THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1906. "IN A FOOL'S PARADISE."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8310, 13 December 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1906. "IN A FOOL'S PARADISE."

We have frequently urged that the Government, instead of playing with defence matters, should devise and develop a thorough system of national defence, and there is, at laßt, some reason to hope that the day is not far distant when the Government will have to give a most earnest and undivided attention to the question of 'defence, whioh is of paramount importance to the people of this country. The promoters of tha National League are endeavouring to "shake matters op," una we have uo doubt that they will eventually succeed, and when the Government find that the people are really determined to hare an' adequatp system tor [the protection of their shores, the lethargy they have displayed up /to the present in such a vital matter will disappear. The'Natioual Defence Leaguers seem to know the futility of appealling to the Government until they are in a position to compel attention to their demands; so, icv the time being, they are going about their objaot in a right way by appealing to the people, and if they do this with sufficient energy and enthusiasm they must succeed, for the cause is a good one. The League have very wisely deoided upon the regular publication of an official organ, and we are in receipt of a copy of the first number. The editor of "Defence," for that Is the name of the journal,, we should say, is of an "Ironside" tendency. Some of the observations in the journal are ouriously suggestive of the old time Pdritan, who slew mightily before the Lord. For instance one reads: ,"In Pokm, in Tokio, in St. Petersburg, and in Berlin, they have marked us thus: 'New Zealand—quite defenceless,' and their hearts are filled with the, land hunger whioh God inspires in strong men's hearts for the weeding oat of the worthless and the unfit." These remarks, however, are not

made fro-n any wish to disparages publication that is admirably written and compiled for tbe purpose that it baa ! n view. We give a few extracts from a vigorous article, the writer of which evidently keenly desires to arouse attention:—"We are living at this moment In a Fool's Faradise.—every man-jack of us. For the simple reason thai we are not able as things are >,o keep our own. We go on telling one another what a fine 00-intry New Zealand i*, and toil at its development, and brag of its resouroes—aa though other people hadn't the same ijiifclon of tbe country, and were not gotting ready to take it out of one bands We have given women votes; we have j raised the age of coasent; we are humanising our laws as they have never been liamaafead before in the known history of the world—and will the forokaw submit to our ballots, think you, if he ever comes storming upon ww vAtiw, or will the Asiatic respect either age or consent when he coo.i<w down from the North to burn,, to" ravage, and to possess? At the present moment only one rampart stands between New Zealand aud national ruin—the British Navy, Don't let any | man make auy mistake about it! We depend as absolutely and entirely upon tho British Navy for our national existence, for our national independence, as Koman Britain depended for its security upon tbe legions of the Roman Empire. And will any man say tnat it is inconceivable that the Imperial Government mtgbt be temporarily compelled to withdraw its squadrons from the Pacific? Or worse, to entrust the Paoiflo to some Asiatic Power. Does not history ever repeat itself until nations learn the lessons that history teaches them? And is not this tbe flr-Bt lesson of all lessons: that God has no use for lazy and cowsrrJly people, Who leave to others the ducy of defence, Hud will not train themselves to fight for the freedom of the land that tie has given them? It is most good that we should wish to make New Zealand a model state, good that we should seek to so order it that it should never be rotted by shameful poverty or oorrupted by oo less shameful luxury, good that we should not be content unless a life worth having and living is open before every child born New Zea lander. But what if New Zealand itself be torn from us? What then would be the good of all our planDing and all our dreaming? And while we are talking of what we will do aud what we will not do, hawkeyed statesmen pure over tbe map of ' the Pacific, aud in Pekin, in Tokio, in* St. Fetersburg, and in Berlin, they have marked us thus: 'New Zealand—Quite Defenceless.' And their hearts are filled with tbe land nunger whioh God inspires in strong men'e hearts, for the weeding out of the worthless and the unfit. That Is what we are to-day— worthless, unfit. Unable to hold this land of ours from one German army oorps if it came steaming into eight. Unable to keep r>ur women—our mothers, ouj: sisters, our wives, our daughters, those we love—from the unnameable horrors of Asiatic hordes if the Fateful Hour suddenly struck! . . . . The men awi

women of a .nation which cannot fight cao call neither land nor law, nor purse nor pension, nor home nor honour, their owu. But where free men have trained and made ready to tight for their country, the child «iuay sleep safely in its mother's arms, and the work worn may go down to the gruve in oomfort and in peaoe."