The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1915. THE FOUNDATION OF CIVILISATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4, 3 September 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1915. THE FOUNDATION OF CIVILISATION.

Interviewed a few days ji<i<> in Wellington on t!n> sullied of liis ;sttitmie and that, of the Victoria College towards Prof, von Zedlit/., Sir Robert Stout said that his attitude seemed to have been misunderstood. He had no conversation with the professor about thi) matter, but had had a conversation with .Mr Ostler, the chaiiman of liie Council, shortly after the war broke out. He was then of opinion that nothing should be doin' In the Council, and he did not see any reason for dismissing the professor even if the] Council had the power to dismiss him. However, the attitude of Cermany to-| wards Britain had entirely changed since the declaration of war. Instead of Cermany acting as a civilised na-| lion, she had committed barbarities .unmentionable, and violated all the' rules of international law as drawn up by the Hague Convention. lo which she was a partv. That being so, it could not he expected that, the British nation, with any self-respect, could treat her as an honorable foe. He thought a way out of the dillicultyj would have been for von Zedlit/, to have disowned Cerman.v and become a IJrit ish subject. As that was not done it remained for the College Council, or the Covernment. or Parliament, to say whether or not he should remain any longer in oflice. Sir Robert Stout also said that it was not for him to deal with the subject further than to say, that all should recognise that the attitude of Cermany to Britain had made lenient treatment of Cermany impossible. Me pointed out. however, that the i|iiesfion of von Zed I it/, was a mere trifle. The larger <|iiestion was; How is ,\c,- Zealand going to deal with Cermany generally I' He was of the opinion that the first thing to do would he to deal with our commercial relationships, We should either absolutely prohibit the importation of goods made in Cermany. or put on a tax of 200 or, MOO per cent. He hoped that at the end of the war there would he no forgiveness for Cermany for many years to come. If not. it would simply mean that people who had acted wrongly would he treated as if they had acted justly. “There must ever remain in the world,” Carlyle longago pointed out, “punishment, for there is to he nothing hut forgiveness, there will he nothing hut anarchy and

tliis. that the State, as such, must

give praise to those who are worthy, and punish those who do ill. If there is to be no distinction made between right-and evil conduct then civilisation has departed from us.”

' WHILE AUSTRALIA LASTS.” Not long ago Sir Edward Hulwer Lytton, in the course of a remarkable speech, .spoke as follows regarding the future of these southern lands; “The time may come when these new colonies of ours (in Australia) will be great States and nations; alien they will find it easier to raise armies among them than they now lind it to raise a police:' when, instead of that single armouredj steamer for which the colony ol \ ictoria now so nobly pays, she will liavei in her harbors forests of masts, and in her waters a navy of her own. Jt may so happen at that distant day thafcj England may be in danger. It mayj so happen that the Croat Powers .of Old Europe may then rise np against the venerable parent of many Commonwealths. If that day should arrive. I believe that her children will not he unmindful of the tie hinds them to the dear Mother Countin'. and that to her rescue across the wide ocean vessels will come hack thick and fast, among which there will be heard hut one voice—‘While Australia lasts, England shall not perish.’ ”