CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 83, 16 July 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

EXIT KNYVETT. Thft Opera boull'e proceedings in relation to the famous Mr. -Knyvett, who was deprived of his commission as a eaptain of volunteers for insubordination, have possibly nearly concluded. The endeavor i'of a section of people to regard Air. I Knyvett as a kind of New Zealand ; Drevfns, if it shows anything, demon-j I strates the necessity of natiom'.l disciI pline. There was no necessity for the | affair to have gone past the stage at- | which the Adjutant-General decided to ! punish Knyvett. Under the regulations, i Knyvett, who had broken them, was en- ! titled to ask for a military enquiry. The I enquiry was held, the decision on its find- ! ing was given by the responsible officer, j and the incident cosed as far as the : military aspect was concerned. Mr. i Knyvett, of course, knew that if the j matter was left in the hands of the mili- | tary authorities there was no possibility of a compromise. He knew that he had 1 been guilty of insubordination, and he ought to have known that any interference by the State with the decision ol the responsible military officials would be a direct invitation to undiscipline and insubordination. Bias against the supreme military officer in New Zealand, fomented for no apparent reason by people who knew nothing of military matters, led to a civil agitation that, if it had any effect, determined the military men to adhere to their decision. They had taken the only possible course under the circumstances, and the result • must have been the same, whether an enquiry had been held or Knyvett had been dealt with summarily by the Council of Defence. Cabinet was advised that the military authorities would not reopen the case. If in a moment of weakness the military authorities had permitted the re-opening of the case, there would in the future be no possible use for the King's regulations or anybody to administer them, except excited and partial civilians. As wo have before said, if the decision arrived at had been revoked, the only honorable course the military authorities could take would be to resign their commissions. The triumph of Mr. Knyvett and his Auckland friends against military discipline would emphasise the point that Mr. Knyvett was the superior of the colonels of the Council of Defence. The mere fact that there was a disposition among political leaders to have the case re-opened is evidence of their misunderstanding of the essentials of military discipline. One can be sorry enough for young Knyvett, who is a smart soldier with excellent service, but had he fifty years' service and three rows of medals, there could have been no other issue to the agitation to set aside the King's regulations for the sake of one soldier who had broken theiu. The attempt to make a military "crime" a civil matter was the most palpable weakness of all. If New Zealand is going to "soldier," it ought to soldier all it knows, and refuse to see in every application of disciplinary measures insults to soldier.-, who have no right to be soldiers if they cannot conform to the laws of the service.

AERIAL TOPICS. In all ages and in all countries the pioneers have suffered.' Every enterprise owes its success to brave men. Nearly all new enterprises are dangerous, and in the field of modern, research and improvement the men who have mounted in airships are the bravest of their generation. The same qualities that urge men to go into the trackless desert, to search the unfathomed sea, to explore unknown countries, to delve beneath the earth, to experiment with explosives, with mobile engines, destructive agents, are the qualities which ensure the conquest of the air by the aviators. Since courageous men have dared the clouds there have been many deaths. The latest pioneer to meet a dreadful death was Rolls, a man who had no financial need to take up the calling of aviator, who was rich, and what the world calls noble, but who had no definite goal fixed. The mistakes and the deaths of Rolls and the others will not 'deter successors from still pursuing the science for which Rolls died. It has always been so. When disaster discourages men it will be possible to foresee the ultimate decay of the race. The perishing of an explorer does wt kill the enthusiasm of potential explorers. There are always men who will descend a dangerous mine where there is rescue to perform; doctors do not cease experi-, menting because a surgeon dies of blood : poisoning or achieves atrophied limbs by the use of rays; the blowing up of an experimental engineer is not an occasion for the cessation of experimental engineering, and so on, ad infiinitum.j But catastrophes for which causes can be defined have the useful effect of teaching the successors of unfortunate, pioneers. It is possible, for instance, that the cause of the disaster to Rolls will be eliminated before succeeding aviators attempt similar flights. The death' of brave pioneers seems inevitable, for facts prove it so. Whether pioneers un- ( dertake hazardous enterprises for personal satisfaction or for the good of, humanity, this is certain: the occasion produces the man. If the occasion kills the man, there is ever another man to step into the danger area. And the world is full of heroes. No one knows that he has ability to become a hero, until the opportunity arrives, and op-' portunity frequently forgets to knock at, a man's door during his whole lifetime, i

THK BAXKIXfI FvETURXS. The bankinjr returns for tlie June quarter indicate a sustained upward movement in the trade of the Dominion (says the Wellington Times). There has been a remarked increase in the private tieposits, both free and fixed, the aggregate of £23.401.1% under this head'being greater than in anv March to June period of six years. The slight fall in fixed deposits since the end of March is probably due to investors turning in other directions consequent on the lowrate of interest now ruling on deposits of this character. Tn the .Tune quarter of 100(1 the deposits showed an excess of £4,409.784 over advances. By 1008 the position was of quite another chanivter, the sums advanced by the banks as at -Tune being. t15fi,408 more than the aggregate deposits for the three months. The recovery has, however, been remarkablr rapid, the deposits on June 30 being £5,5*25.02!) over the total advances. In whatever way the current banking records and trade statistics are tested they give evidence that a spleiv'id measure of strength bus followed the financial stringency of recent da vs. The prospects are certainly encouraging and there seems to be no reason, from the point ol view afl'orile'l by figures, to entertain doubt regarding our return to a very considerable degree of prosperity. The earning power of the country has been immensely increased of late years, and if the speculative trading and reckless bor-| rowing which were such evil features of] the very good times of not long aso can now be kept in check so much the better! for everyone, as the benefits from e\'-| Handing exports and revenue will then' be real. ,1