NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 August 1929, Page 8

NEWS AND NOTES.

THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS. • “If war comes in the future,” says the “Manchester Guardian,” “some nation or nations must have broken the pact. The pact is America’s contribution to the peace of the world. Does she intend to see it broken am herself do nothing but insist on hei rights as a ‘neutral’ to trade with the offender? On tne other hand, can Great Britain any longer pretend to have the power, even if she has the right, to determine who and upon what conditions shall sail the ocean? The old problem of'the freedom of the seas has become at least partial]} merged in the much larger question of whether and under what conditions war shall be permitted at all. It is to that point that Mr Hoover and Mr MacDonald will be logically driven jwlien once they set out upon the quesl ,of armament reduction. Let us hopt that common sense will prevail ovei .strict logic and that they will be able to make' substantial reductions in naval strength even if they are noi able to declare with absolute precision the purpose for which their navies exist.” •

BRITISH SETTLERS FOR CANADA

“We can well believe,” says the “Canadian Gazette,” “that when Mi Thomas applies his swift mind to the xiritish unemployment problem and when he has gone as far as he can go ,n the way of casement within these islands, he will turn his though'.s to the prospect of finding in Canada’s Far North-West a new outlet for surplus British energy. Major-General Mcßae has set out a scheme to place iaJO,OOO settlers in the Peace River area—in other words, a rural population of 1,5Q9,000. Wholesale clearing of land by Government ‘clearing units would, he' urged, prepare home.: for 2003 settlers a year, and a scheme which would involve 300,000,000 dollars expended over ten years could be so arranged as to be in the long run self-supporting. With all Canada’s increased business—as evidenced by trade returns and with a largely undeveloped country, capable of supporting comfortably at least a population of fifty millions, Canadians cannot be content with their nine milIbns of people-in whatsis in area an Empire in itself.”

# APPOINTING BISHOPS

“One argument against the p'resent system of appointing bishops is that it constitutes a ‘formidable barrier to any scheme of Christian Reunion.' Undoubtedly it does as a last stage in the process, but does any one who knows the whole facts of the present ‘impasse’ on Reunion believe that this is ‘the’ obstacle which blocks the way ? It" is not on a question of this class that the ‘tragedy of Lausanne’ was enacted. It is not on account of a defective method of appointing bishops that in lands-where such a method does not exist Reunion does not go forward. Let us be honest and see at once that a theory of the Episcopate, which would be Strengthened by changes that alone will meet the approval of those who are pressing hardest for change blocks the way. With this theory is bound up the question of the ‘validity’ of the ordination and Sa'cflaments of Non-Episcopal Cliurcxies. This is the real ‘barrier,’ and if that can be surmounted we have not the least doubt that the Church and National will find a way for appointing bishops that will be sound in principle and excellent in practice. The calculated to bring forth fruit procalculated to bring fort fruit proportional in value, to the disturbance they may > cause. They are a patch on a system that will not essentially oe altered by their enactment.”—“The Record.”

SHORT SKIRT CRITIC. A young soldier called at his fiancee’s house at Kingston-on-Thames. He found her wearing a black satin dress. He did not like the dress. He took out a safety-razor blade and cut it. Later he appeared at the local police court, but declined to give evidence on oath. -The Clerk: People don’t rip women’s clothes without giving some explanation. Was it a protest against fashion, or because the dress was immodest ? The soldier : It was too short and too tight. The girl, Miss Tvv Gadd, who is 19, said the dress was shorter than the clothes she usually

wore, but she did not consider it immodest. The soldier, Alfred Arthur Smith, aged 20, a private in the East Surrey Regiment, stationed at Kingston, was bound over and ordered to make good the damage done to Miss Gadd’s dress.

PIPER’S LAST LAMENT.

Pipe-Major G. S. McLennan, tho world-famous piper, recently died at Aberdeen. There was a pathetic scene at his bedside. Stating that he was “ slipping awa’,o Mr McLennan called on bis son to play a lament on ms pipes. Tho son did so, and the pipemajor then asked his boy to fill the bagpipes with wind and give it to him. With shaking hands he took the pipes with which he had made his name famous and fingered out the notes of a lament. Death was fast approaching, however, and the. notes became slower and slower, and died away as the pipemajor fell back on his pillow. A few minutes later he was dead. Pipe-Major McLennan, who was 45, was the descendant of a great family of pipers and started winning prizes when 10, and was little older when he played before Queen Victoria.

TO RECAPTURE THE ESSENTIALS

“In order that the personality and the character of our people may be maintained, it is vitally necessary to recognise the importance of not merely providing work in the first instance, but owing to its monotonous character, of so reducing the hours of work that there shall be leisure for the development of 1 creative power, and that there shall be a social environment that shall encourage them to use* this leisure. I. had the great good fortune to be born in the country—and to me the country seems to be the natural place for all young things to be born in. It seems to ihe so dreadful when a little baby’s first view of the world is some drab, sordid street, where they don’t even get a glimpse of the sky because of the smoke-laden atmosphere. ..lie in the country may be poor, but it gives memories to the child that nothing else can ever quite efface —they at least hear the singing of the birds, they at least see the flowers coming in the spring, they at least see the green grass grow—and if we can do anything to beautify our towns, it is well worth while. lam convinced of the •lower of beauty in our young life.”— Miss Margaret Bondfield, Minister of Labour in the British Labour-Socialist Government: THE PERSPECTIVE OF PRESS " ; I'- NEWS. “One great and essential difference separates the ideal newspaper from thei daily and weekly newspapers that we know. It is that an ordinary newspaper is not so much concerned with the importarlt as 1 with the exceptional whereas the ideal newspaper would endeavour to print what is interesting because it is important,” says “My Magazine.” In one sense nothing is more misleading than the contents of a daily paper. It is supposed to be a picture of life in all its aspects of human affair’s!l We have only to think for a moment, however to see that what a newspaper really does is for the most part to tell us of the old things, the accidents, the crimes, the extravagances, the absurdities, the sensations. Let us suppose Parliament is sitting and doing useful work for a whole week. That useful work hardly gets noticed in the papers. Yet if some members misbehaves, if he is rude to Mr Speaker, or says something offensive to another member, we at once have news of it at great length in the papers, with headings to match.