TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3222, 21 June 1909, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

MAORI REPRESENTATIVES.

"The time ha 3 not yet come when we can do away with our Maori representatives," said the Rev. P. Bennett, when speaking at a meeting at Christchurch last week. With men like the Hon. A. T. Ngata and Mr Te Rangihiroa (Dr. Buck.), it was no easy matter for the natives to give up their representatives. These men were better than 75 per cant, of/tfierpakeha members, and it was because they had this type of men coming forward that he felt so strongly that the time for doing way with Maori representation wa3 not yet come.

COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING,

One,of the most striking speeches at the meeting held at .Napier recently in support of compulsory military training was that delivered by Captain Standttnunn, a native of Germany, but an ardent colonial volunteer. Speaking of the New Zealand youth, Captain Standtmann said: "Before settfit gin New Zealand, a good many years ago now, I lived in four different countries in Europe, and at one time I held a commission in the army of my native land It is natural that 1 should have taken some interest in the military conditions of the different countries in which I subsequently lived. "I may claim to have some personal knowledge of the stamp of men serving in the armies of European countries, and I have no hesitation in saying that the young men of New Zealand are the finest raw material for a national defence force that I have ever seen. Given efficient instructors and time I feel confident that they would hold their own against any foreign army of equal numbers. But, there's the rub. It is impossible under a voluntary system to impart the instruction required into a useful part of the complicated organism of a modern army."

[ THE GERMAN MENACE. The principal reviews for May direct attention forcibly to the overpowering significance of the victory secured by the German-Austrian coalition at the end of March, in compelling Russia, under threat of immediate invasion, to abandon her opposition to the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria. With Russia paralysed it became necessary for England an<|§France to yield with the best grace that they could. Dr E. J. Dillon, writing in the "Contemporary," remarks that the triple entente (England, France, and Russia) has been broken, because the three Powers includedjin it ignored the fact that "Germany is a military and pedatory State, whose policy is not hampered by any set of rules more ethical than tha. which obtains in the camp and on the battlefield." M. Isvolsky laid the German ultimatum before the Russian Cabinet Council, and Russia capitulated orthwith. Ic appeas that the fortifications guarding the Russo-Germaa frontier were all denuded of guns during the Russo-Japanese war, and the guns have never been replaced. Hence Russia was not in a position to argue. It is a sound lesson on the

value of preparedness. Dr. Dillon puts the situation in a nutshell —■ "Austria-Hungary and Germany are now faster friends and more devoted allies than ever. Austria is about to build three or four Dreadnoughts. Germany aims at supremacy on land and sea and air. Italy stands hat in hand, respectful and pliant. In a word civilised humanity has been taught that arms are still trumps; that to-day, as of yora, Empire must be kept up by the means through which it was won; and that parchment, like banknotes, loses its value the momsnt it becomes known that there is nothing solid behind !t.» I