THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1910. THE PACE OF THE WORLD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10055, 28 May 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1910. THE PACE OF THE WORLD.

Recently Lord Avebury made a remark in print, which has since echoed round the world, that "though not 80 he was older than any railway company in the world, any gas company, any steamboat company, any telegraph, telephone, or electric light company." The progress civilisation is making cannot be better illustrated than by thl3 method which excites that relish of the past that accounts for the abiding interest people take m old books and prints of the days gone by. For a measure of advancement, however, a much shorter period than 80 years may be taken, especially of recent times, so swiftly does the world move. Consider, for instance, the nine years of King Edward's reign and the wonderful events that are crowded into them. When he ascended the Throne the 'heavier-than-air' flying machine was a far-off aspiration and the navigable balloon but a dim one. Before he died one Frenchman had "flown" 1 across the Channel and another from London to Manchester, Count Zsppelin had made voyages over Europe through hundreds of miles of space, and a regular airship service between Paris and London was being mooted. It was only during his reign that wireless telegraphy was brought to such a pitch of prac-

ticability that a t aeivice was permanently established between Nortl America and Great Britain. And memorably enough, it was withii the same short span that Great Brit ain launched the Dreadnought ant revolutionised the Internationa naval problem by almost reducing the contest for sea-supremacy t< competition in the building of a single class of ships. About concur rently the mercantile as well as the naval marine developed in the dir ection of size and power, and mam moth Cuiiardera driven by turbine! cut the Atlantic record down to t few hours over four days. Wh< would have supposed, again, at th< time when Edward became nine years ago, that little Japai would challenge vast Russia ant beat her. revealing in doing so •< military spirit and organisational which the world stared in wonclei and apprehension? Or that Russia, the supposed miiltary Colossus would prove to be unwieldy, unready, altogether feeble for fighting? If his period had not been bo wonderfully packed with developments like these, King Edward's own agency and its potent effect ou international relations would have memorialised it. Merely his genial presence-in othtr countries must have been an influence for greater amicability toward the British people generally, but it is well known tfiat more specifically he principally was instrumental in arranging that network of understandings and semi-alliances which established 8n equilibrium of peace in Europe.