OUR YOUNG FOLKS' COLUMN

Mataura Ensign, 25 January 1912, Page 2

OUR YOUNG FOLKS' COLUMN

Dear Boys an.d Girls, —One can hardly realise that" the first month'of the new year is already approaching its close. With it comes the end of the holidays. One by one those who have J been away are returning and soon we shall all be hard at work again. On | the sth or 6th of February the curtain j will rise and the year's performance ; will begin. But there is no prize withj out the dust of the race, and we want jno easy flower-strewn paths. Though the year's work is hard.,and long we are going to see it through. Some of course have left school to enter the great world of work. Their success will depend almost wholly upon I two things—viz., sobriety and interest in their work. The pathways of life! are strewn with the wrecks of splendid manhood, broken by the storms of intemperance. It is too often the ablest [ men that go down, those with the most highly-strung nervous system and the keenest brains. And one asks again and again: Why do lads learn to drink ? And echo answers: Because they think it is ma illy. If only they- could see a little further they would realise their danger and avoid ending in the gutter. Strong drink is the one great danger that lies before every boy as he reaches the portals of manhood. But too often Tie will not believe that the danger ( is real. Oh, the pity of it! v " * v The second thing that mars a boy's career is his lack of interest in his work. Some consider work a useful thing in so far as it supplies them with pocket-money, but it is not to be taken too seroiusly. For these—and I gladly acknowledge they are few it, nunK-i—----there is no true success in life. They dodge along, generally not anxious to find too much work, and always un- '. sought-for by employers who know them. Perhaps in no country in the 1 world and at no former time have there been such excellent opportunities in life ; as there are now. The pass lists of the various examinations show that when , the young people cf the Gere district , put themselves to a lob they can hold r their own, and that is putting the mat- ] ter mildly. But I am becoming too narrow and j

parochial :n view. Lee us, have a look at what j 3 happening on ciii our own beloved land. In Ei;i>pe political af- ■ lairs are serious. Italy and Turkoy are at war. No great oat;L«?s are being fought, but there is a good deal i.f .daughter ,tnd suffering Luckily the strife has not spread to European territory. Britain and Germany are at least pretending to be good friends, but there is more suspicion than, trust or good friendship. Germany ■ n akes out that Britain wants to rule the waves, one of her own songs says sc, and Germany is not going to acknowledge any master at sea. The Brit'sh say that Germany, not content with her European supremacy on 'and, is determined also to be ruler of hhe waves. Germany, too, came upon the scene as a colonising Power when the British had long before annexed the best paris, many of which are not nearly half filled. Germany wants more room, and believes or professes to believe that Britain is acting like a dog in the manger. There is plenty of pretexts for war if either party is hot-headed enough to declare it. The fact is that but for th-j enormous cost of a great struggle we might have been in the turmoil of war i.rae time ago. In Asia China is in a state of revolution. An immense country with a vast population, it may be years before a settlement is arrived at. Then Delhi is to be the future capital of India instead of Calcutta. The King's proclamation regarding this was a momentous event in the great Indian Empire's history. Done to pacify the Bengalis, it may enrage others; but the deed is now irrevocable. North America, with the exception of the war against trusts and the rearranging of Mexican affairs, is at .peace. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans flock to its shores every year. It seems not only willing but also able to absorb the overflow population of the densely-settled European countries. And the Americans are proud of the fact. I heard a characteristic Yankee i

I say one evening some while ago, "Ours is the only country in the world where every man has his chance." Questioned . about the way in which unskilled work- ) I men found employment, he filtered . I down through his nose a reply somes thing like this: "We put a pick into \ his hand and show him how. Yes, he i gets his chance." * To the further question what happened to the man who was no use at the end of a pick, he calmly remarked: "Oh, ho gets run over! That's all." Someone in the room remarked that the night was cold and that the fire seemed not to give out much heat. The American's comment was: "Well, now, that fire is not a room-warmer; it's a chimney-warmer. That's what it is. In my country we heat our rooms by letting in hot air through slides in the wall. We keep our heat apparatus in the basement. You can have your room just whatever temperature you like." Of course it would have been rude to my } "You just press a button, don't youE'* Two of the States in South America close to the equator are having a little settling-up about a boundary dispute. Land was and is yet a plentiful commodity there. One State was not clearly divided from the next—no boundary fence. But when rubber came to be scarce and dear, then the practically no-man's land with its rubber trees became important and each . country claimed it. Then followed broken heads. A relative of mine, in,his young days manager of a big sheep station in Aus- ■ tralia, rode out with his master to see how the boundary riders were getting \ on. Awa#? on the edge of the run they ( came upon one, and the owner of the ] station addressing him remarked that the neighboring runholder's boundary rider had a happy knack of "finding" other people's sheep. "Never you mind about that, Sir John," came back the reply; "for every one of yours he 'nicks' I'll have three from him!" Now that is the spirit in which boundary disputes are often settled away in far-off South American republics. In North Africa there have been rumors of wars over Morocco, and as we have already seen there is war in Tripoli. Kitchener keeps guard over Egypt, silent and stern as ever. Some parts of Central Africa will pass from French to German hands, one result of the Moroccan dispute. South Africa still suffers from the ill feeling existing between Boer and Briton. And beside that there is a big native question, the comparatively few whites having to control a vast population of colored people. UNCLE PHIL.