TOPIC OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1908, Page 6

TOPIC OF THE DAY.

Not too soon the trustees of the Wellington Hospital have doMean deled to take vigorous Evaders, measures to create a spirit of reasonableness in the patients who can pay for treatment but will not pay. The innocent sheep, who really cannot pay, are to be drafted from the goats who have moiie cash than pride, and the goats are' to ha brought to court, if necessary. There is a class of persons — with ever increasing numbers— in New Zealand who delight to lean on the other fellow's shoulder. Unwillingly they pay rates and taxes, and when these dues have been wrung from them they imagine that they have the' ! freehold ripht over all public institutions. They may have more than a fair share of this world's goods, but are convinced that they should not devote any of this substance to medical men. Therefore when they are sick they go to th-s public hospital, and whether the treatment is indoors or out of doom, they Recline to contribute anything direct to the cost. Gladly they try to pass the whole burden on to somebody else. It is therefore pleasant to hear that theso spineless individuals are, to have some backbone put into them, even if it requires a stipendiary magistrate to perform tho operation. With this- sensible policy the trustees will secure some- more money, and they should spire a little for the probationers and first-yep.r nurses. That docking of 30s a year from the probationers and £5 from the junior nurses is not creditable tb the trustees. _ / When Jones's, or "Jonah's," English team was selected to Internationa] defend the coveted Cricket. ashes secured four years ago by Warner's men, cricketing wiseacres at Home shook their old heads portentously and pre dieted defeat What, said they, could be expected from a team that is an experiment, of which one half had yet to' win its spurs in the crucial test of an international jgame. How could a team claim to be representative of th© best of English crioket that did not include Jackson, Fry, Tyldesley, Hirst. M'Laren, Hay ward, .Foster? Yet in the opening stages of tho tour it really did look as if the selectors would prove right and the prophets akin to those of Baal. A glorious victory over New South Wales encouraged the British press to indulge in hopes that time has not fructified. Then came the struggle' in the first test, wnich the visitors lost by the .narrow margin of two wickets, to be followed by the sensational ciicket of the second match al •Melbourne, a fortnight later, \yhen Humphries, Barnes, and Fielder proved the heroes of the great one-wicket victory. But iW old colonial general. Noble, had' gauged both the strength and weakness of his opponents ; not to speak of- the Australian sun in his courses, assisting his Cornstalk children. >Hence the Adelaide debacle to be Spoken of in whispers wherever th-~ Islanders of the 'North. Sea do congregate. The victory of 245 runs was likt 1 h decisive battle in a campaign. The Englishmen mus^ have felt that they had met their masters. They were opposed by me,n whose cricket was mort> resourceful and "heady." The contrast between the second and fourth tests, both played at Melbourne, must have been painfully < evident to the spectators. In the one .ill was excitement, episode, dramatic incident, the players from the Old Land showing the mettle of their pastures; in the other playing a flaccid, hopeless game without a flash s>f the old determination to pull the match out of the lire. The ability of the Australians to play either a winning or an uphill game has once again been fully demonstrated. Of the last fifty test matches Australia has won 21 and England 18, the remainder being drawn. The inarch of the Manchester unemployed is providing England Earthquake with a series of newsat paper sensations. The Eton. idea- of the eighteen trampers was to petition the King for leave to cut up the grounds of Windsor Ca&tle into vegetable gardens. The Home Secretary notified th& men that the petition would not be received ; but tho crazy idea did not fail of a crazy welcome. The headmaster of Eton, of all places, collected his boys in the famous quadrangle, and invited the peregrinating eighteen to address them. The chance was seized, and the boys were told that a stony-hearted plutocracy would provoke another English, revolution if it wasn't careful — and other extraordinary thing 3 that appear in our cable messa-ge. Asked^iKthey were ready for a, Commonwealth, tho boys , shouted "No." Then the headmaster told tho boys that they had heard home truths, and they had better go and think about them ! The comments of pjraits and the press, though unheard at this distance, aie distinctly audible. What IS England, coming to? The Rev. Edward' Lyttelton is apparently a serious-minded' personage, to bo taken seriously. Tho distress which the unemployed pilgrims claim to represent is genuine enough. Possibly fclieir oratory was invited as au educational spectacle, after the fashion of the Spartan who exhibited the helot. Nevertheless Eton and England must have been struck with amazement. When they get breath again the Rev. Edward Lyttelton is going to bo talked to more furiously than the unemployed talked to his schoolboys. At this distance we cannot discern clearly whether he is an ass or a heio. t Again the immigrant, "unable to get work," is causing some The debate. A young man, Immigrant not robust, appeared beProblem. fore the Wellington Benevolent Trustees yesterday in search of assistance for himself, his wife, and infant.' He explained that he had paid his passage out, and was a painter of a sort, but the union laws prevented him from getting employment at his trade because he was not a competent man. He had been offered work along tho Main Trunk line, but was not strong enough for ljavvyiny. "1 Mas strongly advised to come to New Zealand ; in fact they painted it up to me too much/ ha oouxoiained. It is an

