The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1909.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 51

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1909.) THE WEEK.

" Nunquam aliu4 naiura, ahud sapientia dixit." — Juvbitai.. • " Good nature and good sense must ever jo.n."— Pops. Little by little the rchemo adopted by the Navnl Conference, at first The Defence of nebulous in character, is the Kntplrr. beginning to assume definite e!:;ipe. And although the auuoimcement made Ja&t week Ly Mr Asqiiitb in the House of Commons leaves a good uvtnv details .'till to be filled in, yet in rough outline the plan may be distinctly discerned. The most significant feature of th-3 Conference decision consists in the foresh.i doling of an evolution from tie British Navy to an Imperial i\avy, which in its turn is the inevitable out- 1 come of the evolution of Great Britain into Greater Britain. And it is not diffi- j <ult to discover ir this progression the I promi.-e of greater thing? in regard to the con <-t ruction and representation of the Impel ial Government of the near future. In respect of naval defence, it is evident that, thanks to the stand taken by Sir Jo.-ej>h Ward, the position of New Zealand will differentiate coa-ideiably from that ot Au't.r:.!ia and Canada. Those two Dominion*- have contended successfully for tlie creation of separate navies, with, in the cafe of Australia, a dockyard at Sydney, and in the case of Canada dock- \ ar<L> at Halifax and Ksquimalt. Apart from the maintenance of a certain standard of vessels, the Dominions art to a>fume the dhection of their own fleets, which will practically police the Pacific, besidcfc, in the case of Canada, keeping an eye on the Atlantic. The Times welcomes the projected arrangements, which, it declares, " be.-ides being suitable, prohent conditions that are capable of logical and systematic^ expansion in accoid.mee -with the. ideal of free co-opera-tion between kindred nations owing allegiance to one Crown." It may be questioned whether, in comparison with Australia, Sir Joseph Ward has aecom-plh-hed much for New Zealand by the strenuous stand he has taken. Great Britain will contribute annually a quarter of a million of money towards the upkeep of the Australian unit of the Pacific fleet, the constructional cost of which is estimated by Mr Deakin at something like three millions. But Sir Joseph Ward, in. preference to New Zealand combining with ! Australia for the creation of an Australasian navy, has saddled the tax-payers with an annual charge of £150,000 for interest and sinking fund on. the loan

needed for the building of tlie promisea Dreadnought, and tKis in addition to the existing subsidy of £100.000 annually; or a total charge for naval defence of a quarter of a million per annum. And this money, is to be apnlied to tlie maintenance of tha China unit, some of the smaller vessels of which are to have New Zealand for their headquarters. The Dreadnought, which has now dwindled down to an armoured cruiser of the Indomitable type, is ..to be stationed in Chin* waters. On the face of it, and subject of course to whatever further disclosures may be made, it- does not appear as if Sir Joseph Ward has by his attendance at the Naval Con- " ference gained a great deal for the Dominion which he was deputed to represent. In view of the serious dislocation to the busin-e©'' of the country which his absence has entailed, it may be pertinent) to inquire whether the game has been worth the candle. Naturally enough, Mr Massey has striven to make political capital out Mr Xassey and of the announced result of Mr Koul««. the Navel Conference. He . ' hazards the opinion — and not without show of reason — that if the idea had been originally mooted, insteadof the Dreadnought, of an armoured . cruiser to be ■ stationed in China waters, public enthusiasm would *ot bave been so great. And he aleo inclines to the opinion —an opinion which we venture to s-ha-re — that a far better arrangement might have been arrived at had Sir Joseph Ward consented to allow New Zealand in the matter of naval defence to work in concert with Australia. Indeed, Mr Massey hopes — and) | the hope coming from such a quarter is not without its significance — that something may yet be done in this direction. With a view of defending the absent Premier. Mr Fowlds lias been rash enough to rush into the breach. And the gist of Mr Fowlds'e defence is practicaJly to t charge the Leader of the Opposition with disloyalty in the exhibit : on of pro-German sympathies. As well' might the same charge be laid at the door of Mr Fisher, the Leader of the Opposition in the Federal Government, on account of the criticism of the naval agreement which he [ has seen fit to make. Unfortunately, sad* experience proves that defences of this kind are made with a view of covering | fatal weaknesses. During the past four ; or five years, how often have Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues denounced those Opposition critics who dared to declare ! that New Zealand was financially drifting;. j upon the rocks. Mr AT- Mr Massey, ! Mr Duthie, and others \v^*-e accused of the grossest disloyalty because they. pointed out ' flaws in .he finances whiebj have since been, abundantly demonetrated. t And now Mr Fowlds has foolishly indicated that the same ground is to ba taken up in regard' to Opposition attacks upon the naval agreement. Happily tha people are having their eyes opened to the dipiwreiHiousness of such tactics, and!' if upon Sir Joseph Ward's return he- i 3 not able to give more satisfactory reasons than have up to the present been made public as to his conduct in taking am independent course in om>o-"»ition to the naval experts of the Empire, then he will only have himself to blame should' Parliament decline to ratify the agreement unless modified in certain important dptails.

