The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1913. WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 88, 18 August 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1913. WAR.

.Tho recently announced invention I which has been proved capable of igniting explosives at a distance of fifteen miles by specially projected "in-fra-violet rays," adds another horror to the possibilities of war and affords another reason for the nations agreeing to do away with this barbarous jmethod of settling national disputes lor enforcing national claims. Jt has been contended that if war is made terrible enough it will become impossible, because human nature will revolt, at its stupendous horror, but nevertheless the end does not appear. Slowly and miserably the squalid Balkan killing proceeded, and the settlement of difficulties does not appear imminent, though actual fighting has ceased. Some seventy years ago, somebody recalls, a I

vigorous protest was made in New 'South Wales against the sale of mus|kets and powder to the natives of New Zealand by the traders who wanted ilax and oil, and the reply was an assurance that the arming of the

Datives was really a humane measure. The tribal wars would become so deadly, it was held, that the Maoris would eease to tight and peace would • reign in the fair southern land. But this view proved entirely wrong, and as (lie old native leaders used the muskets, so the military directors of civilisation seize every new arm placed at their disposal by science and invention. Until an agreement that

eannol well lie broken and is universal in its operation is entered into between the civilised peoples of the earth, there is nothing left for it but the cruel and costly struggle to keep ahead in armament and in possession of the most deadly engines of destruction. MORE OIL. I Oil boring operations will shortly be commenced at Strathmore, it being understood that a New Plymouth syndicate holds rights over some thousands of acres. Strathmore is fifty-one miles from New Plymouth,! in a due south-east line with Egmont, Village, Inglewood, and Huiroa, where derricks have already reared their heads. At* Huiroa, the latest bore, the indications for oil are Very promising, and with the erection of derricks in the Strathmore district the chain of boring operations will be extended five miles further across the island, all of which goes to prove the existence of an oil vein that makes its appearance iti the Pahiatua electorate in the south-east. The syndicate interested in the Strathmore operations will meet the landowners interested in the course of a few davs.