The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, January 16, 1912, NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1094, 16 January 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, January 16, 1912, NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Much indignation is being expressed by certain railway passengers, at the enlorcement by the Department of the age limit regarding infants. The opinion is freely expressed that the age limit at which infants are allowed to travel free on the railways should be raised from two-aud-a half years to seven years. We have previously referred to the hardships imposed on struggling parents who desire to pay an annual visit to relatives, accompanied by their children, and we are of opinion that the concession should be made. We have brought the matter under the notice of Mr.

Newman, M.P., and we feel sure he will use his best endeavours to

have the age limit raised

One of the regulations dealing with the carrying of passengers luggage on the New Zealand Railways, reads as follows: “No luggage will be allowed to be taken into carriages unless it can be placed under the seat or on racks without inconvenience to other passengers. Neither shall any person take into or carry in a railway-carriage any luggage which the railway officers deem to be inconvenient or objectionable.’’ Now this is a very good rule, but unfortunately at the present time it is not being enforced as strictly as it should be. Travelling recently by the New Plymouth—Wellington mail we noticed that passengers brought luggage into the carriages, which, if the regulations were strictly enforced, would have to be put into the van, as it was too bulky to go under the seats or on the racks, and was the cause of considerable inconvenience to other passengers through -being placed on the seats and in the passage ways. Two passengers in a first-class carriage had two seats opposite the ones they were occupying, piled up with portmanteaux and other packages as well as taking up their fair share of the racks with coats, etc. The train at the time was fairly full and as it got nearer to Wellington other passengers got on board, and these, although holding first-class tickets, had to travel second, whilst other first-class passengers were using seats for their luggage. Passengers have the right to call the guard’s attention to such monopoly and it is his duty to see that the luggage is removed, but a number of people will not do this, preferring to inconvenience themselves rather than make any bother. This matter could well be attended to by the iusuectors, who are at present employed to check tickets. It is somewhat inconsistent on the part of officials to pass over such breaches on the part of first-class passengers and come down on the unfortunate second-class mother with a couple of olive branches between three and five years of age who haven’t got tickets !

We are in receipt of the annual report of the Wellington Branch of the Navy league. The Teague, with its branches throughout the Empire, is doing good work by stimulating and creating interest in the navy, and ever urging Britain’s supremacy in this connection as of vital importance to integrity of the the Empire. The report truly points out that the great privileges which we enjoy and the comfortable safety in which we live are, uow-a-days, taken too much as a matter .of course. There is a tendency to forget the cost in lives and money at which these privileges have been won, and the only conditions upon which they can be conserved. The self-denial of our forefathers may be guaged by the fact that nearly a hundred years ago (in rSi4) the amount spent upon naval defence (,£lB,000,000) represented about 20 per cent, of our then seaborne commerce This percentage (or, in other words, the national insurance of our trade) is now but 2% per cent., and yet we find numbers of our own people agitating in favour of reductions in the British naval expenditure ! We cannot close our eyes to the great advance which Germany has made during the past seven years. Germany has exceeded British gains in population, exports and imports, railway earnings, iron production, coal consumption, savings deposits, and manufactured exports. Within a quarter of a century, German shipping has increased sevenfold. Her expenditure on warship construction, which in 1896 was less than onesixth that of Britain, is now almost on a level with ours. Since 1904 Germany’s naval personnel has been increased by 19,245, as against an increase of only 510 in the British Navy. Germany, so far from slackening her efforts in response to the slower pace set by r Great Britain, has been steadily accelerating her shipbuilding progiamme, and has entirely ignored all pacific overtures that have been made bv peace-loving Britons. She openly boasts that the 20th century is for Germany. These facts provide food for thought. The annihilation of our oversea trade and the practical ending of our existence as a nation must, as a matter of course, follow the loss of British naval supremacy. The latter could, in the near future, readily eventuate as a result of public ignorance and apathy in regard to the naval requirements of the nation. The situation is one that cannot be viewed with equanimity, and as time goes on there is more and more need for an alert and active Navy Teague to carry out its educative policy, to voice public opinion, and impress upon our statesmen the unflinching determination of the Nation to retain the unchallengeable mastery of the seas.