TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 144, 17 December 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Everybody was sure that Miramar people would cheerfully | Wellington's vote £5000 (payLittle Colonies, ment to be spread over tive or six years) to induce tne Harbour Board to spend something like £30,000 for the heneh't of the Miramar colony and tho mother city as well. Miramar will get si wharf large enough to accommodate three fair-sized steamers simultaneously, and will have road improvements "thrown in." Therefor© it is not surprising that only two ratepayers voted against the £5000 loan proposal. Some little time ago, the Harbour Board, anticipating that inhabitants of Miramar would not put any obstacles in the way, put the preliminary work such as surveying in hand, and it is expected, now that, the contracts for fhe work will be let as speedily as possible. These operations in Evan's Bay will greatly benefit Miramar, but will also please many people in the city. The enlargement of the. Avharf will cheapen the cost of living on the distant suburb, and will thus tend to relieve the. citys congestion. There will be no need for anybody to weep at the prospect of losing ratepayers, for Miramar must soon come into the fold of 'Greater Wellington. Ihe board's project will also win some Jand from the sea for the comfortable accommodation of city industries which are being crowded out of 'their present quarters. The mention of "industry" is a reminder that the capital has no definite policy for securing suitable areas for manufacturers to peacefully and profitably occupy. The Harbour -board is not committed to any hard-and-fast scheme ■of reclamation in Jivans Bay. A few acres will be filled m accordance with the present agreement with the Miramar Borough Council, but future land-winning projects will be subjects of bargaining with the people who will stand to benefit by the enterprise. In the meantime the board's engineer has a commission to report on the cost of ousting the bea from a good number of acres near Korokoro, at tha north-west end of the harbour, and the Hutt River Board la offering special facilities to Wellington busineis people who are looking for new territory Mr J. P. Luke, one of the most prominent champions of Evan's Bay, has professed alarm at the energetic canvass of men interested in tho "other end." The whole matter of extensions seems to be in a haphazard state; the comprehensive policy, often advocated in these columns, is. much needed. i "The missing link" between man and a P B — the unknown .J-he human ancestor who Missing Link, ceased to walk upon „ . all-fours, and became a being erect, on tw 0 legs," is a last, generation puzzle that the popular mind has solved long age— finding in the phrase a suitable epithet of abuse to cast at an unpleasant opponent. Missing links in the evolutionary chain have ceased nowadays to be ot scientific importance as a proof of doctrine, -though necessarily remaining of great scientific interest. The stir caused by the discovery of "pithecanthropus erectus" — the upright ape-man — in Java (supposi ing that all the ded\ictions made from his bones are warranted) is likely to be matched by the notoriety of the French "find" reported in our cable messages. It is known that in the geological Ten tiary period, when Europe had a very warm climate, an interesting family of great tree-apes lived in Central France, as their bones liberally attest. S6me lady geologists, by a comparison of these bones with their own, have even reached the conclusion that it was a sportive lady ape who first decided to stand up and lead the fashion; while the gentleman ape in his uncouth way did his best to imitate her during an aeon or so. During the transition period, when early man had not definitely made up his mind on the matter, there must have been millions of "missing links" — gradually leaving off the old all-fours habit and putting on the new two-legs habit ; and doubtless it is only a matter of amassing old bones until a very fair series^ of skeletons is obtained to show the progress of the race. The doctrine of evolution, however, is no longer deemed to depend on such discoveries ; ■which are interesting chiefly as showing "how it was done." "The skull resembles that of. a human being, while the limbs indicate that the creature walked upon all fours." The sex is not cabled ; but if and when it is ascertained, with all deference to the lady geologists and the lady-ape who led the way up, we do not know that we shall be especially glad to hear that the French "creature" was in her humble day and way a lady. The world has moved so fast since then, and the ladies havo developed so many more excellent : and entertaining qualities.

Sailors' minds, which in all ages and in all countries, Disasters have been prone and their Lessons, to look for luck, good or bad, in names and signs, may begin to have a bias against "Kia Ora." The sad news from Auckland, announcing the wreck of the scow Kia Ora, with the loss of three lives, recalls the foundering of another Kia Ora, a steamer which had a fate contrary to the purport of its name, "Gooa Luck" (the Kia Ora, which figures so much in Ministerial communications to p"eople over the sea, is said to be Maori "taproom slang"). The vessel struck a rock, by night, on the Taranaki coast last year, and several of the wayfarers lost their lives. Tho enquiry aroused much interest all over New Zealand, for it was alleged that one officer, who was held responsible for the ship's course at the time of the disaster, was ' giving more attention to conviviality than to the nautical reckoning. Much controversy about "packet licenses" came, and many resolutions, hostile to the granting of them, wers adopted. But when other things crowded in on the one sad memory, the debate gradually eased off. "Packet license" does occasionally figure as a topic} but th© absence of another calamity associated with liquor keeps public interest in it down at a low point. It generally lequires mure than one catastrophe to usher in a reform. A great fire or two in America gave the authorities of the whole white world a fit of energy. They rushed around to theatres and churches, examining 'the doors and reporting, 'but one has only to visit soma of the Wellington theatres on a "rush" night to see that the lesson, which was once so sharp, has lost its edge. A devastating fire in a school in America induced the Education Board to appoint a conu niittee to report on the condition of local schools, but we believe that the investigation, which must have revealed the need of improvements, has brought little change for the better. Previously we have said that the " prac tical man " of the hard- ' Practical " headed, short - sighted Education. variety, is really the least "practical," when a true test is applied. The "practical man" scoffs at- Latin, the history of the past, "science" (everything not con. nected with hammering nailß or measuring a bit of board by rule-of-thumb is useless "science" with him). The "practical man" is very often a person of very little real education; he may owe success to (the possession of outstanding native ability, but is, rather inclined to attribute it to the fact that he has not squandered any time on Latin or other " fool things." It is consoling, amid the din made by, "practical men" to hear Mr. Robert Lee pleading for more attention to the art side of education for boys and pirls in the schools With a syllabus such as the one that now burdens the little folk and their teachers, it may not bo possible to devote much time to "art." There is some provision for it in the " nature study section, but we shrewdly suspect that " nature study" does not give Wellington children, for instance, much worry. It is not necessary to lavish hours in trying to teach children a jargon about art; the important thing is to give them a bent, an inclination in tne right direction, and then they will improve themselves. The craze of the age is for bread-and-butter subjects at school, the "practical" persons forgetting that man does not livo by bread alone. A boy may learn an occupation that may bring him more gold than he can decently spend on himself, but ho gets little out of life if his powers of mental enjoyment have not been cultivated. The greatest enemies that children have are the "practical" persons, who are for ever preaching the " uselessne&s '* of subjects which they do not understand.