TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3207, 5 June 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

J MR M'NAB'S MISSION. The volunteer system having been tried and found wanting, some better system rr.ust be obtained. Mr M'Nab proposes compulsory service, which, aftet all, is not a very dreadful thing. It is not the conscriptipn system of the Continentaj nations, under which every young man is compelled to go into military barracks and devote three or four of tho best years of his life - entirely to service in the army. At the worst it means merely the giving up of two or three leisure hours a'week to drill and rifle practice, and an anr.ual training of three weeks or a month irrcamp. If our patriotism is not equal to this sacrifice. remarks the Timaru "Post," it is not worth much.

THE EMPIRE'S AWAKENING

We need someone to preach to us the doctrine of Bushido —that doctrine which has b6en the inspiration of the Japanese and has raised' them —not, as many people imagine, at a bound, but by slow degrees—to the pnwer and dignity of a natiori- It is the gospel of patriotism, of sacrifice, and of strenuous effort for our country and the Empire. New Zealander* have got to realise that the time i.s fast approaching when they will be called upon to literally share the responsibilities of the Empire, says the Taraiiaki "News." Whatever may be the outcome of the Defence Conference, one thing is certain: England cannot be expected to bear the sostly burden of policing the whole Empire. Each and every part must bear its fair share. The cost will be heavy, but it is the price of national safety, which this country will not shirk.

PLAYING THE GAME

The London "Referee" bui-sts into the following glowing tribute of praise over New Zealand's Dreadnought offer:—"New Zealand has played the game. Lieutenant Knox' R.N., must be a proud man to-day. This very mo:lest and efficient advocate of a stror/g navy has been spending some months in sowing the seed of the gosnel according to the Navy League. Lieutenant Knox is no ordinary lecturer. He has soul.

and his soul he has liberated In New Zealand. And what of the New Zealanders What a fine piece of sportsmanship to spring to the aid of the old Mother when thirty-three German Dreadnoughts await her in the North Sea! New Zealand played up in the Boer war as no other nation of her size has ever played, and now she has taken a hand in the great game that is about to begin, New Zealandfhas slapped her sister colonies on the back: said to them, in fact, what the ohi Mother will not say. And the world now sees a British team of nations stripping for the fray where yesterday wa3 solitary England. We are not a spiritual people, but we know the great renunciation when we see it, and from this time forward Maorilanders will occupy a niche of their own in our hearts "

COMMUNWEALTH RIFLE TEAM,

Commenting yesterday on the matter of the non-inclusion of any Opaki men in the New Zealand rifle team for the Commonwealth meeting, and on the inference suggested in a Wellington paper that the omission was studied on the part of the selectors because no Opaki men attended the Volunteer Camp, a prominent member of the club remarked, "We get a lot of.enconragement to attend these camps. We" have.to find onr own \ uniforms, rifles, ammunition, and I other etceteras during the year, and the Government - offers 4s a day to attend an affair which means a loss to us in business of anything over 10s a day —to a lot of us considerably more. The Defence Department quite lose sight of the fact that the class of persons found in rifle fclubs differs very largely as a general rule, from an occupation standpoint, from those found in volunteer corps. Further, the Department seems never to have been able to see thfrt at least a portion of rifle club members would themselves in rifle matters at all if the only medium .i were tha volunteer forces. Expecting riflemen tu attend volunteer camps is expecting altogether an unreasonabla thing."