NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 67, 13 December 1918, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Some of the Napier local bodies are indignantly protesting against an alleged abandonment of the Lake Waikaremoana hydro-electric scheme in favour of other sources of power to supply Wellington and Auckland. Apparently these protests are based upon a statement made by the Minister of Public Works when he laid Mr. Evan Parry's report on hydroelectrical development before the House of Representatives. On that occasion Sir William Fraser observed that it had been understood when the Government undertook the Lake Coleridge scheme in Canterbury that in the event of the experiment being a success the next move would bo to_ supply Wellington and Auckland with hydro-electric power. Nothing that the Minister had to say suggests that there is- any idea of unduly subordinating the Waikaremoana scheme, and no such suggestion is to be drawn from the Chief Electrical Engineer's report. • The point was clearly emphasised, however, that if the hydro-electric development was to answer expectations it must be carried out as a great business undertaking, managed on business lines. It would bo a great pity if local jealousies wero allowed to interfere with the application of these sound principles. Mr. Parry, the Minister of Public Works told the House of Representatives, was strongly of opinion that the huge hydro-electric scheme should be managed by a board. This undoubtedly is the right course to adopt. It would ha<vo been a good thing for this country if the system of management by a non-political board had been applied long ago to the construction of public works generally. Had this form of control been established wo should' have to-day more completed and profitpaying railways and fewer unrcmunerative fragments, and benefits would appear in other directions as well. The evil system of allowing national enterprise and expenditure to be governed with a view less to results_ of general bonefit than to the exigencies of vote-winning has been fully tried out in this country, and the results are deplorable. It would be the height of folly t§ similarly lhamper the water-power development scheme, _ which in itself holds such promising possibilities. Tho dominant aims should be to satisfy the greatest and most urgent demand and secure the quickest and best return on outlay. These ends will best be secured if the Government and Parliament are content to float the scheme in broad outlino and leave it to experts to determine the order in which works shall be carried out and the method of their operation.

According to one of yesterday's messages the 'Government; of Hungary finds itself unable to prevent the division of that territory into small republics. It is added that as an outcome of this failure the head of the Provisional Government, Count Karoia'i, attempted to commit suicide. This is not disturbing news, for it probably means only that the Slovaks of Northern Hungary and the Rumanians of Transylvania are determined to join hands with their neighbouring kinsmen. Karolyi's attempt to maintain the integrity of Hungary was suspect from the outset, and aimed at an impossibility. The Magyar record of tyranny over Slav and Latin races living under its rule is at least .as black as that of the Germans and GermaniAustrians. What Karolylj who was at most in friendly opposition to the late Hungarian autocracy, set himself to do was to promote voluntary union between the Magyars and those over whom they had ruled by brutal terrorism. _ The only solution of the Hungarian problem worth considering is a union of the Slovaks with their Czech kinsmen in free Bohemia, and of the Rumanians of Transylvania with those of Rumania. There are detail obstacles in tho complex admixture of races, but it is no doubt in this direction that affairs are shaping.

Any stick is good enough to beat the National Government with these days, and it is not surprising therefore to find a city candidate charging Ministers with sacrificing city people for the benefit of the country districts. It is a cheap and ca-sy way for the yote-sccker to win a little popularity amongst people smarting under the higli cost of living. But no good has ever come from raising the feud of town v-. country, and least of all is it likely to benefit those who reside in the cities of a country which, like New Zealand, is dependent almost entirely on the primary producers for its prosperity. It only requires a ■moment's reflection to realise that t

hard as the pinch may be to the average householder as the result of the high prices ruling here and in the markets of the world, but for these prices 'New Zealand to-day would be under a cloud of financial depression which would bring with it incomparably heavier hardships than we have been called on to bear. But for the enormous sums realised from the high prices ruling for our produce in the markets of. the world we could never have carried with comparative ease the tremendous burden of our war expenditure, we should have had slackness in our houses of business, retrenchment, unemployment, and widespread distress to an extent which would make existing conditions- appear in the light of something to be envied. The National Government has its shortcomings, and' whatever its achievements may have been—and they are far greater than it is given credit for—it could not in the circumstances under which it has con- , ducted the affairs of the Dominion hope to escape a measure of unpopularity. But the town v. country cry is not going to hurt the Government-;it is more likely to create dissension on lines which will do injury to the whole country.

According to a French correspondent with the' British Army of occupation, the inhabitants of llhenish Prussia everywhere aro "obsequiously welcoming the Allied troops and attempting to conciliate the victors with all sorts of civilities. Little Huns shout "Hurrah!" and the little girls make most elegant curtsies. The German windows are decorated with Tricolour cockades, and the orchestras play French airs." Imagine the Alsatians behaving like this after 1870! The correspondent is sure that all this is "camouflage" inspired ;in higher quarters. To the British mind it is rather the cringing, fawning servility of the beaten bully. * * 4J '* The French journal Je Snis Tout, which, being roughly interpreted, means "I know something" "I know all"), states that a group of French legislators have set about the task of organising the touring possibilities of France. Their plans include the preservation of the battlefields of the great war, the ruined cities, the devastated forests, and the famous trench lines, so that they may stand as mute testimony to the world of what France—and the civilised world—has endured in v the vindication of right against rapacious might. Whether Je Sais Tout knows as much as its title implies, the idea is a good one. On the Western front, although the great conflict which has just ended was waged_ on a scale or unprecedented intensity, the actual area which might be said to have been absolutely ruined by the war was confined to that narrow belt running from a point, on the Flanders coast to Alsace, which students- of war maps have long been familiar. A great part of this belt to which no historic interest attaches will of course become merged into the peaceful landscape in the process of reconstruction, But such famous sectors as the ruin's of Verdun, tho battlefields of Champagne, Artois, and the Sonime, with their 1 shelltorn ground, blasted villages, mine craters, the long trench lines, and communications, could well be preserved as reminders to future generations of their debt to the mighty dead of the great world/Avar.