TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 76, 1 April 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

• ♦ Again men are wrangling about the Wellington Girls' Girls, Governors, College, and many and Government, of the free-place pupils are still standing •in the cold, while the men enjoy the warmth o f debate. For three or four years a guerilla warfare has been going on between the Board of Governors and tho Education Department about the Girls' College and the free-place pupils. The board's' chairman (Mr. Brandon) and the Minister (the Hon. G. i'owldfi) have had fights and they have had armed truces, and have watched each other narrowly from cover. Mr. Brandon has steadily believed that the Government's proposals were likely to injure the college, and the Minister has regarded Mr. Brandon as a hindrance to democratic educational achievement. One pitched battle after another has been fought. Threats, veiled and open, have been made by Mr. Fowlds, and ho has pointed to the artillery of Parliament to overawe his opponent, but tho intrepid Mr. Brandon has declined to be frightened. Just when all spectators of the Home ric combat between Hector and Achilles thought that the duel had been finished, there comes news of a renewal of hostilities. The Government offered £3500 for additional accommodation at tho college to enable the excluded girls to find room. The letter conveying this offer set out that it would be necessary for the plans of tho rooms, with some indication of their relation to the future complete building, to be approved by the Minister. Mr. Brandon believed that those stipulations were too vague. Frankly, he thought that tho board might get involved in a building scheme which would engulf the £3500, and the Government might be dilatory in assisting in the completion. He asked for a more specific revelation of the departmental mind, and it was denied. It was agreed at yesterday's meeting of the board to defer further discus sion of the difficulty. It seems that the board should make the best of the £3500 to build the rooms now required. Tho onus of providing all necessary extra space for the free-place gills is on the Government, by the repeated admissions of the Minister. If Che Government fails in its duty it is for the board to make tho position clear to the public, and the Government can then como in for any opprobrium which [it mty h»vo denerved.

A permanent fellowship of the Empire's press has followed the A Press great conference of last Fellowship, year. When the delegates from Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, New Zealand, and other portions of the British Dominions met their brethren of the Old Country, all well realised that it would be good for the newspaper profession, and good for the Empire, to establish a sympathetic understanding between the heads of the English pres3 thioughout the speaking world. Hence has come the creation of the Empire Press Union (described in Wednesday's I Post), an organisation solidly founded and completely equipped for its mission. The conference has developed into a conf ratfcrnity, with machinery for gathering the opinion of the Empire's leading pressmen on important questions. The constitution has been thoroughly and strongly framed; the founders have built for the years. There is provision for the formation of branches of the union in the various countries, and facilities to enable the sections to keep in touch with one another, and with the headquarters in London. Triennial reunions will happen as a matter of course on well-ordered lines, and thus by personal contact every three years, and by correspondence in the intervals, the comradeship should be well established and easily maintained. Such a union means that the members of the Imperial family — the peoples of the Motherland and the daughter States — will know one another better than in the past. "Public opinion" in Australia or New Zealand, for example, will be less likely than formerly to be misunderstood in Great Britain, Canada, or any other Red territory. The union will valuably g«rve to make the truth of one country appear in its own true light to the people of the other countries. Genius is only in rare cases a matter of inheritance, and many Father a man of more than and Son. average attainments has found the overshadowing fame of his father rather a drawback than otherwise, for he has been expected to live up to i f . Possibly this %vas anticipated from Alexander Agassiz, director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, whose death at the age of seventy-four was reported by cable yesterday. His illustrious father had this distinction — that he r ound his vocation in early youth and struck out new lines in science for himself ; of the son, the record of his life's work, as briefly recorded in our obituary column yesterday, is sufficient to warrant the conclusion that he worthily carried on his father's special ivork. It is not often that such a scientific genius arises as the elder Agassiz — an original thinker, most of whose bold generalisations have met with acceptance, and whose name — a rare distinction for a man of science — is embalmed in two fine poems by Longfellow : the dainty verses written in 1857, on the fiftieth anniversary of his birth, and tho touching sonnet inspired by his death in 1873. Most readers will remember the lines :—: — And Nature, tho old nurse, took Tho child upon her knee, Saying, "Hera is a story-book Thy father hath written for thee. Come, wander with mo," she aaid, "Into regions yet untrod, And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God." 111-health in his later years failed to quench the old philosopher's spirit; though he longed for four years more to complete important work he had recently initiated. It would be some compensation to him to reflect that he had left a Bon to carry on his researches. As examples of inherited scientific genius tho Agassiz, father and son, may yet bo cited along with the three generations of B.erthelots. Last year's sowing of Imperial Conference seed is to proNew Zealand in duco a golden harthe Pageant? vest this year — tho Festival of Empire, of which the character has been iully set out in The Post from time to time. One knows that Captain Cook is to have full justice in the display, but one is not sure how much a grateful New Zealand will assist in honouring the great navigator We gather that the Government has been giving some thought to the part which Isew Zealand should play in the pageant, but it seems that no definite plan has been adopted. Time presses-; the sister countries are busy. A report from Newfoundland, just received, shows that the people there were quick to see the advantages, patriotic and otherwise, of representation in the mighty tourney. All classes and creeds were represented at a great public meeting at St. John's. Sir Edward Morris said that the Government would give "a reasonable sum" towards the enterprise, and he inferred that the people should prove their interest in the undertaking by subscribing some money. Sfr Edward properly stressed the argument of patriotism, and then naively passed to andther. ''Another aspect," he said, "is •the purely business or advertising standpoint. The Festival of Empire offers a fane opportunity of advertising the colony, and one which might' never occur again." Good words, all of them, for New Zealand. Tho Government here should -be prepared to invest a "reasonable sum." Wo have no desire to see a vote for a display calculated to dazzle the assembled millions and convince them that tke "show" was in every way "worthy of Dominion." A better plan would be for tho Government to practically head a subscription list vrifih .1 sum within its means, and the general public, as individuals, should gladly supplement what they have given, collectively, through the Government. The "value received," from all points of view, would amp!} repaj the subscribers for the outlay.