NOTES OF THE DAY
To-day, weather permitting, the first Test cricket match since tho war will bo opened at Sydney botweon the pick of Australia and the best of tho Motherland's players. The Englishmen have now played somo half-dozon matches 6iaco their arrival in the Commonwealth, and should be in something like their average form. If anything, on performances, the odds seem to bs slightly in their favour for the first of tho five Test matches, though there does not appear to be much to choose between the two teamg, and tho final destination of "the ashes" may not be known until the last of tho games is played. England appears to have at least five batsmen who aro capable of holding their own "with tho best of Australia, but the visitors' "tail" seems to ho decidedly weaker in batting strength than that of their opponents. So far as the bowling is concerned, that has yet to be thoroughly tried out under Test match conditions. On the whole, the Englishmen look to have an advantage in this rospect. Up to tho present Australian critics aro inclined to oredit their own men with being smarter in the field than the visitors, especially in the outfield, where a fast and accurato fiolder cuts off many boundary hits, and so materially ■assists to keep down tho opposing batsmen's tally of runs, Still, after weighing the pros and cons, a delightful degree of uncertainty exists amongst the supporters of the teams aa to what tho outcome of the Testa will is as it should be. May .the better team win.
Theoretically we are supposed to know the law, and ninny a. luckless defendant has found that ignorance of it make* a lame excuse in a. law court. In practice, the only people who know what the law really is are possibly the members of the Judicial Committeo of the Privy Council, whom there is no one left to I contradict. It is not often, howover, that . a Judge is heard complaining from the bench that he is in the dark about new i legislation. This happened yesterday in ' the Supreme Court, when Mr. Justice ■ Chapman stated that all he knew about the new Offenders Protection Aot was what ho had read in a Christchurch newspaper. Economy in the Government . Printing Office ig an excellent thing, for ivhich there has been ample scope, but. we hope it has not been carried to the length of depriving Supreme Court Judges of complimentary copies of new statutes passed 'by Parliament. At great expense copies of Hansard are circulated up and down, the land gratis, in order to noise abroad the views of members of Parliament as' to what the law ought to be. But as to what tho law actually is apparently not even Their Honours on the Bench receive free literature to inform them. If the Judges are in the dark the general public is still more benighted. For seme obscure reason the annual volume of statutes is one of the highestpiked Government publications.' Surely it should be tho cheapest and the most readily obtainable. • u * • If our age has a special characteristic it is eloppiness, Possibly the current 6loppy thinking, sloppy sentiment, and sloppy work represent a reaction from opposite defects of the last, generation, but. whatever their origin they are very much with us. Sloppy thinking; leads to the conclusion that a. Utopia can bo constructed by first demoralising the men who are to inhabit it with "go-slow" ideas. Sloppy sentiment inclines to the belief that discipline can be dispensed with in the rearing of children. At Wellington College prize-giving, Mr. Firth had some pertinent remarks to make on this subject. In a democratic community discipline—which is, indeed, the first essential in any 6ort of team-work—is our ; most imperative need. It is on our individual habits of application and perseverance, our willingness to sacrifice our personal inclinations for the general goqd, that the charactcr'of the civilisation;wo ' shall build up depends. Tie character, ] the mental attitude of tho pcoplo, is tho < backbone of (he whole undertaking. Those ! who would debase it are the enemies of : the community. A population filled with a spirit of mutinous loafing and inspired , with feelings of hatred, as our extremists would have it, will not look any the ; prettier even if placed in some newfangled constitutional framework. \ • «»*,. I Although the authority of tho League ' of Nations may continue an uncertain , quantity, there has been a tendency to , make its bureaux and department* a far (oo marked reality. A bureaucracy once j established can only be dislodged with i extreme difficulty. However purposeless ' his work may be, each official appointed ' clings tenaciously to his post and magnifies his importance, and all scenting their ' own fato in the dismissal of one, com- s bine with such outside petticoat influence I as they can muster toimpross on Ministers c and politicians that each single officer / is indispensable and over-loaded with c work. Britain built temporary offices in its parks and hired great hotels by the { dozen, which it filled with tens of thou- 1 sands of clerks and officials during tho I war, and although peace was signed quite \ a considerable time ago, a substantial s portion of the huge staffs remain in many c casee still busy winning the war. Tho "j League of Nations administration has „ been bitten with tho craze for colossal ) staffs. Its publicity department, judging ] by, its productions posted to overseas ~ newspaper offices, is both amateurish an.d extravagant, If Senator Millen'e efforts | have reduced the orgy of waste he will I deserve tho thanks of all nations. Par- vi liamonts at the "best of time have littlo *' real control over permanent officials, and ~ a Parliament which speaks all the lan- I guages of the earth'and cannot under- fi stand itself is scarcely likely to produce " a highly efficient" administrative service without heroic work on somebody's part, j
Tragedies mioh as that which overtook one of the London-Paris aeroplanes on Tuesday are of a somewhat appalling character, and may tend in 6omo degreo to retard the progress of oivil aviation. There seonis to be ovary prospect, howovor, that aerial travel will bear comparison, from the standpoint of safety, with most of the other forms of rapid transport. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu dedared recently that air accidouts are being reduced to a point at which it will be safer to fly from London to Paris than to oroas a busy London strwt, and this opinion does not seem extravagant in light of the figuros that are available. Writing recently in tho London "Observer," Major C. C. Turner noted that on British railways—the safest in tho world—for every person Ulled 607,180 miles am ran, ana in nttj poMa. In-
jured 127,000 miles. These figures relate to the post-war period. In tho first few months of British civil aviation, for every person killed 115,320 miles were flown, and for every person injured 32,940 milos. The railway figures include all engine mileage, or without trucks or coaches. A comparison between rail, way and air travel on the basis of the number of persons transported would, of course, give a. wider contrast, but at this stage, as Major Turner remarks, such a comparison would hardly bo fair to tho aeroplane. Ho considers also that if complete statistics relating to tho early years of rail-way travelling were available, tho aeroplane of to-day probably would come out fairly well in comparison. Aviation risks are being cut down, not morely by the march of mechanical improvement, but by carefully systomalised safeguards. Lloyd's have already established an international scheme of aviation insurance, and it is anticipated that before long standards of efficiency will be instituted, just as in the ease of shipping, and enforced in the same way by means of insurance rates. At present tho rates of insurance are high. According to tho writer just quoted, with many aircraft the cost of insurance may equal per jour, ncy ten times tho cost of fuel find oil and four times the wages of tho cnew, A* much as fifty per cent, of the value of a machine has been- paid in insurance on a single flight from England to the Continent. It is expected, however, that in the case of machines of a high standard of efficiency rates will bo lowered as the system of insurance is regularised. Methodical progress on these lines, of course, will make in an important degree for the safety of aerial travel.
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Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 71, 17 December 1920, Page 6
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1,419NOTES OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 71, 17 December 1920, Page 6
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