Only last week another lamentable instance was recorded of that Tlip »(rr« racial conflict which for so - In America. j on? \IA9\ IA9 stained the records of the American nation. The too hurried enfranchisement of th? negro — a punishment inflicted upon tho Southern States for their armed opposition to the abolition movement — has engendered an embittered racial prejudice which every now and then finds vent in j negro lynching and other ba.rbarous reprisals. The problem of legislating for ten million negroes, who in many of the Southerr States form fully one" half of the whole community, 19 doubtless a perplexing one Deep-rooted prejudice, inJ flamed by vil& whisky and other drugs, brings out all the barbarity of which even, civilised human nature is capable. For ■ barbarities are by no mean* confined toMorocco and other countries far from! civilisation. As one modern writer hai forcefully put it: "Civilisation has not re-created any of us ; it has clothed us only, and deftly coloured iw. Beneath tho colour and clothing is nothing but the old primeval nature, unchanged and unchangeable. Every now and then, unfortunately, someDody's paint will crack and peel, then tlie innate savage witfiin him breaks out again and reasserts iteelf, and we, who&e paint Temains intact, are horrified by diabolical spectacles of cruelty and crime. . . . Some responsible and respected 'eader of society tears off his [ or her trappings of conventional decency, spurns all artificial decorums and restraints, and yielding to tho natural heathen in the blood runs amok through tlie proprieties with an unblushing- abandon worthy of the rudest of our rude forefathers. Such revereions and such outbursts aie of daily occurrence. We gag the undying savage within us and bind hiii» hand and foot, with laws moral and otherwise ; as often as w-e feel him stirring, we knock him down and give him a new coat of paint ; and so long as we can keep him quiet we congratulate ourselves on his extinction and our enlightenment. . Yet privately we know that her is not dead, but sleeping, and a very light sleeper too. A chance foqtfall, the soundor soent of a primitive forbidden pleasure or ambition, is sufficient to thrill him with old half-forgotten sensations,' and rouse him to struggle again foi liberty. You may overcome him again and again, and get him down safely a- hundred times ;, but at the hundred and first attempt he obtains the unper ' hand, and flinging o.? all disguise, proves to an interested worldf that the restrained twentieth-century, gentleman was nothing all the while but a raw barbarian, of the jeaj one, taste-

- J^Hy decorated and varnisned." Thus. | deduced to its component paTts, what is * known as the "'black peril" of America is too often but the opportunity for the " . taser elements in society to ' reveal their '? innate barbarism. It has been proved to jiemonsfcration by the ■ experiments at the ; institutes of Hampton and Tuskegee that, ' "liver the chance, the negro will evolve { 'into a man capable of holding his own l - in the learned professions, as well as a ; skilled handicraftsman ; whilst as an '- agriculturist he has few peers. He has '- a strong objection to intermarriage with ; the white population, and prefers to Te- [ ' tain his racial peculiarities. Under favour- . I able environment and with proper educa- ' I tion and tuition, he is no more criminal I or immoral than the average of the white '- population around him." In the Northern \ States, where the people have not the . ' traditional anti-negro" sentiment of the, \ South, there is little or no trouble between U the races. Men who have studied the ' subject incline to the belief that the * "black peril" largely exists in the imagina- , ; tion of the prejudiced and ignorant Southerner, and that where education and r- enlightenment are allowed to play their ( f part the sad racial conflicts speedily -dis- j ' appear. The most hopeful feature of the ? situation is the lofty aid righteous viewj F consistently taken in the matter by the . |-, occupiers of the White Houee.; As is well j % known Mr Roosevelt steadfastly set himt. self to redress the grievous wrong to , ■t Africa for which he was persuaded %. America has vet to atone. And President r Taft has publicly announced himself the f President of the" negro' as well as of the , * -white.- Public opinion can scarcely fail to f - ba affected by noble sentiments such r.e F these, while the meet embittered pre- ( '; judicc should surely die in the presence • of that, hope of the negro and object' ~ lesson in the evolution of the ace— Dr , Booker Washington.