TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 11, 13 July 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Commander Blunl's references to the physique of New New Zealariders' Zealanders necessarPhysique. ily attracted some notice, but the lack ot ■detail in his remarks gave critics very little peg on which to hang a detailed reply. Still, the remarks f-erved to make people thoughtful, and meditation has produced a couple of resolutions in Christchurch, as the result of a large, public meeting held last night. The assembly expressed itself in favour of medical inspection of schools and the adoption of a system of national physical and military training. Dr. Mason, late Chief Health Officer, was an enthusiastic advocate of a periodical medical examination of children at the primary schools, and wont to some pains to draw up a scheme under which the teachers would assist, without materially increasing the burden entailed by the syllabus, the cadet system, and other incidentals. Strong arguments were advocated, and the Minister (the Hon. G. Fowlds) was sympathetic, but he objected to having 1 the inspection made a charge on the general taxpayer. Though the estimated cost of the project worked out as a matter of only £3000 or £4CCO a year, Mr. Vowlds fitood deferentially but firmly against it ; he believed that there were I more urgent calls on the funds that Parliament might be prepared to vote for education. It seems beyond all controversy that an investment of £3000 or £4000 a year on a careful systematic ■ "overhaul" of the primary pupils would i be eventually recouped manyfold by the State. The reasons are so obvious, and have been laboured so much, that furj ther recapitulation is unnecessary. It i may be argued that parents should keep ' an eye on their own children, but growi ing boys and girls may gradually develop defects not noticeable to an ordinary eye, though easily A'isible to the expert medical gaze. Affections of the eye, nose, throat, kinks in the physical I frame, taken in time, may be readily ! cured, and thus the value of the individuals to themselves and to the*community can be much increased. The Christchurch people deserve thanks for again bringing this vital subject into prominence, and other communities [ should co-operate for the plain benefit of tho rising generation — and posterity. While some are sighing, mostly in vain, for minor competiCompetitions tions in philanthropy ! in in New Zealand, Philanthropy. Messrs. Rockefeller and Carnegie arebattling in benefactions, , by the million. Mr. Carnegie (whose much-sought address is still Skibo Castle, Scotland) set the pace. lie has been hotly pursued by Mr. Rockefeller, but the ( Scotch-American is leading by a length or two. Mr. Carnegie is largely "planking" on libraries, and Mr. Rockefeller on more direct education schemes. He has just casually drbpped a couple of millions on to the General Education Board, New York. This brought his gifts to that great body up to £10,SOO,OOO, and placed his total philanthropy at. £24,000,000. Mr. Cafnegio, with his £27,800,000, is now less than £4,000,000 in the lead, a.nd Mr. Rockefeller could wipe out the advantage j with a flick of the pen and feel no poorer. This rivalry between millionaires, is one way for tho people to "get their own back," as some of the critics of the plutocracy are fond of saying, but in the case oi: Mr. Carnegie the Americans, who fur/iished the multiI millionaiie with much of his money, I aro having far from a proportionate share in his largesse Some towns in New Zealand have had a "picking," and others, which have applied, may now I have their hopes raised by the stimulus j given to Carnegie by the competitive ! Rockefeller. It is alleged to be one of the dreads of Mr. Carnegie that he may not be able to live long enough to give all his cash away, with reasonable caution guiding his hand, but Rockefeller's pushfulness may induce the holder of the philanthropic belt to drag the strings altogether from his purse, relax his regulations, and throw his money, anyhow, over the four quarters of the globe. Possibly the millionaires, fearing the bankruptcy court in this game of cut-throat benefaction, may be compelled to compromise and draw up rules to govern the pastime and assure a crust for themselves in their last years, but in the meantime Rockefeller seems to be / out to beat Carnegie. And the rival has a mere beggarly four millions between him and supremacy. Reading the Hon. A.. Ngata's address to the New Zealand Maori to fuse Club to-day, it is very with Pakeha? plain that the Young Maori Party is determined to strives for the fusion of the Maori minority with the European majority. Mr. Ngata pictured tho alternative, the gradual extinction of the native race, and indicated that the vigorous party would ruther have Uip Maoris "absorbed" than killed by kindness. The aim of Mr. Ngata and his energetic brethren is to gel the Maori on the same plane as his European contemporary as an industrial and eocial factor in New Zealand's life, to make the native equal in all respects us an jiirJivirhml, and «s v unit liarmonignsly . taking a place iv the community and <

then leave kindly time to blend the brown with the white. This proposition marks a very distinct and very important departure from the pakeha policy that has prevailed from the early days. The pakeha has not desired fusion, either for his own sake or the Maori's, and very many cogent arguments, with the force of much experience in many lands behind them, can be quoted against Mr. Ngata's ideal of fusion. Possibly the ancestors of the Maoris were originally in the Aryan group, .'omewhere in Asia or South-eastern or North-eastern Europe, but by their transit through the East, the Maoris became largely an Eastern race. They are admittedly a noble race, with treasured traditions and splendid characteristics. The pakeha ihay even see in the uncontaminated members much worth copying, but that confession does not imply that the pakeha or the Maori race 'would be improved by blending. There is something radically different in the stocks. Physiology seems to be against a satisfactory mixing of the very diverse elements. We shall not be surprised lo find that the bulk of European opinion will be strongly against Mr. Ngata's doctrine, with no disrespect to him or his co-reformers. It is a theory concerned with all the centuries to come, and should engage the attention of New Zealand s best minds. A few weeks ago an anonymous book by an English Free Church Polemics ■ minister attracted some atand tention. It was a protest Prayer. against the custom, which it was alleged was on tho increase, of preachers allying themselves with political factions and parties, and committing their congregations to a like allegiance. It was , noticeable that, though some of the religious papers affected to treat the subject as unworthy of notice, on the plea of the book's anonymity, the Free Church Council put forward at its public assembly two of its ablest champions to contest the conclusions of the writer. There have been several tokens of late that the protest was needed, and the increasing amount of space given up to party polemics by the religious pre*s is a phenomenon tha"t the general reader can scarcely overlook. The churches are acting unwisely, and may find themselves on dangerous as well as debatable ground. To-day we learn that the Leicester free clrarches (all of them?) have united Avith a Labour Party in a public demonstration against the Tsar's visit, organised by Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, who spoke of the hand of the Tsar as "foul with the blood of those it ought to protect." From Ramsay Macdonald to Keir Hardie is but a step; and Mr. Hardic's challenge at Wolverhampton for tho Tsar to drive through London streets is within measurable distance of Nihilism. Truly, some of the churches are in strange company ! However gratifying this attitude may be to secret revolutionary societies, it is embarrassing to the Russian par% of reform, who have already protested against its mischievous effects.. It is not edifying to find that last Sunday a hundred preachers (the "round" number suggests an approximate estimate) abandoned the preaching of tho Gospel for a kind of pious indignation meeting against tho English Government for maintaining courtesies with a friendly Power. What manner of "special prayers" were those referred to ? It is not merely in bad taste to strive to "get at" an opponent und»r tlie guise of public prayer — it is regarded by people with a seuso of reverence as a species of profanation. '