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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 389, 14 May 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS THE UNASSUAGED LAND HUNGER. Near Thames, and not far from Auckland, are the Hauraki Plains—ideal farming country. On Tuesday next the Government will institute a gamble for a fern allotments of this country. A telegram this morning tells us that there •are 1309 applicants, representing between 5000 and 6000 applications (whatever that may mean), for this land. It is not quite clear whether 6000 people desire to settle on the Hauraki Plains, whetJher the large number of applicants for the comparatively small number of sections will absolutely settle on the land, or whether landholders are using every relative they possess for purposes of obtaining land under false pretences. The main point is particularly well defined—no cutting up of land is ever adequate to meet the requirements of the applicants. Every one of those 1309 applicants is morally entitled to land. A small percentage of people under the present ballot system will win a big prize, and the others will remain landhungry. The settlement of the Hauraki Plains means much to New Zealand, but it must be close settlement. In this fertile country the lucky man who draws ,a section will, if he works it properly, reap a comfortable competence. At the ballot-box the best settler may be thrown right out of the running, and the speculator, 'with a dozen or two nominees may gather in the benefits. The ballot system has its advantages. It also has many disadvantages. The man who is land-hungry may apply from 1910 till the crack of doom without results. The obvious duty of the State is to shepherd every unsuccessful applicant, and strive by every means in its power to give him the land ihe craves for. The mere holding of land is of no benefit to the country; the working of land is a,ll in all. The unsuccessful applicants for land' at any ballot should be carefully watched, and, everything else being even, sihould be given the .preference for land at the next ballot.

A CHINESE NAVY. Eminent Chinese for the past twenty years .have been pointing out to the countries' that call themselves "great nations" that the four hundred millions of t'he Chinese Emperor's subjects desire nothing but peace. The nations have for some years carefully examined China, with the result that they have found it a country of enormous possibilities for trade and commerce. Inter-

national complications have arisen, and the Western peoples 'have absolutely forced China to aggression. In relation to the 'potential fighting force of the Chinese nation, the armies of the Western world are puny and inconsiderable. China is rich "beyond the dreams of avarice," 'her leading men are mentally brilliant, far-seeing, and determined, and the national spirit is developed to an extent quite unknown outside the great Empire. When China, therefore, plans the building of a navy on modern lines, it simply means that the vast resources of the country are behind the project, forced on a peaceful nation, for the coercion of aggressive outside nations. The national discipline of China is so perfect that the great mass of Chinese patriots has only to be ordered to conquer the world to make a bold attempt to do so. The outsider is apt to view the Chinese as a person who lhas no fight in him. The facts belie this. For centuries the Chinese fought desperately. The fighting history of the Empire is atrewn deep with stories of splendid heroism, self-sacrifice, and grand nationalism. The building land holding of the Great Wall is one small example of the splendid persistence of the Chinese in fisMing strong foes. In modern times the Chinese have shown no disposition to extend the scope of their great organising capacity outside the confines of the Emperor's domains. Aggression on the part of greedy nations is forcing China to become modern. We dare to scorn China's slow methods of achieving perfect results in the way of internal commerce, the safety of the people, and the retention of a national spirit. China, spurred to endeavor by an examination of the mushroom growths of Western civilisation, is iabout to constitute a Parliament in which its most powerful classes will represent the people. She has already plamied a great army. She i.s now forming the nucleus of a great navy. China has no debts worth speaking about, and her leaders can command more money than any other nation on earth. If China decides to fight, nothing can stop the all-conquering- sweep of her navies and armies. It will in course of time be politic for the Western nations to be civh to China.

THE AATIOXAL ARMY. In yesterday's issue were published full particulars of the strength and establishment of the proposed branches of the New Zealand Territorial Army. The reader will be struck particularly with the complete reorganisation, and .with the fact that there are to lie more professional soldiers spread through the army. But iperhaps the chief point is that minimum strengths are set out for batteries and regiments. At present: there seems to be no difficulty in recruiting up to the minimum strength shown in the figures. While the scheme is new, there will very likely be a rush of recruits, and. if the instruction is worthy of the great scheme, there never will he any difficulty in keeping the Xew Zealand National Army up to its maximum strength, The wihole result will depend upon the keenness of officers and the administration of headquarters. Some of tliese days Now. Zealand men will try very hard to get into the force and will lie disappointed if they cannot

attain the proud position of a c-itizon soldier. One of the finest things in the whole scheme is. of course, the general training section, in which soldiering is comipulsory. There is no question that a thorough grounding under real military discipline will do the compulsorilv trained youth a heap of nrood. The territorial officer will have no definite hold on his command, except that the Territorial soldier is expected to serve lor three years if lie joins. But as he is not under the compulsory regulation he may be a slack soldier. The officers' duty is clear. There is 110 room ill any corps in !New Zealand for slack and inefficient soldiers. The Territorial officer will, it is sincerely hoped, be able to dismiss slack soldiers from their commands, and to requisition .headquarters for a dralt ot youths from the general training section. If a .voluntary Territorial were "fired" because he was not as good as a youth in the compulsory branch, he would probably begin to smarten up, and to gather the idea that soldiering is a business hard to learn, worth learning, and returns better dividends Man any other "side line." There is every h>ope that under the new and very definite scheme, soldiering is going to "look up" in Xew Zealand. When a few batches of conscripts are duly "licked into shape," the average youth will be eager to sample the training that is indispensible if Xew Zealand .wants to put up a good fight should occasion arise.