NEWS, VIEWS, and OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 152, 27 June 1914, Page 13

NEWS, VIEWS, and OPINIONS.

"The suicide eeaton is just setting in," observed a London, coroner recently, "for there sccin to ho seasons for doing certain things. This is the suicide season just as the winter season is the fire' season." Sta-tistits compiled for some years proved 'conclusively, he declared, that in all civilised countries the transition period after the cold of the winter to the heat of th-e spring ami summer was the most prolific of suicides. In London the largest number of suicides occurred' in April and May, but in i!?obb.er countries Juno was the worst ' month. 'It had! also been proved that madness increased at that time, and ■tlris seemed to show that there was t-.0-me connection between madness and suicide. [People used to think, he added, that London fogs were the icause. of suicides, hut in November and' Deieember the rate was the lowest oi the year.

Details of the proposed' revision of ihe Book of Common Prayer for the Church of England in Canada, as agreed upon by the general committee on revision, have 'been made public, and show a number of minor changes designed chief! v to remove archaic expressions, as well as to give liturgical sanction to a number .of changes which already have the sanction of ueag-e. Some of the additions include a number of new sentences at the beginning of the morning and evening -prayer, and new special anthems a,Te included for use on holy days. After the prayer for the 'Royal Family, two new prayers are inserted-, .one for the Governor --General of -the Dominion of Canada and the lienteniant-governors of the provinces, and the other prayer including the Royal family, and' all in authority. !A compromise has been made in regard! to the Athanasian Creed. 'iWhoseover will be saived 'before all things it is necessary that -he hold the Catholic faith," etc., .together with the other damnatory clauses, have been left out.

It is affirmed by physicians that inebriety as well as rheumatism may lie cured "by bee-sting. This discovery was made quite by Occident) in a London hospital. IPivc men were being treated for chronic rheuimaihis.m. 'Pour of them had been hard' drinkers for yeans, and one was a confirmed drunkard. Beestings were applied to thorn, and the rheumatic condition promptly subsided. IWlen they were. Jimally discharged they found that the treatment had dione more than cure the rhe.Uima.tisini—it had destroyed their taste for alcohol. Even the sight of drink nauseated' tihem, and since leaving the hospital several months ago uot one of them has touched liquor. The hospital physicians, who were as grexitly astonished! at this unexpected result as their patients, have 6et on foot a widespread investigation into the effects .of .bee-6ting3- on drunkards to see whether they are an infallible cure for inebriety. (Facts already 'brought to light show that an intoxjcalted person is quickly sobered hy a beoeting, and that drinking-men who taJce up work among bees, when they are frequently stung, soon lost; their old' craving ifor alcohol. '

'Dr. Ingrain. (Bishop of London, speaking at a meeting at Grosveroor House on May 12th in Bupport of his fund for building churches in the metropolis, said that at a. banquet given in his honour In New York he made an unofficial wager —it weald not have done for a bishop to make a -Iret.—'(laughter)—that he would make London a .better, purer, nobler place befoTO they could make New York such. There was now a 6ort of friendly rivalry between the two nations as to which could make the finest town in the world. "And you don't want to see mc beaten and disgraced a-nd ashamed to go to New York again," remarked the .bishop, amidst encouraging cheers. To every 8.000 people coming into the diocese they had replied with a church. Churches, the bishop went on, did not slip down from .Heaven, and had it not been for his fund half a million people would be churchless. If the British Empire was not to be disgraced ■by the heart of London becoming pagan, his fund must be kept going.

A report on -the teaching of sex hygiene to elementary school children has just been presented to the London Education Committee, and it seems to us to .bristle with good 6ense. The subcommittee have been inquiring into the problem for come time, and they have had at least a dozen witnesses before them. They have come to the conclusion that under no circumstances ought the subject to 'be taught in class in the t-chools. They point out that how much the chddren know varies with the character of the homes from which they come, that children living in one room ivhere all the facts of life and death are visible to them, know all the facts, while others from goodl homes may know nothing of them while they are of school age. To begin giving class lessors would cause the subject to be talked about by the children, and in the opinion .of the committee, would tend tn bifak down the natural modesty and reserve of children in .this matter. Of course, there are cases in which teachers are 'bound to take action, but this is always better done privately and individually than publicly.

A Lincolnshire clergyman has given a somewhat unusual reason why he should not sit on the maigisterial bench

—viz.. that as the owner of four publichouses he oould not very well adjudicate in cases of dTUiikenncoS. The Rev. T. G. Lixon, of The Hall. Hol.ton-Ic-Moor, chairman of the Caister (near Market Rasen) Rural District Council, at the •meeting of the Council, said that a member had reminded him that as chairman of the Council he would have a scat on the .magisterial bench. If the Council desired that be should fulfil his position as magistrate, he would ha.ye to relinquish the chairmanship. He was the owner of four publichouses, and he did not wish to see them closed. It would be an injustice to the .public to close tho-m. He did not drink intoxicating liquor., .himself, but he did not believe i" other people being prevented from doing so if tihev wished. Cases of drunkenness came before the Bench, an<j as an • '••vner of the public-houses, he could not very well adjudicate in sueJi cases. He objected to the closing of publichouses compu'laorily. He thought it unfair to toe publican*. and be believed it to be injurious to the country, as it rather increased drinking than otherwise, and encourage,! dubs. He also gave another Tea-mi why he refused to sit on the Bench, -m,:] that was that be declined to send trumps to prison for begging. It wis n ;.n! system. TTe didn't wish to he •nixed ii;, .11 Tiriy n! ,j 10?P affairs, xf * '' t'-i'tii-.l -.li.-.iie,] him to net a? magistrate, he u-nuid have to retire. A Mem•or; " \\e dnn't."

