CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 164, 20 October 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A WILD SCHEME. ' We took the liberty recently of de- • noiincin.o- the wild State scheme for the I wholesale harnessing of the waterways of the Dominion to the non-existent in- ' dustrirs of New Zealand at an enormous • expenditure. The main point of our contention was that it was absurd for the Government to be worshipping strange goda while the country remained empty. A more emphatic point can be made only by men of experience whose facts are incontrovertible. It is said that , a scheme to caver the whole Dominion and to use what wjater-power would be necessary to generate electricity for all the industries that do not exist could be inaugurated for only £2,500,000. Mr. Frederick Black is an expert engineer, ; ? whose antipathy to the scheme fs unselfish, for the reason that the expenditure *

of immense sums on engineering works would benefit engineers. In a remarkably clear and unimpassioned contribution to the Wellington Post. Mr. Black says that the State's faith in the potential production of power by our rivers is unfounded. Mr. Black emphasises the point we recently made by saying that the scheme is doomed at its birth by lack of population. He points out that New Zealand has abundance of coal . We tried to cover this by asking whether the existing industries would '-scrap'' their plants because the Government had a new hare-brained scheme on hand. "Wherever hydro-electric undertakings are successful," wrote Mr. Black, "there are people to make generous use of them, and either dear coal or no coal at all to compete with them. Power Ls not everything, not even the cost of power. In most "industries this, cost does not amount to more than 5 per cent, of the total expenses. Hence it follows that a reduction of the power cost, while always desirable, is not to be compared in importance with a sullicient labor supply, low rents, cheap la ml, easy taxation, good transport facilities, and—in some industries—nearness to the raw materials." The examplo of Niagara, which is quoted as proving that with a sufficient water supply you can do anything, is, Mr. Black maintains, no exception to this rule. The district oilers a number of advantages to industry, of which cheap power is only one, and affords no argument that what has been done with Niagara can be done with tho Makuri. Mr. iilack even goes so far as to make this statement,.which presents a remarkable contrast to the rosy pictures of this country drawn by the Minister of Public Works as the future manufacturing centre of the Southern Hemisphere: "I°know New Zealand fairly well," he says, "but I know no district that could, even were unlimited power given free, triumph over the hundred and one obstacles that exist to the establishment of real manufacturing industries trading with the -world." Even with the Bay of Plenty, and Waikato with 10,000 horsepower at a capital cost of £320,000, he says that energy transmitted from Kaituna to Auckland would cost five ot six times the price at which it could be produced on the spot from coal; that it has yet to be proved whether energy can be transmitted as far as 160 miles under our climatic conditions; and that the whole of the Bay of Plenty and Waikato districts do not include a single centre capable of absorbing 300 horse-power. Such cold, hard facts as these are well calculated to make the flightiest of politicians pause. Mr. Black urges that an exhaustive investigation of the markets in each case is essential before any man can estimate the prospects. Not only capital cost but profit and loss must be carefully examined before the matter proceeds any further. A Government which haggles over a few yards of road metal and goes bald-headed for a two and a-half million speculative scheme in which there is no visible dividend, should be told >by everyone who has a voice that it is urgently necessary for it to sit still and ha/ve a profound think. To make the position more absurd, the Government has recently promised intricate machinery for paying its debts!

THE YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER. If Mr. 'F. Goodall knows anything to the credit of the young New Zealunder he did not mention it in a recent tirade he delivered at Timaru. Mr. Goodall is president of the Educational Institute. If he is a New Zealander he should not own it, for the race is evidently a wretched compound of foolishness and inefficiency. It is easier -to criticise than to construct, and simpler to <lestroy than to build. Boiled down, here is Mr. Goodall's young New Zealander: He 13 not so tough as his parents. He is easily fatigued. He has good brain 9 but no desire to use them. He does not read good books. He is thoroughly lazy and thoroughly indifferent. Morally he has terribly deteriorated. He will only work the regulation hours (and if he gets only regulation pay, why not?). Reasons: Climate (too soft), better economic conditions, good wages, lives of ease, lack of home influence, lack of parental control. Some other faults: Haphazard style of working, shirking, too much pleasure. A schoolmaster, following this dreary outourst, said it was rare to find truthfulness among New Zealand children. The obvious conclusion is that if educationalists are unable to eliminate these fearful defects in the dreadful youngsters of New Zealand, they should educate the children of some other land. These diatribes do no good. They do not help children, and they estrange parents. Is this paragon who lives among the awful children of New Zealand himself a father? Are his children paragons? If not, why not? A few questions: Physically, do New Zenlanders tire in the football, cricket, tennis, or other fields of sport before Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotsmen or Australians? Is not the average New Zealand boy ten pounds heavier and one and a-half 'inches taller than the average English boy of his age? Is the evidence of General Sir J. D. P. French that New Zealand troops are as effective, as well disciplined and of greater initiative that British troops any good? Is there any reason why young New Zealanders are handling great concerns the world over? Did Professor Rutherford, the most distinguished New Zealander alive and one of the earth's greatest ones, become so because of his flabby muscles and weak intellect? Is a boy who becomes leading geologist to the Indian Government lazy or flippant? Is a New Zealand boy who is an Indian High Court Judge a sample of the inept product of this country ? Is youn" Ziman who has just taken a high place in the same country another of the feeble specimens of Mr. Goodall's New Zealander? Is Major Andrew, one of the cleverest men of the Indian Army, an utter failure? Are the New Zealand engineers in fever-smitten foreign countries physical wrecks, careless, incompetent and supine' Did the "All Blacks" win because thev 'got tired" in a hurry? Did the New Zealand troops get first into Kimberley because they lacked "sand" and discipline? Do the New Zealand medical specialists in London hold their places because they are a poor lot? Did Dick Arnst win the world's scullincr championship because he was one of these decaying Not- Zealanders? And so on. Persons like Mr. Goodall are not a help to the community. They do not show us the way to go; they only say the way we are going leads to perdition. And among the decaying heaps of younc New Zealanders stands the dominating figures of the Goodall's society solemnly' savin" "I told you so!" * J °'