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Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1923, Page 2

Tiif. announcement that Mr J. G. Contes is to bo Minister of Railways will be hailed generally with satisfaction. Tills is regarded as the second most important portfolio in the Government, and the preferment is well deserved, and Mr Contes is to be congratulated accordingly. His appointment. renders very feasible the idea of making the co-ordination of the Public Works and Railways Departments a possible means for important economic advantages. The subject is sure to tome up now for serious consideration, and if the reform can bo brought into effect of passing oil to the Railway Department the task of constructing its own lines, a very important advance will be made for the future benefit, of the country, 'there is a great opportunity opening for Mr Coates, who already has done well in reorganising the Public Works Department. There is certainly a wider field for action in regard to Railways, and if lie becomes in fact, and not in name only, Minister of Railways, the country will have occasion to remember the services he will be able to perfonn with grateful gratitude for duty well and faithfullv done.

A noutukkx newspaper referring to the expensive forestry policy of this country remarks, “our forest capital must be made the mest of and squandering must bo stopped.” We agree. 1 1 is because the forest capital is being wasted by an excessively staffed and consequently costly Department “living” on the forest capital ol the country, that we pretest so much. The forest wealth is being .squandered by n Department which is bent upon maintaining its own elevated status at all costs to the country. “The forest capital” is being exploited by royalties being increased and the money taken from the intopayers and used to “run” this costly Department. The extra money taken fr<jm the people in two ways, first, by filching local revenue, and second, by increasing the cost of the commodity they require to use, is an unnecessary impost -became ot the lavish scale on which this new tangled Department is being conducted—just to please tho whim of those who are charged with the practice of theories, while the public are made to suffer. “The Department is already self-supporting,” wo aie told. Yes, at tho expense of a long-suffering public who are slow to assert themselves, but who are at last showing signs of waking up to the situation which threatens the chief industry of the Coast.

Althoi’oh war may bring profit and well-being to individuals, it is assuredly too worst evil that, can hoi all a nation. Such is the burden of an interesting review written on war and its causes and cure, by an English authority. Not only does a country suffer while battles are raging, but the aftereffects of the conflict are felt for many years. In this well-written volume the author goes deeply into tho cause of wars, which, in his opinion, ate brought about not by the passions of ordinary men, but by the playing upon them by particular men. The “process” is described as follows: —“A mass of men, passionate, and whose passions find imperfect vent in the ordinary occupation of civil lilo; armed forces waiting to be used; statesmen and journalists with policies; policies involving war; then the drop of the spark, the crisis, the declaration of war and, simultaneously, the leap ol these passions of men into the new vent opened to them.” The diplomacy which led up to the late war is referred to in general terms, and it is shown how far the causes above mentioned were responsible. Dealing with the ‘'cure” for war, Mr Dickinson, tho author, states that the machinery required to save mankind is that of a League of Nations, including all States, and having real power to determine all issues between its members. “Any movement, not revolutionary, that proposes to do good, must start with the condition of Europe and of the world. What it must aim at is clear enough to all thinking men, though not, for that reason, easy to achieve. The Geiman indemnity must be fixed, and fixed at. a possible sum; and a moratorium must be granted. The foreign troops, which are eating up tho greater part of what Germany has hitherto contributed, must be dithdrawn from her territoy. Germany must be admitted to the League of Nations. The Russian Government must be recognised, and that country, too, if it will, be admitted to the League. The Supreme Council of the Allies must cease to exist and the laraguo become the. sole channel for the conduct of international affairs.”