ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 4, 6 January 1910, Page 7

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Before he left Melbourne for Sydney on Saturday (remarked the Melbourne Argus on 14th December) the Federal Minister for Defence, sfter consultation with Surgeon-General Williams, : made an important announcement with reference to the draft scheme of national physical training for all Australian boys and girls, the ground work of which was laid down by a conference convened i by the Labor Ministry early in this ' year. The Mnister first pointed out that the report of this conference had • been laid by General Williams, a% his request, before the State G«*rernments, and the replies to the Federal Government's communications were, so far, generally of "a favorable character." Some of the States had made suggestions and offered criti- : cisnij valuable and otherwise, but on the whole the letters were "distinctly , favorable." "It is now suggested," continued the Minister, "that a iurther conference should take place at the end of January.next or early in February, for the purpose of considering these criticisms and ' finishing' the whole of these, preliminary proposals. At this further conference we expect to have a number of the private schools and colleges represented. They were not represented at the last conference, which was confined to State school authorities. We are, ' thereforej widening the basis of > representation -at the next confer- (

"erice, and hope to make such arrangements there as will enable us. to go ahead with the physical training of cadets without any undue interference with their general scholastic training^, our idea being that, after prescribing the standards, we should leave the instruction, as far as possible, to the schools to carry out."

v Several members of the Australian cricket team which played in the Old Country last season returned to Aus-tralia-via the Far East. In an article in the Melbourne Argus,;. Mr l?rank. Layer, the manager of the team,- says:—"We visited various parts of the Malay States by steamer, .train-, and motor, noting- with particular interest the native life and rubber plantations. Everybody talks rubber and tin in Malay, and. everybody appears interested, in one or the other—many in both. The Sultan of Johore said that it was the merest accident that he planted rubber, instead of grass for cattle. Now he is getting about 10s a pound for rubber, and we were requested to remain and make a .'fortune too. They almost tempted us to do so, especially when the- head of the Government offered lisa generous concession to'stay arid plant rubber. Though labour is cheap, a fair amount of capital is required at the start, but after the trees are once planted the expenses are small. . . Life in the East is a little demoralising; and tends to spoil Europeans who have afterwards to live in other parts of the world, where 'boys' arenbt available for all kinds of menial work* Quite an army of servants are necessary for people living in the East. One dare not carry a parcel, however small, in Singapore. It would be infra dig to do so. A boy must carry it for you. If you desire to walk across the street you must engage a rickshaw to convey ■you. ' 'Boys' do not work very hard, but the hours are long, and Sundays are the same as ordinary days. Shops are kept open, fields cultivated, and washing done, every day of the week, without distinction of the day."

Victoria, British Columbia, has long been.known as the "honeymoon town" of the Pacific Coast, and, accordingjto the Daily, Times, there are indications that this description must hereafter be taken as literally accurate. Wedding licenses are being issued to couples from the United States at the rate of five or six per day. The explanation appears to be that the. State of Washington, which has a somewhat unenviable record. in the matter,"of "freak" legislation, recently passed an Act making it imperative for: people: about to marry: to have the state of (their health investigated by a physician appointed by the Government. Natural!j. this proved a very obnoxious measure, andso great was'the outcry that the: Act was modified, so as to enable the candidate for matrimony to be examined by his or her own. physician, and then make an affidavit setting forth that the applicant for the license was in good health. "The young people, who had been taught to believe that liberty of action'was an inherent privilege of all the sons and daughters of Uncle Sam, have not taken kindly to this amended Act, and the consequence is that they are coming to Victoria in large numbers, and marrying according to >the less-encumbered, and at the same time more binding, laws of Canada.

At^ a confirmation service in the Anglican church at Gundagai, N.S.W., recently Bishop Barlow, of Goulburn, delivered a vigorous address on gambling, and applied it to both the home and national life. He declared that gambling gripped the people in Australia with such deadly force as to constitute the greatest blot upon the life of the nation. Hisindictment was directed, as much against society people, who should set an example, as against the form of the evil with, which the people were familiar. Some of the houses of the supposed best classes were at times turned into veritable gambling dens, where people alleged to be assembled out of friendship sought to take from other people what they had not earned. His experience in Australia of gambling, with its sinuous, snakelike, soul-destroying forces, left upon his mind the sad impression that itwas worse than one might expect from the lowest haunts in Italy and the slums of Naples. Even some of his own friends, he was sorry to admit, sank away their substance through such channels as TattersalFs sweeps. Gambling, above everything else, was the national curse in Australia. His advice to the people of Australia, if they desired to save the nation from being totally strangled by the great evil of gambling, was to fight against all temptations in that . direction, including playing bridge for stakes.

