CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 278, 3 May 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE GERJSASt CREED.. "Evil! I!o thou.;, my good!" ' is, fui Prussian creed and has. beeome thft German ideal. Upon iifeta-Uar of this Baal.Moloch millions of lives are being oll'e*:t".l and will continue: to. be offered imfc.il civilisation tears kiivn the. tempi.;,, rsf "kultur" and resi.m-es that progress, to better things whiidii-lias been so amazingly interrupted!. The- (Prussianised German cannot b«-.reached by any noble thought or humano- instinct. Noi? one llritish navyman has been rescued' from drowning by a ri , German, warship-, although hundreds- of Gorman navymen have been rcscuod'-aml German Ojrpisi-tun-ity to vescua British sailors haa unfortunately not Ik-mi wanting; Jn German military prisons- British prisoners are treated with" shocking- brutality, as Lord Kitchener- is reluctantly driven to admit. Piratical' at sea, murderous on land, treacherous in diplomacy, and void of all loyalty- in compact, the Prussianised 'jennan is an outlaw from humanity and-is farcing the world to see him as he really is. His very naturalisation in foreign countries has for years been a.- prearranged national trick, by virtue of which lie remains a German subject, though with his lips he, has renounced his old allegiance. If such a nation conquered the world for its Kaiser; a nation that has forgotten the incoming of constitutional liberty and lost all sense of national honor, what .would liappon? We see what has happened in Belgium. Happily for man- ; kind, those who take Evil for their God i rouse against themselves every instinct : and every emotion divinely implanted in- | tho human heart. The violation of Belgium foredoomed the German boats. The torpedoing of merchant-men has only steadied the British people. The German use of death-dealing fumes in Flanders has only made the Allied nations more determined than ever- to end the Prussian menace for all thne; and from that suffocating field the Canadians emerge covered with honor while the Germans are flung Back hopelessly disgraced.—Auckland IrwaM.

THE STAND-AND-BELIVER, GATE, The prejudice against the touring .motorist who scours along the main roads, leaving a cloud of dust and a trail of petrol behind him, is strong among many country road boards and county eomuils. The settler not unnaturally resents having to maintain roads largely for the benefit of outside traffic and for people who escape all liability for the upkeep of country thoroughfares, no matter how much they may use them. In one or two districts much frequented by travellers there is even a tendency to return to the antiquated system of the toll-gate as a device for obtaining a share of the cost of maintenance from users of the roads besides those who are residents and ratepayers. There are several tollgates in Taranaki, and the latest proposal is to erect ono on the Mountain road, leading from Stratford to Mount Egmont. The Stratford County Council does not believe in expending money on the road for the benefit of touring motorists from all over the Dominion, and so the Minister of Public Works has been asked to sanction this means of extracting cash from all wayfarers. The Minister, in his reply, states that the Government is averse to authorising any additional tollgates except as a last resource, and where no other reasonable means of raising money for the upkeep of the road can be devised. The present position is that a commission—the Government's sovereign remedy for all problems, big and little—has been appointed to look into the toll-gate business and take evidence and report. The principle involved concerns many places besides Taranaki, but it is scarcely likely that the old-fashioned stand-and-dc-liver gate on the public highway will meet with wide approval, even from local bodies worried for ways and means of road maintenance.—Lyttclton Times.