TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 80, 6 April 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A medical examination of the public school children of Health in the New South Wales National Schools, has given the Government aifd the people some cause for alarm. Some 66,000 pupils were overhauled, and it was discovered tha* 14,360 (21.7 per cent.) were suffering from defects likely to interfere witn their physical and mental development. More painful than even that sad revelation is tho news that only about 25 per cent, of the parents who were informed about the plight of their children took steps to secure a remedy. The startling and disgraceful fact confronts (he State that 75 parents in every 100 who had defective children were either too poor, too careless, or too calloua to bother about curative treatment. Poverty is no excuse for such indifference, for the State has machinery to aid parents who have not the means to pay for medical attention. We should not be pessimi&tic enough to uuppose that a similar comprehensive inspection in New Zealand would reveal a similar state of parental apathy. But for ono aspect, tko existence of eye, nose, and throat ailments among the rising generalion, there is evidence for believing that the figures here would be eeriously perturbing. In one large city school which passed under a doctor's eve not long ago, it was Known that various troublesome complaints — happily not infectious nor contagious — were prevalent, and the disorders were of a kind to escape the notice of a. mm -expert. Thin report, with other tentimony, lias vtry forcibly pvovod

that the Government should hasten to carry out a national duty in arranging for a proper periodical medical inspection of the schools. Most of the Government's philanthropic energy is devoted to the curing or relieving of troubles which might have been prevented, or largely minimised, by intelligent foresight. II is the old habit of having an ambulance at the foot of the precipice, instead of a fence at the top. Hence there are consumptive shelters, camps, and annexes, but no rigorous inspection of tuberculous cows ; hospitals and public homes of all kinds, but no care taken to arrest the ravages of insidious diseases in school children. From Bmall beginnings the Wellington Boys' Institute has For Sake of the attained a magnitude Boys. that its founders could hardly have anticipated, and its annual report, of which we publish a summary, shows not only a successful year, but a branchingout into new departments of usefulness, and an extension of its premises. We [ have from time to time recorded the developments of this institution for the training of worthy citizens, and it must gratify its promoters to see that their self-denying work of years is thriving and bearing fruit. That its attractiveness is such as to tempt the lads from the streets is shown by the fact that the average daily attendance throughout the year in the evenings iR over forty ; that the benefit of its training is generally realised is indicated by tho facility with I which situations are secured for its members by the Employment Committee. The excellent blend of training and recreation is exemplified in the new departments added during the year, which include a night-school, a basket-ball club, a troop of three patrols of Boy Scouts, and a, Christmas camp. The religious training of tho lads, which is strictly unsectarian, has been a feature fronfthe first. There are few social movements more deserving of encouragement, either in the matter of funds or of personal help, for which the constant increase ot membership and extension of departments afford ample scope. Any who may be seeking an outlet for their energies in a field more promising than those included in the category commonly known as "social reform," can find it in this direction, and their aid will be' appreciated. An enthusiastic Aucklander— rather a most enthusiastic | Agitated Auckland. Aucklander, for all Aucklanders are enthusiastic in at least the positive degree— set forth last year that Auckland was tho head, the heart of New Zealand, the body, the soul — where the air filled all with inspiration and aspiration. Ihere was a soil and a climate where genius could flourish as easily as the cabbage in patches less blessed. Much could be paid to defend that doctrine. Auckland is the nerve centre of New Zealand, quick to feel any tremor, any touch, even if it is away down at the foot of the country. To-day come telegrams saying that Auckland fears an alleged unsisterly insidiousness on Wellington's part. It has been rumoured that jenlous Wellington has been craftily wooing Auckland's love, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, so that the great liners may call at Port Nicholson instead of the Waitemata. To-day may disclose how much cause may exist for that dread of Auckland's, but iv the meantime all New Zealand can frankly admire the I northern city's vigorous onset to press Auckland's claims. The chairman of tho Chamber of Commerce sent a seductive cable message to tho company's chairman of directors, London, and all the big chiefs are astir to frustrate any flank attack from the south. Simultaneously, Auckland has some energy to spare to I strongly join in the chorus for a better recognition of the North Island's rights to adequate railway treatment. When ono taked account of the costly miles of political railways run through various parts of the South Island during the past two or three decades, the present cutcry can be easily proved well warranted. All parts of this island will be well advised to ally themselves with tireless, persistent Auckland in this matter. Auckland has a surplus of energy ; it ha 3 power enough to galvanise the whole of the island, and the whole of the two islands for that matter. The warm climate has obviously not softened the fibre of Aucklanders. Ihey are splendidly vigilant and militant. Oriental Bay's beach is a place of many memories. Some sixty A Bay years ago it so little and a Beach, appealed to a scornful visitor from England, who gazed at it from a white-winged clipper, that be scoffed at the dignity of "Oriental Bay " newly put \ipon the curving shore. Prettinecs eince then has found some footing there, and after many vicissitudes the place is to havo an esplanade, continued from Clyde-quay. This work, now partially done, is making very slow progress. The City Council put down a wall, banked up many loads of rock behind the rampart, piled clay on tho stone, and left it. Children, frolicking on the sides of the embankment, have rolled down much of the material, which now cumbers the beach. Mr. Crawford, one of the Mayoral candidates, has referred to this matter. He said last night that "the Oriental Bay beach, which had been destroyed, should be recovered if it could possibly be done." His words are rather vague. Apparently all idea of reclaiming any portion of the bay, once seriously proposed by the City Council, which got Parliamentary authority to do the work, has bocn abandoned. The strong^ chorus, for '"the poor man's beach" terrified the corporation. It is the duty of the authorities now to pu&h on with the esplanade. It seems that fate has decreed the doom of most of the beach. Some of the residents themselves, for all their clamour against the council's proposed "vandalism of the past, have assisted to disfigure the foreshore by dumping garden refuse and other rubbish there, and the steamers which pereistently break the Harbour Board's bylaw, by Rhooting garbage and other offensive material into the water, aiso assist to make the beach an insanilaiy playground. The prevailing northerly strands flotsam and jetsam which do not improve the sight or savour of the foreshore. Not even the loads of sand (even if nailed down or battened down) which ono enthusiast once advocated would long save the beach under the present circumstances.