NEW ZEALAND'S "DREADNOUGHTS."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3188, 13 May 1909, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND'S "DREADNOUGHTS."

HOW LONDON TOOK THE NEWS. The news of New Zealand's offer of two Dreadnoughts for the British navy has taken England by storm. I Know of no event, writes a London correspondent, not even the sending of colonial contingents to South Africa, which has produced so deep a feeling or evoked so mucih warm recognition on the part of the Mother Country towards one of her self-governing Dominions. The news came upon London with dramatic suddenness. Imagine, if you can, a gloomy, foggy winter's day in Fleet Street —a grey, unitispiring scene, dominated by the dull roar of traffic and the ceaseless sounds of hurrying footsteps. New Zealand was far enough from the thoughts of that endless stream of human beings, each passing by absorbed in his own affairs, with that peculiar intentness and abstraction which conies with long familiarity with London's t naming thoroughfares. Then suddenly appeared the ever.ing paper bills with "New Zealand offers two Dreadnoughts" in great staring headlines, and the shrill voice of the newsboys rose high above the din of the traffic. It was enough. The attention of the public was arrested. There was a rush for the newspapers, and from 1 that moment tne one topic of the week, overwhelming all others in interest and importance, has been the patriotic action of New Zealand. It has captured the English imagination. Even the news from the Antarctic expedition, splendid as that was, has been dwafted by the side of it. The talk has been all of New Zealand, and the splendid spirit she has shown. Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues were, of course, influenced sulely by patriotic motives in making their offer of two "Dreadnoughts" to the Mother Country, but in making it they have given "The long White Cloud" the finest advertisement any colony has ever received. The action of the self-governing Dominions at the time of the Boer war opened the eyes of thousands at Home to the value of Britain's colonial Empire, and converted to Imperialism uv.tcld numbers of those who were "Little Engenders" by reason of sheer ignorance alone. But t e colonies on that occasion all came along with offers of help "as one man" and it is to be feared that the eyes and thoughts of the old fulk at Home were so' intently fixed upon the theatre of the struggle that they had little chance of paying attention to the particular sources whence England was deriving such mangificent aid in her dark hour. New Zealand's offer came as a most complete surprise, and has captivated the fancy of everybody. In tram, train, or' bus, wherever you go, you hear the words "New Zealand." Everybody who knows anything about the newest Dominion is airing his knowledge for the benefit of those who don't, but who want to because of those two "Dreadnoughts." Everybody, indeed, seems anxious to learn something about "God's own country," its people and products. And the newspapers, Liberal, Tory, and nondescript, are voicing New Zealand's praise in glowing terms daily. It is a great score to the Maoriland, and for the time being she is, in England's eyes, the Cullinan diamond in England's casket cf colonial jewels. The only regret that I have iound among English people? in regard to the offer is that the British Government, instead of accepting it forthwith, has asked that it should take effect in next year's building programme. There is a very general feeling that the Home Government has missed a great opportunity. A prompt acceptance, so far from being interpreted as a sign of weakness, would have accorded with the genuine enthusiasm shown by the nation at large, and would have dene more than anything else to strengthen the bonds of goodwill between the Mother Country an-J the Dominion.