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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16803, 8 April 1920, Page 6

The Commonwealth Government has j appointed committees in each State to deal with the distribution of war tro- | phies. With a view to socuring an equitable distribution it lias been decided to allot trophies to towns on a population basis. For instance, it is proposed that each town with a population of more than 10,000 persons shall be allotted two captured guns and two machine-guns. A town with less than 10,000 inhabitants .will be allotted only one gun, while in the case of small towns, with a population of only 1000 or so, the trophies will bo limited to one or more machine-guns or trench mortars, according to the number available. With regard to capital cities, Melbourne is to be presented with 20 captured guns, 40 machineguns, and 10 trench mortars, and Sydney will be given a similar number of these trophies. This allotment is to cover the requirements of the State war museum and all suburbs within the metropolitan area. It would be interesting to know what course the authorities propose to follow in regard to the hundreds of guns and other trophies captured h~ the New Zealand Division during the war. Presumably; a representative collection will be retained for •the proposed War Museum. Recently the local authorities announced that they had received 100 machine-guns for distribution, but wo should like to know when Christchurch is going to be allotted one or more of the captured field guns or "heavies." If any have been received locally, it is surely time that they were placed on exhibition. Months ago Wellington was the proud possessor of a 6-inch gun, which was being temporarily exhibited in Courtenay place. The Christchurch "diggers" have a number of captured guns to their credit, and it is time that, their friends were permitted to see them. • The correspondent of "The Times" at Now York recently reported that Dr. Eugene Fisk, an American physician and medical writer, at the annual meeting of the Medical Society prophesied the ability of science to prolong life for 1900 years. The life of the fruit-fly, he said, had been stretched 900 fold, as the result of researches. The antagonists to long life, according to this long-range optimist, include heredity, infection, poison, food deficiency, food excess, fear, grief, emotional excess, psychic apathy, ••jf'e to lack of life interest, and physical «'!lapse, always duo to a cumulative effect. Science is eliminating these conditions, and hopes to do to man the same as to the fruit fly. We wonder if Dr. Fisk has stopped to think what would become of the life assurance companies, if wo could begin to contemplate living for 1900 years. The prospect of centenarians being regarded as mere infants, and a man in his prime at 500 would be a doubtful blessing. And with the steady increase in the cost of living, who would want to live for 1900 years? 4 The current "Gazette" contains details of the revenue and expenditure of the Railway Department up to February 28th last. The revenue amounted, by that date, to £5.141,440, and the expenditure to £3,647,795. The corresponding figures in the preceding year were: rovenue £4,499,199, expenditure £2,958,787. The revenue increased, that is to say. by £642,241, and i the expenditure by £659,008. For the whole year, therefore, we may expect that the "profit on working" will be slightly greater than for 1918-1919, but as the capital invested will be greater, j the return on capital will show a deJ cline. The fact that the increaso in ! expenditure has been equal to the ini crease in the revenue is not very pleasj ant, for although the revenue suffered severely during the restriction of services, fares and freights have been high.