NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 134, 2 March 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

A considerable time has passed since it was first made known that a report on the forests of New Zealand, prepared by Sni David Hutchins, was to be published by the Government, but the report has yet to make its appearance. No doubt the delay is clue to the heavy pressure of work at the Government Printing Office, but the publication of this particular report ought to ho regarded as a matter of urgency and accomplished at the earliest possible moment. In view of the standing and reputation of its' author, there is no doubt that it will throw a great deal of light on the problems of forest conservation and development which are at _ last to roceivo systematic attention and treatment in this country. The Government 1 has shown some enterprise where forestry is concerned, not only in retaining Sir David Hutchins to examine and report upon the forests of the Dominion, but in organising a Forest Department. The first Director of Forestry, Captain Ellis, is clue to arrive within a few days. The Government ought to recognise that it will take the best means of facilitating the work of new Department, and possibly of silencing opposition to measures the need of which is at present not understood or is imperfectly realised, by giving early publicity to the authoritative .statement of the existing position and the possibilities it holds which is to be expected from a forester as distinguished in his profession as Sir David Hutchins.

If the present shortage of benzine' is likely to be of long duration, the Government will be well advised to more strictly control its distribution. After reading in Saturday's papers that dairymen arc having to revert to hand-milking because they cannot obtain benzine to work their milking-machines, it was ludicrous on Sunday to observe the Hutt "Road swarming with motorists burning petrol purely for pleasure. It should not require a Herculean effort on the part of the authorities to rectify such a position and ensure that the needs of essential industries, are made the. first claim on whatever stocks of benzine arc in the country.

With the censorship at ;m end, Mn. Philip Clibbs, ,thc brilliant war correspondent, wo are # told this morning, contributes his quota to tho post-war washing of dirty linen. Punch recently depicted John Bull, after a perusal of _ this literature, coining' to the conclusion that he had done, every single thing wrong except lose the war. Mn. Girais declaves, in effect, that tho British High Command, recruited exclu-

sivoly from the ranks of the Regular Army—and, incidentally, as other writers have pointed out, largely from the cavalry—plunged from one ghastly disaster into another, learning little from repeated mistakes. Mr. Sprsser Wilkinson, a very competent military critic, recently laid emphasis on this tragic mistake of refusing scope to the''brains and ability of Britain's civilian army. The National Army, he stated, fought under the cold shade of a militarist caste which stuck to incapable generals through defeat after defeat—or, in the biting verso of Captain Bassoon: "Good morning, good morning!" tho General si id, When we met him last week on our way to the line: "lie's a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack, As they slogged up to Arras with, rifle and pack. But ho did for them both by his plan of attack'.

Thf,re was a day when the British Cabinet was facetiously referred to as the "Hotel Cecil." But tho Cecil family, though still ably represented by Mr. Balfour at the Foreign Office, has been eclipsed as a political institution by the Geddes invasion. With one brother as Minister in charge of all forms of transport in Britain, another as British Ambassador at Washington, and a cousin,' Professor Sir , Patrick Geddes, supervising the building of the New Jerusalem, these hardy invaders cannot complain of lack of occupation. A sister, 1 Mrs. Chalmers Watson, M.D., was the first Controller of the Women's _ Auxiliary Army Corps—otherwise the .W.A.A.C.'s—but retired to superintend the rearing of her family. The very efficient Geddes family has long been known in Scotland for the pushing ways of its sons, and the father .of the present constellation of celebrities was himself a canny Scots engineer, who accumulated a fortune as a railway magnate in, India. Sir Auckland Gfodes, the new Ambassador, is familiar by residence'in Canada with tho American point of view. Like President Wilson, he is bv calling a university professor. _ so these two schoolmasters in politics should be able to appreciate each other's point of view. The trouble in America just now seems to be that th" Senate, resents being scboolmastered. An<J the schoolmaster has no strap.