A peculiar study, involving the question, "How much brain can a man do without?" has presented itself in the case of the man Biggs, who tried to commit suicide on his wife's grave in the Rotorua Cemetery on Christmas morning, The bullet emerged from the top of the head above. the right temple, carrying away some of the brain substance, of which the doctor estimates the patient has lost seven or eight ounces. In spite of this loss, however, the man is making, a good . recovery, and the wounds arc expected to be healed in a week or two. Apart from the interesting illustration of a man living at'tec having, lost several ounces of

, his brainj there arises the question | whether Biggs will be able to walk ■■ when he recovers, as experiment with birds and animals has shown that the frontal lobes of the brain control the movements and adjustment necessary to the balancing of the body, and their removal has rendered the animal operated upon incapable of regulated action. In Bigg's case it is expected that he will be unable to walk, through incapability to balance himself. i ——• ' It is often^ facetiously stated that the most unimportant person at a • wedding is the bridegrom. It is not often, however, that a wedding is fully described in a. newspaper report without the slightest mention being made of the bridegroom. This. unique feat has been accomplished by a Post reporter. It was a pretty ; wedding too—took place at Karori in ! the open air. The bride, and what , she wore,* is daintily described, the parsons' names mentioned—two of them—bridesmaids, best man, groomsman, the man who played the Wedding March, but—the bridegroom, the quite unimportant bridegroom, is not mentioned at all. As the report concludes by stating that "Mrs Johnson s travelling dress was pastel blue cloth, the reader, may assume that the bridegroom really was present somewhere, and that his name was Johnson. At any rate that is the only clue to the identity of the bridegroom in the whole length of the charming report of the wedding.

Some boys like work. A clerical speaker at one of the school prize functions (says- the Hawke's Bay Jierald) told how that morning he had been awakened at about halfpast five by a lad who wanted to repeat a certain long lesson for a prize. The recitation occupied a good part of an hour. Thereafter the lad proceeded to do his day's work. He had to milk three cows, travel four miles to an orchard, pick fruit till five at night, return the four miles,- milk his three cows and go home. He has just' sat for the scholarship examination. The, clergyman was dressing" when another candidate was announced—a diminutive youth in the Third Standard. He had walked two miles. He," too, recited for about ""ah hour; and left shortly after eight for school. It would appear that the vigour and valour of the race is not exhausted.

The keepers of the Paris Zoo noticed a man who, in. spite of the pouring rain, was strolling to and fro in the gardens and talking to himself. Suddenly he threw off most, of his clothes, and as nimbly as a monkey swarmed up the bars of a cage containing two African hyenas. Before he could be stopped he had let himself down and commenced a wild dance before the animals, «who quickly retreated in .terror. Three keepers entered the den, and not without difficulty mastered the dancer and carried him off to the nearest police station. Here it was discovered that his name was:Auguste Hinout, and that he had been discharged from the lunatic asylum at Villejuif only a month ago. He was at once sent back to his former quarters.

Count Reventlow, the eminent naval expert, writing on the outbreak of war, states:—"We in Germany must not be blind to-the fact that in naval warfare the period of straightforward, honest declarations of war, or of open preparations for war, has gone by for ever. It will certainly be the object of the assailant to begin hostilities by a surprising, and, if possible, a demoralising blow against the enemy. That.must never be forgotten. Regrettable as it may be, there is to-day certainly no naval expert who is riot convinced that the next naval Avar will begin with such a breach of international law, and at a moment when the enemy least expects an attack."

An ordinance making it a misdemeanour to swear' has "been passed by the City Council of Durland,: Wis. The Judge of the City Court is a radical ' 'anti-cuss,,. agitator, and is punishing the offenders to the limit. On the first day the law was in effect three residents used profanity, and were fined £5. The trio swore some more then, but did it on the quiet. Ihe Court fined the parents of a boy who swore £1, because they had not properly educated the youngster. The users of "cuss" words threaten to appeal, for there is a question as to the list of words under the ban. The objectors believe it is just as wicked for a woman to say "gosh" as for a man to use a stronger expression.

A poiiltry farmer near Masterton was surprised, recently, to find young ducklings dying off, apparently from no cause. After losing several dozen, one was sent to a poultry expert for examination, when the cause of death was found to be heat apoplexy. it has been noticed, that in very hot weather ducks ahvays seek shade and sleep most of the day, if not disturbed;

"MAN WANTS Bt^XiTTLE^MKr

BELOW."

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