TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14159, 27 September 1911, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

For his address to the Work Public Health section of the and Medical Congress in %dHealth. ney, T)r. J. S. Purdy. Chief Health Officer for Tasmania, chose as his subject 'Conditions of Work and Health.'' It was a largo subject, which enabled him to roam over ft wide field, from child slavery on farms to the differences in the physique of children of different classes. Dr. Purdy is a great believer in "'catching people young" and training them in the way they should go. He remarked that child slavery on farms was undoubtedly a curse, but ''at the same time the earlier the ape at which a child learns to milk and make himself useful about a farm, the more likely is he in after life to develop the habit of work, to stick to the land, and become a useful, practical farmer." Immigrants should also be. secured when they were young, 'not after they have formed habits and become adapted to artificial conditions of life, such as aro associated with dwellings in big cities and congested centres of population." He suggested that it might be worth while getting a few thousand of Baden-Powell's picked Boy Scouts and distributing them over Australia. The most interesting part of the paper had to do with the measurement of school children in New Zealand, and the comparison of such data with measurements of English children These showed that while the-average stature at the age of 11 to 12 of boys in the public schools in England in 1883 was 54.98 inches, that of the cadets of the Auckland schools and King's College was 56 inches at the same age. Contrasting tho heights of boys at Marlborough College, England, with those of King's College, Auckland, and "Wanganni College, they found between the ages of 14 and 15 the figures were 61.96 for the famous English public schools. and 63 for the New Zealand schools Even more interesting waß a comparison between the boys of tho Chapel street School, Auckland, who were probably the children of the poorest parents of tho largest New Zealand city, with the boys of Remuera, the wealthiest suburb. This comparison showed less disparity than had been found to exist between the measurements and weights of children in tho poorer districts of English citiies and thoso of tho children of more prosperous parents resident in the suburban centres. Dr. Purdy said it was gratifying to realise that the conditions which gave rise in tho past to so much industrial disease in tho older countries could .now never be reproduced in Australia and New Zealand, hut ho warned the workers that they themselves must assist in all efforts made to improvo their environment. It was, for instance, useless putting, baths in the change houses of min«i if tho men would not use them.

The reports of the Disorder riotous scenes in tho in New South Wales Parliament. Parliament last week excite mingled feelings of disgust and amusement. If this kind of thing goes on much longer the Sergeant-at-Arms and the messengers will be resigning, or demanding large increases of salary, in view of the arduous work expected of them. When the Speaker ordered Mr Wood to be removed, the extraordinary spectacle was presented of Opposition members forming a ring round the member, and the Sergeant and his men trying to break through it: "If you want football, you'll get it," cried Mr Wood, pushing the Sergeant back over the tablo. As tho combined efforts of the enemy were slowly moving Mr Wood towards the door, tho scene suddenly changed. Several policemen came in at the double from behind the Speaker's chair, and tho galleries, which had hithorto been dumb with astonishment, broke into loud applause. With this reinforcoment to contend against, Mr Wood had no chance, and was quickly bustled out. Other members went out quiotly. "I go out for you," said one of them, "You are a tinpot tyrant." The most dramatic moment came when tho Speaker ordered the Sergeant to remove the member, for Richmond. Without saying a word, 31 r Perry made a dash for the cut-glass water-bottlo on the table, "and the expression on his faco indicated that he was prepared to defend himself as vigorously as he had fought in the interests of ejected colleagues." Ho seized the bottle, but before he could raise it tho police had closed in on him, and he was quickly hustled from the Chamber. All through the turmoil the Speaker seemed to keep his head, and was ever ready to pounce upon what he deemed a breach of orders When, after the riot was over, Mr Wade rose to suggest an adjournment, as tho House was not in a fit position to sit, tho Speaker sternly ordered him to sit down, and pointed out that no member could comment on the Chair or the action of tho House. All through tho uproar the Premier sat grimly silent, refusing all appeals to him to intervene.

The Texas ranger, one of The tho most picturesque Texas figures in tho American Ranger, cattlo country, is doomed to extinction. "It will not be long," says a writer in "Everybody's Magazine," "until the lonesome winds along the Rio Grande will stream sand of the waste places into the last bravo rider's tracks, blotting out the Texas ranger's trail forever." Not that tho oattle thief, tho train robber, and the murderer have ceased to trouble Texas, but tho people away from the borders have exchanged the horse for the motor-car, havo built for themselves Carnegie libraries, and consequently consider the ranger a blot on their refinement. Besides, they object

to paying fourteen men forty dollars a month per man, though the value alone of the cattle they retrieve is many times that sum. Once tho Texas rangers numbered two hundred and sixty men, but though their numbers havo dwindled their reputation has not decreased; one ranger still equals, according to tho ranchmen "down by tho Rio Grande." a company of militia. Just how that reputation was made is a Ion;; and stirring ttory. but perhaps a few incidents in the career of Captain John R. Hughes might serve to explain it. Hughes began life as a struggling rauchman, about the same time as the Johnson brothers, outlaws and robbers, commenced their evil career. In ISS4 they deprived Hughes of his horses, and set out for the desert. Hughes followed. Exactly a year after ho returned with a string of horses, his own and his neighbours; away back in tho trackless wastes was a dead horsethiof, and many miles further was a much-scarod fugitive. Thus Hughes qualified for the rangers, and in his twenty-fivo years of activo service it has never been said of him that ho took the trail of a man or a hand of men without "landing" them living or dead. The ranger does his work cleanly, though tho process may be a long one. His prisoner comes back alivo or dead, but never wounded Only once did tho rangers mako a mess of their job. Certain citizens employed two Mexicans to assassinate the District Judge, the price paid being twenty-fivo dollars. Four rangers were sent down to restore order. But their intrusion was resented, and Mexicans were employed to exterminate them. An ambush was planned, but by some oversight the Mexicans met the rangers in tho open road. The former opened fire, but before they could do any harm five were dead, and by some blunder one was wounded. It was a terrible blow to the pride of the rangers. They took the wounded man, nursed him, secured a free pardon for him, and made him a deputy sheriff, which position he filled with much honour, both to himself and the Law.