TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14043, 15 May 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

When V.M.C.A. build- ; A ings are to bo erected in Groat a Now Zealand town, Campaign, thero is a campaign conducted on American, lines. But how poor tho imitation is can bo realised after reading an account of how New London, a Connecticut town, gained tho s um necessary for tho erection of a women's oollogo. When tho Weslcyanl College, Middletown abandoned tho system of w education. tho women in that, part of Connecticut wore left without opportunity of pursuing their studios. The Hartford College committee offered to establish a College at New London if tho inhabitants subsidised the project to the extent ot 100,000 dollars. It was decided that the ohallengo should bo accepted, and. a campaign mapped out by which the amount required should bo got togotner in ten dnys. A firm gave the use of an empty store for headquarters, and furniture, heating,.and lighting were provided free of cost. There woro those who did not believe that t-he amount required would b<? forthcoming, bub their doubts wore shaken by tho announcement at the opening banquet that preliminary pledges representing 26,000 dollars had already been received. Tho'system of campaign was noajrly perfect. Ten teams of five men each were organised, each team being gjven cards bearing tho names of citizens, their occupations, and tho amount that they might bo expected to give. Each team selected from the cards those "that it could best approach, and eventually each citizen had been assigned to ono team or another. Tho ministers of religion preached on tho subject of ed-uoation. The results each day wero announced at noon, by pre-arranged signals given by the firebell. Tho newspapers did their part, and by tho eighth day 85,000 dollars hnd been collected- Thirty women, then took a hand, in the hope of finding some persons that other canvassers had not reached. Before tho end of the ninth day 104,700 dollars hnd bocn subscribed, and when the lists closed 134,000 dollars had been gathered. As tho big head lines of an American journal put it, "Tho Mayor gave a year's salary, the bootblack a dime." The camp of Boy Scouts, considering a gift, woro puzzied to know how they would benefit by a woman's college, until ono bright boy carried the day by exclaiming, "Think of our children 1" The financial result produced is amazing enough, considering that the town has a population of only about 20,000 persons, but tho enthusiasm behind ib will be raoro difficult to understand by a community like ours, where co many people confine their caro for education to attending a meeting of householders held onco a year. Max CP.ell and Foster A Fraser must, as candid Nation critics of Australia, givo of way to the P.ev. Silas MiChildren, gruth, of Georgia, U.S.A., who travelled through Australia a couple of years ago. A paper containing a sermon preached by Mr Migruth in his town in Georgia, baa reached Australia, and the "Age" prints it in full. To Mr Migruth the Australian is a child. Even in middle age and old age, he "speake as a child, thinks as a child, understands as a child." The preacher mixed with many

thousands of these happy people, and i sometdmee thought he must bo dream- j ing. For 'apparently everyone wnom Mr Migruth met was wrapped up in sport. "I have seen middle-aged men —the fathers of families—not in dozens, but in hundred?, carrying their balls and clubs day after day to amuse- themselves for four, sis., or eight hours to- | aether on their public play-ground's. I j have- seen two old men, with not two teeth between them, come to blows j through a dispute as to which of two j middle-aged players could kick a ball j the further. Evening after evening 1 h-.avo seen tlio village greens crowded with old men, not one- of thorn under 40 years of ape, excitedly rolling balls, over the grass, and uttering strange, j excited noises as they rolled." Tho spectacle of '"those butterfly Australians," ever chasing evanescent pleasure ! turned his thoughts to great men who j "scorned dolighte and lived laborious j days," of an illustrious scholar sighing in vnin in his youth for books instead of bread, and Garfield learning Latin I at midnight on the earthorn floor of his log en bin, by the firelight, because tho family was too poor to buy candles. Oh, that ho could have driven homo tho serious leason of such noble livos to his childish friends in Australia! Very little work and much play was the rule in Australia. People "exhausted the almost inexhaustible round of frivolous. brainlo=s entertainments, wliich beset them at ovory corner to the verge of boredom, and then idled about tho streets and clubs and billiard rooms and saloons." Not one man in forty worked more than he could help, and not one man in a hundred rend a. serious book. There- were many libraries, but they were neglected. There were excellent facilities for education, but only dhildren took advantage of them. Mr Migruth concluded by saying ho had spoken of these strange childish people with all charity and goodwill, and asking his congregation to reme.mber "theso poor misguided Australians" in their prayers, that their oyes might bo opened to tho light beforo it was too late!