NOTES OP THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1701, 18 March 1913, Page 4

NOTES OP THE DAY.

In one of tho London dailies of February 7 there are briefly reported some observations by the Hon. J. Allen and Sir J. G. Ward at a Navy League luncheon." Sir Joseph Ward had on the preceding day said that "practically every man and woman voter in New Zealand believed that if that Dominion was to be preserved to the Empire its internal military defence must be maintained on a system of universal military training." At the luncheon he said that "in New Zealand the important question of defence was not put on a party plane"; and Mr. Allen in his turn said that "politics did not enter into the question of national defence." We shall be interested,to know what Sir Joseph Ward will say of the violent attempt, on the part of some of thoso papers which .think they are preparing for his leadership of a party to unite with Mr. _ Skmple's party, to make party capital by inventing tho most amazing untruths about Mr. Jas. Allen's welcome exposition in London of the spirit and purpose of national defence. There is nothing these people will baulk at. The antiReform organ in 'Christchurch has made that clear in its issue of Saturday. Faced with the fact that Mr. Allen, in his London reference,') to the expeditionary force which will one day be available here for Imperial service, merely repeated what he said at a public banquet in Wellington last December, the Christchurch paper actually assured its

readers that on that occasion Me. Allen "did not mention the 8000 men who have been figuring in his London speeches." We need not quote once more the reports in the local press which showed that Mk. Allen expressly referred to the 8000 or 10,000 men that might make up the expeditionary force. The Christchurch paper, despite the fact that Mr. Allen did mention the 8000 men, now deliberately says, that Mr. Allen did not, and it adds, "the truth must be told." And this, we assume, is the anti-Reform idea of "truth."

The Wellington Zoological Socicty and its enthusiastic president (the Rev. J. Chewes), members of the City Council, and other workers, deserve the best thanks of the community, young and ol.d, for their efforts to make the Zoo at Newtown Park one of the principal pleasure resorts of the city. The collection is already sufficiently large and varied to enable a visitor to, spend a thoroughly enjoyable morning or afternoon in inspecting the animals and their ways. For the young people a visit to the Zoo is as instructive as it is delightful, and if older people are less exuberant in their expressions of pleasure, it certainly not because they are less interested. The. recent birth of the two lion cubs has been a muchdiscussed event, and has done a great deal to direct attention to' the Zoo. The next addition to the collection is to be a young tiger, for the purchase of which a fund has just been opened. No Zoo worthy of thename can be regarded as complete without a tiger, and the people of Wellington, especially those who know the enjoyment of an occasional visit to Newtown Park, can be confidently trusted to Bee that the money required for this purpose is promptly forthcoming.

Although Mr. W. J. Bryan, the so-often-defeated aspirant to the American Presidency, has stated that Home Rule is certain within two years, it is very uncertain that tho Home Rule Bill will become law. That is not to say that an honourable settlement, which will appeal to all rational men in Ireland and Great Britain, is impossible. The other day, it will be remembered, a cable message reported a notable resolution carried by the All-for-Ire-land League, at the instance of such patriotic Nationalists as Mr. William O'Brien and Mr. Tim Healy, in favour of a round-table conference. It is not unduly risky to prophesy that settlement may come that way. But it cannot come so long as any weight attaches to such a statement as this by, the Nationalist paper Irish Freedom, of February 5, quoted by the London Morning Post, of February 6:

The Irish Parliament, when it comes to birth, will be a curious hybrid thing— a cross between n. Legislature and a parish council. This anomaly the Irish Parliamentary party hag definitely acoepted us a final settlement, and its leader hag pledged his word to England tliat the Irish will henceforth be becomingly loyal and humble and contented, and that lie himself 'will oppose in tho future any ebullitions of disloyalty that his misguided countrymen may givovent to. In future, if Mr. John Redmond is the true spokesman of the Irish people, our loyalty will not bo to Ireland,'but ito" the English Empire; our allegiance will not bo to Cathleen Houlihan, .but to George V; our aim will not bo to recreate and continue' the civilisation—the broken national life—of ! Ireland, but to bolster up the pirate Empire of: England. In return for this change of front on tho part of our nation—in ..refhtrn for the Irish leopard having changed his spots and having become the ordent, advocate of .that which, of all things on this earth, he always the most ardently abominated— we "are to get, not an end of English government, but a change in the English government of Ireland. Remember that Ireland's demand has been for complete and separato nationhood for centuries past; that is her demand now, : and that will be her demand until separate and independent nationhood is achieved. There is going ito be no national "volte face," whatever 'Mr, Redmond may promise. Ireland will stand not for an Empire, but for her own' national development, and most certainly she will'never stand for the English Empire.

Several of the Irish leaders have in tho past used bitterer language, language more definitely separatist and anti-British in tendency, than even that. It is the spirit of the passage ,we have quoted which has stood, and which apparently still stands, in the way of an honourable settlement of the Irish problem.