The Daily News FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. NEW ZEALANDERS' SUCCESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 6 September 1907, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. NEW ZEALANDERS' SUCCESS.

One of the gratifying features of ;he (times ia the growing recognition of .nerit in New ZealandiTs by New Zealand. It was not long ago when a New /calender was entirely witiiout honor in his own country, and had to go elsewhere to have his qualifications appreciated at their true value. In every department of life -Uaoriiamlei's have shown themselves able to hold their own. In the current number of Progress, the scientific journal of the colony and a publication that is worthy of wide support, an article is devoted to tlia success of New Zealamlers ,jn the engineering profession, the writer basing I his remarks on the letting of that grea's work, the construction of the Otira tunnel, to a New Zealand firm. The ar- ! tiule shows that the event is the last, as .well as the greatest, of a remarkable i scries of big engineering works carried : through by the Dominion. Tho paper goes on to remark that the first of the scries was the Lyttelton tunnel, made by a provincial government with a population of less than 8000 people behind it. Extraordinary as it may seem, it is nevertheless a fact that the Lytteltj.i tunnel was in its day the greatest engineering work of its kind in Austra'.a- ---! sin. jNow tile same thing can be said ! with truth of the Otira tunnel. It cerjtain'y is greater than anything hitlierIto thought of in Australasia. It is | more: it stands fifth on the list of the :greatest tunnels in the world. Even

in the United States there is no similar work of such magnitude. This is already something: but it does not exhaust the subject offered by the mention of the work in question The public works j policy followed the Lyttclton tunnel, :and the men who planned and built it subsequently made their mark with the great undertakings of the Public Works Policy.

We have in this colony, at Makohine, the greatest viaduct in the world, and the sister structure at llakatote is not far behind. These were designed and [carried out by New Zealandcrs. The [fact reminds us that all the engineers now in the Public Works Department have been trained in New Zealand, and are repeatedly showing themselves equal to anything that may lie required of | them. This, excellence, pre-eminence we might almost say, is due to the [ tradition of the great works of the early days of colonisation, such as the Lyttclton tunnel, the Arthur's Pass road (in i itself also the greatest work of its kind ■ in all Australasia), and the great sys- ! tcm of roads which the provincial auth- ! oritles of Otago built up for the proper j supply of the goldfields of the early "sixties." It is due also to the rugged : nature of the country, which is such as to demand the utmost courage and rej source in the engineers. It is due partly also to the great tradition of splendid effort which has come down from the pioneers who have made New 'Zealand pre-eminent in so many depart- | ments of life, and successful in all.

The fact Is welcome in the midst of a controversy raying in the press about the need, or otherwise, for getting a foreign stamp for the degrees of the New Zealand University. There are timid persons who think that. unless our degress are vouched for by examiners of European celebrity, they will be regarded with contempt by the rest of the world. Now, the other things of approved stamp in this country, which have not had the foreign imprimatur, are they regarded with contempt? Take the lawyers, it is long since we ceased importing our lawyers, and most of the judges of the Supreme Court are of the New Zealand Bar, without any degree or any training in law outside their country. The Chief Justice liimself is a New Zealand barrister, the first on the list; anil on a certain now famous occasion he crossed swords with the Lords of the Privy Council of the Empire, and certainly did not come off second best. Take then the case of the engineers, to whom we have referred it proves incontcstably that in New Zealand it Is possible to train firstclass talent to first-class rank, for firstclass work in a highly technical profession; the men-thus trained easily grappling with local difficulties of topography and formation sufficient to perplex the most experienced.

Continuing the survey along all departments of life, what do we see? We see locomotives running on our railways, of local manufacture, equal to anything imported from either Europe or America; a mighty and most successful system of golil-Uredgmg entirely thought-out and executed by looal talent; a scholastic system which has sent men of mark to leading scholastic positions elsewhere, and even to head the world's work in some instances of original scientific research. We see, in addition, a coastal lleet, established mainly at the direction of local enterprise, excelling anything in the coastal waters of any country under the sun; woollen manufactures Becond to nothing in the world; water systems, drainage schemes, tramways, timber-cutting and working industries, all up-to-date and flourishing; all the world of industry controlled and regulated by a system of factory and labor legislation which absolutely leads the world, both in inception and in results, and has swept the sweating evil from its 'path Coming to the world of sport we find this department of national life organised magnificently, doing strenuous work in all its branches, ill many of them heading the records. •

In a word, New Zealand gives a remarkably good account ol itself all along the line 01 industry, professional pursuits and sport, and shows to the front in political, municipal and commercial life, why should we hesitate to trust this sell-reliance in the training of our youth? We are going, tha".k Providence, to rely on it in the technical training of the people, and we have a population which will not long tolerate the fads of professors and the timidity jof doctrinaires who fail to understand ! the virility of our people, and have abi solutely no knowledge of history, in every page of which the word "self-re-liance" is so broadly written. The descendants of the picked men of old, men who, coming to the wilderness, conquered it handsomely,and left behind then* a country in every way up-to-date, arc not to be prevented by academic timidities from relying ou their own energies of body and mind. ilore especially are they determined to be self-' reliant in the lace of the great works on which they are now giving such very ;{ood account of themselves.

WHAT ABOUT THE CONSUMER': Higher wages as the result of Wagu Boards determinations, higher prices because of an ultm-biuu:cuve uu'ili'. higher touts of living generally because of world-wide demand lor commodities—all have a kmck of rebounding on ihe consumer; and if tliox'e is any dount who constitutes a worker, there is none as to who falls under the designation of consumer, Now tho question is—• How long c.m the patient consumer m stand this "passing on" process'! in this connection the following from liie San l'rancisco Commercial News is interesting:—''The danger in the iuod;m organisation of economic society is not from the difficulty of settling disputes between employer and employee so much as with the-extreme ease with which these two parties to cost of production are reconciled to throw ihe burden over upon the consuming public. The forgotten man, in probably jinetentha of the strikes and disputes involving highly organised labor and capital, is the consuming world which may be shorn, not like the innocent sheep once a year in spring time, but half a dozen times a year when anv great, dispute comes up for settlement. If labor reconciliations and strike settlements are to have the elements of permanency in them, on a level plane of jus! ice, the consumer must be admitted or there will be trouble. Nor will it be an or-' dinary trouble because of tlia fact that there has been persistent imposition of burdens upon the consuming world under the guise of peace, until the consumer may come pimply to regard himself as the victim which is held by one strong man, while Ihe other man plucks him to the point that is little short off liis life. This is the inevitable tendency of an altogether too conciliatory attitude on the part of the public towards tho parties to such adjustments into which there lias been no adequate inquiry to determine the rightfulness lor the wrongfulness of further increase in the cost of service find commodities to the consumer. Tt should, always be linrne 111 mind that there are tnrec, ■ not inerelv two, parties to every labor dispute.. First, labor; second, capital; third, the consumer."