in its olumns the article and facsimile clegrarm block from the West Coast imes relating to the electioneering lodge exposed by our Hokitika conemporary, The- writer in the Mail i'as evidently' labouring under the [elusion that the exposure was pubished wijjh the idea of influencing ho contest for the Egmont seat, and ie proceeded as follows: "Mr.- Sed)ON did tho best he could with the wo days left him and sent the true .ccount to some of the local papers if the district of Egmont, flooded nth a vast,issue of The Dominion ontaining tho falsehood long exlosed." It is to,be noted that Mr. ones's paper states that the district' >f Egmont was "flooded with a vast ssuo of The Dominion" containing he article' in question. It would 'c ungracious not to acknowledge ueh a tribute to the vast circulaion of this journal from a paper utterly hostile to it, insignificant hough that paper may be. But periaps our Oamaru contemporary, taggered by the size of ourcirciiation, imagines that a special issiie r a special edition of the particular ssuo it refers to was sent to the Egnont electorate ! Should this be the use it is just as well that we should xplain that not a single extra copy ras sent into the electorate during he election campaign beyond the upply ordered by agents in the orlinary way. The "vast issue" which he Mail states "flooded" the Egnont electorate was our ordinary ivory-day issue. By the way, is it iot possible that Mr. Sediion's version of the "true account" of the IVestland telegram incident sent to the "local papers" at Egmont as recorded by the 'Mail, did the trick for the Reform candidate 1 It was really a very lame version when read in conjunction with the report of the official Departmental inquiry.

The member for Hutt had the most dismal, unsticcess on Friday with his first really serious attempt to play the political piano. With the object of affirming the freehold principle he moved' tho reduction of a vote on the Estimates by £i, but to his dismay the freehold party enthusiastically said "No." What did Mr. Wilford expect them to Ido ? We are very glad indeed that ho is a firm freeholder, but it was asking too much of the freeholders in the House, who have already affirmed the freehold principle, to dance when Mn. Wilford sets the tuno. , The public will wonder what could have been tho purpose of the member for Hutt. Nobody will bu able to' mistake the attitude of the Government members, however • least of all Mr. Wilford. But what were Mb. Wilfokd's old associates doing? What a chance for them to snuto the deserter from their ranks by forcing a division. It would seem that the member for Hntt will have to plough a lonely furrow in his role as. an Independent—that is unless he is of that brand of Independence to which Mb. IsitT belongs. The Independents should make a happy and' united little party i Mr. Myers-Mr. WilfordMr. Ism. How well they would harmonise.