Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9393, 13 March 1909, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE tyranny of the Labour Department has been strikingly illustrated in our Courts recently. Employers who offend are treated worse than criminals. The latter are never severely punished for technical offences, and many are also given the advantage of the First Offenders’ Probation Act. But the employer has no mercy shown to him. Heavy fines are inflicted bn him for even trivial technical offences, even when he has been acting with the best intentions and in the interests of his employees. The other day we referred to some farcical but expensive prosecutions of employers, and since then a Feilding case has given prominence to the fact that employers are no longer masters either of their businesses or their sons. An employer was actually fined £2 for employing his own son without indenturing him to the business. Can it be wondered at that depression exists when industries are thus restrained, and the employees and their agents are allowed to control the management, restrict the output, shorten the hours, increase the cost of production, and decree that only certain persona shall have the right to work. Legislation has certainly severely shackled freedom in industrial pursuits, and the ultimate effects must he injurious to the workers themselves. '

QUITE unnecessary alarm has been caused in soma minds by the proposals contained in Mr Haldane’s general staff schema, and the suggestion that the organisation and equipment of the colonial forces should be similar to that of the British forces. The essential advantages of the arrangements proposed are so obvious that it is to be regretted that, they have been almost overlooked in the anxiety to repudiate any scheme which would entail colonial soldiers being ordered on foreign service at the will of the (Home Government. Such an idea never entered into the mind of Mr Haldane, or any of the British military authorities, whose only desire is to increase the efficiency of the colonial forces for the defence of the Empire. In the memorandum sent to the Federal Minister of Defence by General Nicholson, chief of the British General Staff,, it is explained that the Army Council think it would be well to “consider the necessities incidental to a situation in which the dominions beyond the seas might desire to give effective military service in association with the troops of the Mother Country.” It is obvious that if this assistance is to be of the fullest possible value, some common organisation is desirable, especially, as the memorandum points out, as regards the system of commands and staff duties. .The formation of the Imperial Geperal Staff is therefore advocated. In other respects the adoption of the same general principles of organisation must strengthen the defence of the Empire. The various contingents that assembled in South Africa from all parts of the world were strikingly dissimilar in organisation, and we are reminded that as one result of the confusion arising from this cause, “Lord Roberts in 1900 found himself in command of a force so heterogeneous that before proceeding with any strategical scheme he bad to spend more than a month in the formation of plans for transport.” The same junction of theJEorces of the Empire mayooour again, but as the Argus points out, it may on the nest occasion take place in Australia. “Then, unless the organisation of one part of the combined army harmonises in a workable fashion with that of the others, the confusion and delay experienced in South Africa will be repeated.” The uniformity desired Is to be brought about by treating the Camberley Staff College as the central school of military education for the Empire, and employing graduates of the College in instructional positions in the oversea dominions, and by. a systematic exchange of officers of the Imperial Staff throughout the Empire. The headquarters of the staff would be in London and there would be local sections in India and in each of the self-governing colonies. The chiefs of these local sections, it is explained, would keep in close com munication with the chief of the Imperial General Staff, but would not receive orders from him. “He would advise them of correct general principles. They would advise their Governments of the best means of carrying these out,' and of the risk of departing from them; but when their advice was not accepted, they would carry out whatever their Governments ordered.” The Volunteer forces in New Zealand and Australia should in fact be in a position exactly similar to that of the Territorial Forces at Home. They should have a training and equipment which vfonld fit them to stand side by side with the regular army for Home defence—the purpose for which they are enrolled. This would also fit them for foreign service which they would voluntarily undertake if the safety of the Empire demanded such a sacrifice.

THE Addington inquiry has already fizzled out, but will apparently serve its purpose. Mr Ronayne has

withdrawn his charges and the expert engineer, on whose evidence Mr Ronayne relied, has apparently failed to support the allegations he was supposed to have made. Mr Jenkinson explains that in his interview with Mr Ronayne, bis reference to leisurely methods did not refer to the so-called Government stroke, hut to the slow methods necessitated by the antiquated machinery. The evidence of Mr Ronayne and the Hon. J. E. Jenkinson, which appears on another page, will serve to throw a good deal of light on the position.