CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 230, 27 August 1938, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer.”) Herr Hitler has been urging stricter economy with soap. No wonder he has such success ■with bis Youth Movements. . . A .politician deplores what lie desribes as the Government’s “take it or leave it” attitude. Judging by the recent Budget, it is mostly “take it. * * * * * It now seems certain that the fourmasted German training barque, Admiral Karpfanger, has been lost somewhere south-west of Cape Horn, says a writer in the' Sydney Morning Herald. She is 186 days out on a voyage with a cargo of wheat from Port Germein, South Australia, to the United Kingdom, and has not been sighted snor heard of by wireless since March 1. Thus the fleet of sailing vessels which annually visits Australia to lilt part of the harvest has lost probably its best unit. There are now not many more than 40 ocean going sailing vessels in commission. About onethird of these are training ships totvarious foreign navies, and merchant services. The majority of the cargo carriers arrive in ballast- at one or other of the Gulf ports of South Australia during the wheat loading season, to lift grain to Europe. On their homeward voyages the grain fleet takes part in a race which, although not equalling the intense and sustained efforts of the tea and wool clippers in their prime, brings down into modern times much of the tradition and glory of sail.

Dr Mortimer Wheeler, in his presidential address to the Museums Association, in London, recently, suggested that few folk nowadays could answer with even moderate distinction an examination pape-r about horsedrawn vehicles, their various kinds and uses; and lie inferred that it was high time a collection illustrating the craft of the carriage-builde* should be established. In other countries museums devoted to the carriage already exist. There is one at Compiegne, another in Brussels and a wonderful royal collation at Belem on the outskirts of Lisbon. In England, though there is no institution devoted entirely or principally to the subject, the Science Museum has for some time been building up a collection, chiefly consisting of nineteenth-century types, since earlier ones, save for a few State coaches, scarcely exist. From Shawnee, Oklahoma, comes the report of an experiment. Mrs Ruth Johnson, when running for office as Commissioner of Charities, decided to conduct her election campaign entirely by telepathy. She would make no speeches either in the flesh or on the air, but would sit at home and concentrate for half an hour every day on “subjects of interest to voters.” Voters ought to he grateful to her for sparing their eardrums: and indeed a woman who can conceive so altruistic an idea shows herself to be peculiarly fitted by nature for the nost of Commissioners of Charities, observes a commentator.

•An interesting comparison may be made between the school hours for children in France and children in New Zealand according to a recent report. For children in France the school day is from eight to ten hours long. In New Zealand the school day is from five to six hours. Because of the longer school day it is found in France that by the time the children have reached ten to thirteen years they are troubled by mental fatigue, and their physical condition is below that of children of those ages in other civilised countries. Until 1936 even primary classes had a 30-hour week, with only two hours a week for physical education. In New Zealand schools, physical education, sports and outdoor activities figure as important parts of the week’s activities. But soon the French children are to have an easier system. During the year 1936 the Minister of Education tried out an experiment in three schools, whereby one afternoon a week was devoted to physical education and another afternoon a week was spent in walks to points of interest, to gardening and to manual training. This plan has been found so successful that this year the plan is being extended to twenty-nine other schools and gradually may be applied to all schools. The practice of having groups oUschool children take walks together to places of interest is both attractive and useful. In Denmark there is the system of exchanging visits at different times' of the year- betivoen rural and city school children. There is also the practice of inexpensive tours for school children to other countries.

Of all' cities bordering on the Pacific, strangely enough, none is more cosmopolitan than San Francisco, the city beside the Golden Gate, made famous in 6ong and legend. Even a swift drive through the streets reveals a remarkable variety of racial and national stocks anion" the inhabitants. This is one of the things that sets San Francisco apart from other cities of the West.. In most othei Pacific Coast communities there is such a preponderance of strictly American stock—principally recent immigrants from the Middle West or the East — that such foreign elements as exist are swallowed up. Bat in San Francispo great blocks of foreign population stand out before even the most casual observer, and a person has only to take a meal in a restaurant or hotel to encounter different nationalities among the staff and patrons. Compressed within the narrow sea-girt peninsula on which San Francisco stands, these, various nationalities are thrown into closer contact with each other than might be the case'in such a far-flung city as Los Angeles. They tend, to cluster in national colonies, but no colony can get very far from any other within the confines of the city’s limits. The result is a group of very different settlements in close proximity to each other, such as the Italian colony near North Beach, which extends to within a stone’s throw of Chinatown. And the numbers of foreign born inhabitants bulk larger in proportion to the total population than is the case elsewhere in the West.

The population of San Francisco proper is about 750,000 (the entire metropolitan area comprises nearlv 2,000,000 inhabitants). Among San Francisco’s 750!000 persons, or thereabouts, there are such large national groups of for-eign-born as 27,000 Italians, 18,000 Germans, 16.000 Chinese, 14,000 Irishmen, .10,000 Englishmen, 1.0,000 Canadians. 8000 Mexicans, 7000 Russians, 7000 Swedes, 6000 French, and 6000 Japanese. Other nationalities represented in considerable numbers are Scots, Norwegians, Greeks, Danes, Swiss, Poles, Austrians, Spanish, Yugoslavs, Finns and many Central and South Americans.