The Daily Dews WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25. SPONGING COLONISTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 50, 24 March 1909, Page 2

The Daily Dews WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25. SPONGING COLONISTS.

In a recent issue of the Auckland Herald, "Toliunga" makes some direct, vigorous, and refreshing comment on the sponging, Ostrich-like habits of colonialii. It is so seasonable ami so telling that we make no apology for the reproduetion of the salient portions. Ileal" hiin:—"We know what we are, that .we are not as others arc, only because we are a thousand times worse, because we lurk behind the Shield of England and wonder that she does not hold it in a lil'mer grip. The paltry £100,01)0 we pav to the Imperial Navy is barely «a eighth per man of what the Englishman already .pays. The miserable £200,000 we grudge to the Defence Department is not an eighth per man of what England pavj for her Army aloue. Wc lookon and'boast of the Imperial strength at sea while we do not help to keep a single Dreadnought or to tram eflcetivc-

V a single Dreadnought crew. We lean an what we declare to be a breaking reed, and criticise in our stupendous folly t'he England that, 'with all her faults, is greater far than we. Knglan 1 is not what she ought to be, of course, t what arc, we? England, at least, can call to her coasts every Dreadnought that llies the White Eiisign, every cruiser that obevis the Na\al Lords, everv torpedo-boat that can | carrv a forlorn hope of Knglish seamen into'a German licet. England, at least,, can fling six army corps into the path of an invader, can work a bundled .n----senals and foundries day and night to arm and equip 1,11 " wakuut ' (l ?•' We are not as others are only lor tins reason, that in the Empires hour oi dan"ei' we should b e exposed, almost naked, to the withering blast of invasion. Nine .out of leu «l Uie Ni«

Zealamlers who twaddle to-da> a England and <>riua-,iy, uiul shake thui heack at England'.- folly and profess to be astonished at the way Ihiugi aie "oiti", an- as impotent to defend then SwnVartlw and homes as ,? *teer an aeroplane or to talk c un^ l p From the Premier at tile cabinet-table to the man in the traniear. we Have negleeU'd mil' opportunities and dodged Our duties. We have plated ol our patuotism and boasted of what we would do, and turned ourselves into a mutual ad-

miration society, and we havon't cnou 8 1. : trained men in any town to hi at oil a .rang of well-eqni]>pe(l raiders, or enough riite in the country to arm even tlios.. who have served in the «'• are not as others are nulee,l. \\c Ulk of Cevma.iv, hut is t.vrmany llil onl enemy in the world! Jf (jewnany » truck England down and the Empire went to nieces, does any same man imagine that there would not he an Armageddon, nation lighting nation, north, south, east, and west, for the pieces? l'.very .lap. .» a trained soldier. China is training. Even India could muster haif-a-imll.u"

trained native*. Russia, is a 111 "tai> camp. France, Italy, Austria, Bulgam, | pvcrv modern State is a nation m arms. Almost all have -Dreadnoughts Even the South -Americans have great liattlvships to use or to sell. Only the British States would he found as lambs in a slaughter-yard, waiting for the lucky butcher, who could keep ott the othir butchers, to cut their throats. We are lamb-like because wc thought ourselves cubs of the old sea-lion, and forgot that even lion cubs need rilles for claws, anil to be trained -in ways of clawing. The New Zealandcr should be shame when he reads the Naval Estimates discussion. What .right has lie !

to talk 'who has done practically nothing, who has sponged un the Old Mother, who has spent 011 the 'tote' : the gold that should have gone in guns and ill rilles, and ill -shouting at footI ball matches and Marathon races t'hc I time that should have been spent in I drill? For his defvncelessncss is Eng- ! land's real weakness, since his inability t to .protect himself and to bear his part (. in ai great battle for freedom inspires t t]i c foreigner with visions of world-wide f .spoil if only England can be struck t down. Were New Zealanders armed I and drilled, every man and boy; were t Australians a nation of lighters, 011 sea f or shore; were South Africa garrisoned, t as South Africa should be; and Canada, * and all the. free colonics, -we, should not * 'have the. set anade in Europe 011 the great Motherland of us all. Hut it isn't ' nearly as easy to confess our sins and J to amend our ways as it is to persuade * ourselves that we arc not as others $ are," *