Sydney, Aug. 6.
Considering that an immense number of families are technically liable to penalties that, if enforced, would expose them to very grave embarrassment or privation, or in the alternate prisonment, it is not sure! that, at the present juncture, everything relating to compulsory training, and the fines and alternatives therein provided, possesses an most painful interest. It is now semi-officially reported that of the lads liable to training during the Past year, no less than 20,000 are unable to claim " certificate that they have complied with the requir: ments of the Act.
The Liberal newspapers are jeering at the Government because it has announced that these 20,000 default ere are to be leniently dealt with, and they attribute the edict to a desire to conciliate the electors.
No doubt, in the present state of politics, there is something in the insinuation. If they could dragon the boys and their parents without fear of consequences, no doubt Ministers would enforce the Act to the last comma, They are primarily responsible for passing it, and when it was passed, they did not realize how important it was that they should go further or faster than the actual state of the people would
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.