CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15557, 6 March 1911, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

The solution of the >roblem of unemployment in London has ueen tackled in a modest way by the A acant Land Cultivation Society, which has been doing admirable work for some four or five years. In Canning Town the Society has rented thirty acres of land, which formerly comprised two grass fields, but now provides occupation during ten months in the year for more than two hundred dock labourers, who can obtain only infrequent employment at their ordinary calling. Each man has a patch of ground rather smaller than ono-eiglith of an aero, on which he grows vegetables, cultivating the land, intensely. Seeds are supplied by the Society at wholesale prices, credit being given until the first crop is sold. Potatoes are always the principal crop, but numerous varieties of vegetables are grown, and the majority of tho men are able to produce enough for their families and a fairly large quantity for sale. The cost of seeds for each plot does not exceed seven shillings, and the average yield is worth about £6 a year. An ordinary family consumes about £2 worth of vegetables in tho year, so that tho return from his little plot is a valuable addition to the income of a. dock labourer who, under other conditions, spends a very considerable portion of his time in waiting for employment. Tho Society's good work fortunately is not confined to Canning Town. It has secured small areas in Fulham, "Wandsworth, Tooting, Balhara, Westminster, Hampstead and Leyton, and controls altogether about sixty acres, oil which employment is found for some five hundred men. The cultivation of his small plot occupies only a portion of the holder’s time, and the majority of the men who have boen benefited by the Society’s scheme are clamouring for more land. They are all townsmen, and most of them were quite ignorant of gardening when they took up their sections, but they have proved diligent students and hard workers, and they have obtained completely satisfactory results. The Society’s experiment has been crowned with remarkable success. It certainly suggests that if only some of the largo estates in the country could he cub up into very small holdings provision might he made for a large proportion of London’s unemployed. A strange story was told a few weeks ago by Air John Loekyer, an Englishman who wrote from an Austrian town to the London “ Daily News." He found hirasolf, a

WORK FOR THE ) WORKLESS. T

A BRITON’S •niKL.

plain, unromantic Briton, committed to fight with sabres an angry Austrian officer. A quarrel had occurred over some trilling matter, the Englishman had been challenged, and he found that he must fight or leave, the country. In consideration ol the fact that ho had never handled a sword of any description, ho had been allowed a month to prepare for the combat. “ The fencing master,” he wrote, “spoke very hopefully and encouragingly this morning, and, as I have a quick eye and am supple, thanks to cricket, tennis, boxing, and other good old English sports at which I am an old hand, I feel confident enough, and hope to make it warm for my opponent when it comes, literally speaking, to the point.” Mr Lockyer added that the Austrian code of honour, as interpreted by military officers, was a. curious thing. A soldier who was insulted while in uniform was required instantly to draw his sword and attempt to cut down the offender. The wounding or killing of a civilian by an army officer was by no means 'a rare event. Sometimes the civilian, if he were on his guard, could seise his assailant’s sword hand before the weapon was drawn, and would have a chance then to wrest the sabro away and break it. An officer who suffered this indignity would be tried by a courtmartial and probably drummed out of the army. “To murder an unarmed man seems a barbarous and uncouvincing way of vindicating one’s honour,” added Mr Lockyer, “ but it is the thing to do in military circles hero. If the victim is killed there may he some little fuss, and the noble officer be sent to a fortress for a month or two and promoted later. If, on the other hand, the man is merely wounded, more or less seriously, nothing is likely to be heard of the matter.” The Englishman's duel has been fought ere this, and no doubt his courage, if not his skill, was equal to the occasion. In the course of an interview in Sydney some days ago, Air F. H. Jackson, an Australian mining engineer who has spent five years in Mexico, endeavoured to remove from Australian minds some misapprehensions in regard to the country he had just left. It is something more, he says, than the land of revolutions and the home of riots. There is a great deal or money in the country, and it continues to flow in freely. Until quite recently the Mexicans were behind the times, but they are beginning to move ahead rapidly. Railway construction is being pushed forward and tho lines are being nationalised. Alining is making great strides, and in Air Jackson’s opinion Mexico 13 tho finest mining country in the world. Silver is, of course, the principal product, hut gold is being worked extensively. Formerly the Mexicans I did not understand the treatment of gold, hut tho introduction of the cyanide process has opened the way to great development. Throughout tho country new mines are being worked by foreign capital. Tho mining laws are excellent, though unfortunately they have caused considerable discontent among tho natives, who think that foreigners aro favoured at the expense of tho Mexicans. The truth of tho matter is, Mr Jackson says, that tho Mexicans enjoy the same privileges as foreigners do, but are too lazy to take advantage of them. They are especially hostile towards tho people of tho United States, believing that they aro anxious to gain control of tho neighbouring country. Tho anti-foreign riots that occur are really anti-American riots, and those who are concerned in those disturbances generally respect tho lives and property of British, Gorman and French residents. Tho Mexicans desire to attract population from ether parts of the world as a means of counteracting American aggressiveness. Air Jackson considers that the revolutionary disturbance which began in November and still is dragging along is of no great importance. The people are tired of the present Administration, ho says, but the revolution is ill-organised and affects only a section of the people. In the south it was not regarded a 3 serious when he left a few weeks ago, and ho sees no reason for anticipating that it will check the progress of the country.

THE HEAL MEXICO.