Dr. Frederick Alott, pathologist to the London County lAeyhinm, m a, recent rer port dealing with, the question of 'heredity in connection with insanity, states that "self-made men not infrequently 'form the first step in the process of degeneration." He proceeds: "The selfishness and meanness, or the cunning, avarice, and moral guile 'by which they, have succeeded iv amassing a fortune for their children to spend EelfisMy is the iirst evidence of degeneracy; ibux whereas the parents to gratify their selfish desires succeeded .by work and abstemiousness, the children, possessing the same selfish instinct 'with no need to work, and- supplied with ahundant •wealth, acquire vicious foai'oits and criminal .propensities, and not infrequently terminate their careers in the madhouse or prison."

The London "Spectator," the well known Unionist weekly review, on May 16th warned certain members of that P ar ty—meaning the "Diehards"—against rejecting any compromise on the Home Rule Bill, which course, it says, is advocated by a minority only of the Unionists. "Th e only result of Buch an overreaching policy," continued the "Spectator," "will be the strong and sudden revulsion of moderate public opinion against the Unionists. If the Unionists were to now refuse to come to any agreement in the matter of exclusion, and were to take up the line that they have got the Government at their mercy, the result would be that British public opinion would say, generally, that as a party they were hopeless. Happily," concludes this influential journal, most Bignificantly, "we are not really much afraid that the Unionist 'Intransigeants' are able to destroy the settlement now almost in sight."

'A demonstration of wireless telephony was given on Monday. May 4th, from Marconi House in the Strand to the Savoy Hotel. The process employed is a new one, recently developed by the .Marconi Company, and the demonstration was arranged for 'the .benefit of some Russian army officers, who are at present visiting England in connection with wireless telegraphy. The system has been devised by Mr Marconi, who carried out his tests in Italian men-o'-war, and the company is now installing the mechanism in ships of the Italian navy. •machines are .being used, which are guaranteed ito be effective, under the worst conditions, within a range of 50 kilometres. The system is being considered toy the Admiralties of other 'European Powers. The system has the advantage of considerable simplicity, ais a caill by wireless telephony is made as easily as a call by the ordinary teleprone. The problem of corrverting ithe power Tequired for -wireless telephone communication having been overcome, tho question of distance is said to present no difficulties, amd, it was predicted on Monday at Marconi House that wireless telephoirio communication! from London to New York wouM soon be established.

Speaking a* the Royal Institution of iPublic Health .on "Fasting as a Cure," Dr. Oldfield described fasting as an exceedingly "valuable, a mios'b important. and a 'logically scientific method of treating disease. No physician, he said, need be afraid of an ordlinary well-fed patient -going without food or dTink for three or ifour days. If water were 'taken there was no risk in a person going from six to twenty days, provided he were well fed at the start. The moment, he said, a physician could with knowledge and experienco take up that treatment •his hattle was .won in many diseases. Fasting was a natural remedy, and our ancestors partly understood! it when they employed' bleeding as a remedy. Generally speaking, he said, the finance of Mr. Lloyd George should be applied to the treatment of fasting. Starve the rich and feed the poor, make the fat man - starve and feed the thin man; ibut he did not believe in Mr. .Lloyd George's practice of forcing the starvation of the rich in his treaJtmrent. He did 1 not think that young men and women .earning their own living ever over-ate. Tn fact, no man undeT 40 who earned bis own living could overeat. The middle classes, he thought, were the biggest eateTS, and the ariet'oora'ts the emallest.

Mr. Snowden, scrutinising the Government's Budget proposals five years ago from a standpoint of a Socialist, hailed their author, Mr. Lloyd George, as "an apt pupil," and now his only complaint is that the rate of progress might easily have been faster without hurting anyone. "I welcome these taxes," he" declared, alluding to the proposed additions to the income tax, super tax, and death duties, "but I say to the Chancellor, 'Be not weary in well doing; increase the taxes still more.'" Nobody would deny, he went on, turning to the Unionists, who cheered derisively his reference to robbing hen-roosts and his Biblically phrased encouragement, the capacity of the country to stand more taxation. Its resources were inexhaustible. There were plenty of men with £8,000 or £9,000 who could be taxed more severely than at present without the risk of reducing them to poverty or depriving them of any comfort and luxury they could reasonably expect to enjoy. *Mr. Snowden some years ago startled an incredulous House with the prediction that the national expenditure would soon pass the £200,000,000 mark. Encouraged by his success in prophecy, he now forecast a Budget of £250,000,000 in ten years' time with the more certainty of again being acclaimed a true prophet, because everybody was agreed that national expenditure for social reform purposes coi«d not be kept down.

Mr Oliver Loeker-Lampson's bill to prohibit the traffic in recommendations for titles or honours provides that if any Minister of the Crown corruptly submitrs or attempts to submit to His Majesty toe name of any person with a reeairnnrendation for a Utile of honour or dignity he shall be guilty of an offence .tinder the Act, and on conviction or indictment sha-11 be liable to iimpTisonmrcnt, with or without 'hard labour, for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine not exceeding £1,000, or to (both. "Corruptly" Is defined as "in consideration of the payment or promise, directory or indirectly, of any money or valuable consideration to the funds, or 'for the benefit of any political party, or any association, organisaition, society, or club established or maintained, or to foe established or maintained, partly or wholly to advocate or advance the purposes of any political party" The measure also imposes smaller penalties for corruptly inducing a Minister to submit a recommendation of a 'third person, for offering or promising corruptly to procure a recommendation, and on a person for corruptly inducing tihe recommendation of himself. Any person convicted'under the Act shall be 'incapable for seven years of holding any office under the Crown, of sitting in the House of Commons, or sitting or voting at any Parliamentary of municipal erection in the United Kingdom.