old story, and true enough. There is work here just now in abundance for the fit and strong, but the delicate, with no particular skill to compensate for absence of physical strength, do not come into a paradise. It seems that many persons arrive here under a misapprehension. They expect to find easy berths awaiting them, and they blame the advertisements — distributed through Great Britain— for their disappointment. There is often fault on both sides, but the fact remains that the Government has no definite, solid scheme for attracting population of the kind required. Theie is a check on assisted immigrants, but what about others who can pay their way? They see tho advertisements, and say afterwards that they have been misled. This country mostly needs brawn and sinew for development purposes ; the plain truth should be told to the intending emigrants of Great Britain. Good tidings to ■ teachers in country schools are contained in a Hope for paragraph published in Teachers, yesterday's issue. It was thorein announced that the Minister . for Education, the Hon. G. Fowlds, would submit to Parliament next session a proposal for the remedying of the inequalities of the salaries of school teachers, especially in the case of the sole teacher in small country schools. The necessity for reform in this branch of the teaching service has been emphasised by the scarcity of volunteers for these schools in the back country. Certificated teachers object strongly to going out into the wilderness. Why? It is not that the pioneer spirit is lacking. The work is hard, probably harder than in any other type of school, because all the standard classes are present, and the whole syllabus has to be covered by one teacher. It is not the roughness of the life or tho severity of the work that deters teachers. It is the other circumstances of poor pay that a shower of rain or sickness in a single family may reduce to a mere pittance ; the prospect of advancement cut off by the distance from the district centre and the consequent stagnation of effort. To remedy the first, one Education Board suggests that the keeping of bees may prove an additional source of income ; to provide a just and adequate system of promotion nearly every board has admitted its impotence. The result is seen in such a piteous letter as was read at a recent meeting of a Southern Education Board. The writer complained bitterly that in spite of an oxcelleht record and high certificates his frequent applications for promotion from his small country school had been all in vain. The board confessed the usual inability to do anything. But something must be done, if the teaching service is to get satisfactory recruits. Tho Post has already sketched the general lines of reform in the abolition of the injustices and anomalies in the present system, and a more equitable scale of remuneration. Mr. Fowlds's proposals should help towards this end. A land may have good laws, but "eternal vigilance" is An necessary if they are Irresponsible to be of real service. Parent. So long as truancy continues our education system must fail to carry out its intention of giving equal opportunity to all in the matter of school learning* People are too ready to assume that all the children of tho colony go to school. Sometimes startling revelations to the contrary are made. In Christchurch, lately, the father of a young criminal of seventeen or eighteen gave evidence that the- boy could neither read nor write. The man had nineteen children, and seemed to ignore paternal responsibilities. He "could not do much for his family," he said, "and did not know the ages of the children." Judge Denniston observed that he semed to regard them mftch.as he might so many sheep*.' It would be interesting to know if any others of his neglected progeny aye embarking on lives of idleness and crime, and qualifying themselves to be a charge on the community in years to come. The instance is no doubt exceptional, but such cases ava not so rare as might be supposed. It .is comparatively easy to enforce the truancy regulations in cities and towns but in the remoter districts, and even on the outskirts of boroughs, where some lilt 1 " effort and system is' required to cji.u'c regular attendance, there is reason to believe that some of the more careless and casual parents allow children to grow up in ignorance. Wo believe that marriage-registers are signed by young New Zealanders with marks more ofton than should be the case after a generation of efficient State schools. Attendance must be more rigidly enforced, until such a scandalous caso as that which has come to light in Christchurch shall be impossible..