IMPRESSIONS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14188, 31 October 1911, Page 4

IMPRESSIONS.

PROF. T. G. R, BLUNT INTER-

VIEWED

On Saturday Professor T. G. R. Blunt, of Canterbury Collego, gave a "Press" reporter somo little account of the impressions ho had gained during his recent visit to England, France, and Germany. It was twelve years since ho had heen in England, and the changes wjiich ho noted were significant though they wero small. In particular he was struck by the sleepiness of the provincial towns; they seemed to him to bo slacker than they liad been, and certainly were more quiet than colonial towns. Ho had been in Liverpool, Durham, Manchester, Southsea, Mansfield, and Nottingham. And everywhere ho had noticed that thero was no display of energy compared wrth London. This was particularly noticeable in the caso of the young men. To him it seemed that tho young colonials wore more alert and keener to get at tho heart of things. Tho slackness of tho young men was apparent even at Oxford. Twenty years ago tho river was crowded with racing boats and craft of all kinds. Now the racing boats wero tho only ones to be 6een. It was not a good sign, ho thought, that only those who wero ongaged, or were about to engage, in actual competition, wero taking exercise in tho way that used to bo so popular.

Between the states of the peoples cf England and Germany Professor Blunt made many comparisons. Ho had gono Homo, a convinced frec-tr'-d* 3 !-. so far as England was concerned, but what ho had scon had done much to shake his ideas. Though in Germany the cost of living had risen by thirty per cent., the earning capacity of the" individual had gono up by one hundred per cent. In German towns he had asked if there was any -poverty, and had been told that tho only poverty was amongst tho vorschiimte arm.s, tbe people who were too nroud to admit their poverty. They could only be approached through their pastors. Everywhere m Germany the prosperity was surprising. It seemed often that towns had boon practically rebuilt, a new town taking tho plaoo of the old, whereas in England towns liad been added to merely. Tlio prosperity resulting from protection liad flooded Gormany. In England tho new buildings wero noticeable for tlio fact that houses had begun to show individuality. There was no longer tho erection of whole streets of houses all alike. Now there was something to suggest tho personality of tho people who lived in them.