The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1913. AUSTRALIAN JEALOUSY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 271, 8 April 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1913. AUSTRALIAN JEALOUSY.

There seems to be no doubt that a 1 serious blunder was perpetrated in making Melbourne a port of call for H.M.S. 1 Xew Zealand on her way to the Domin- I ion. The lack of warmth in the wel- 1 come of the battleship, which has been < commented upon in the Victorian capital, ? cannot fail to be regarded here as ungracious, not to say churlish, in the extl erne. Apparently there has been no , popular enthusiasm whatever in connec- < tiou with the visit. The cable messages ' have told us that two hundred New Zealanders visited the battleship, but apparently it was not thrown open to the i public; and, while the official dinner tendered by the Commonwealth Government to the ollicers was quite a brilliant ad'air, nothing whatever was done in the way of entertaining the petty oflicers and bluejackets. It is no matter for wonder that the contrast between this scurvy treatment and the open-handed hospitality extended to the men of the Vi liite Fleet of the United States has elicited unfavorable remark. We fear that the people of Melbourne have indulged in an exhibition of potty jealousy that is entirely to their discredit. This spirit was apparent a few weeks ago, when Australjaiis were heard complaining about the large amount of attention that had been bestowed on the battleship New .Zealand at Home, in comparison with the neglect iif the" Commonwealth llagship, the Australia. , It was through no fault of New Zealanders that this apparent slight was offered to the Commonwealth; it wns probably only the British people's way (if showing that they preferred the policy of the Dominion in naval matters to that, : of Australia; conceivably, it was due to the lack of "bold advertisement" on the part of the Commonwealth's representative in London. Whatever was the cause, the fact has rankled in the minds of Australians, and they have taken a mean revenge by practically ignoring PI..M.S. New Zealand, They are doubtless sating their enthusiasm for their own big Warship when it arrives. The fact that the Austral iil is shortly due to reach the shores of the Commonwealth ought to have warned the Imperial authorities that it would be extremely impolitic to tend the New Zealand to Melbourne. : She could have coaled at Ilobart, where she would have been in no danger of receiving the snub direct, and Hobar't was anxious to have her. The people of Melbourne may mean by their cool, refiptioli to rebuke the Imperial authorities for sending the New-Zealand there before the arrival of the Commonwealth flagship; but it i* unfortunate that their reproof should have taken a form that lays them open to a charge of unworthy jealousy and to the suspiciori of cherisfiing unfriendly feelings towards the Dominion.