CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 18 February 1939, Page 10

CURRENT TOPICS

(J3y “Wayfarer.”)

The writer who suggests that schoolchildren should be taught housework evidently wants sweeping changes m education. * . Lord MacMillan, chairman of th« court of the University of London, m an address to a recent conference, said ■that he did not think that every citizen should have a university educa‘There was at one time a demand that ail should luave the same educational advantages,” lie said, but we are wiser 'now. We remain equally lesolute that the universities shall be open to all but we recognise that it would not be wise for all to enter them. ’ “There is no generalisation more fallacious than the aphorism that all men are born equal. A ' vlsc , r . ]^ cm 'T cracv is now realising that while ail men" have equal fundamental rights as members of the body politic, nevertheless all men are far.from having equal or the same capacities “Nature lias fortunately not stabilised abilities; she has left variety as the spice of life.” •

The first effective gas mask was probably that invented in 1854 by Dr. Stenhouse. His idea was initiated when he became aware that freshly prepared charcoal had the power or absorbing the noxious odours arising from putrefaction, and he invented a relatively simple mouth and nose mask containing a charcoal filter, the maiiufacture of which was entrusted to the instrument makers to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Dr. Stenhouse also suggested that “persons living in pestiliferous areas might make their houses as airtight as possible,” and admit air only through charcoal filters. It is a pity, the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute comments, that so much valuable work should have been overlooked in the period of emergency which arose some 60-odd years later, during the early part of the Great War.

Some of the leading French gourmets met in Paris the othe. day to eat a dinner conceived in secrecy, cooked in camera, and unannounced by any menu. The diners were to be rewarded for correctly describing whatever dish they were eating, and for putting the different wines into the correct vintage and chateau pigeonholes. . The winner judged five out of six wines correctly. Hut the fod was far from easy; the champion described correctly only three dishes out oi seven. Only two or three of the diners realised that the game they were eating was reindeer.' The filets de ‘ vive (weever) were taken for filets de sole, and a dish consisting largely of rabbit baffled everybody. As a matter of fact it was a rabbit which had been allowed to drink brandy for the last few days of its life, and had then been cooked with a seasoning of civet and tarragon. « * * » •

The Christmas lectures for children at the Royal Institution are a famous institution in themselves, writes a Londoner. It is now 112 years since the first series of six was delivered. That was in the lifetime of Sir Humphry Davy, who at the age of 23 became professor of chemistry at ' the Royal Institution. When Professor James Kendall, professor of chemistry at Edinburgh University, lectured before the 113th “juvenile auditory” on Humphry Davy’s life and discoveries, he stood on the same spot from which Davy’s own lectures were frequently delivered; and some of the experiments w’ith which he illustrated the story were reproduced with apparatus used by Davy. At the Royal Institute of British Architects crowded audiences of boys and girls have assembled for Mr R. A. Duncan’s lectures on “Building Buildings.” These begin with the caveman and comprehend the ages. “Some of you,” Mr Duncan said on the first afternoon, “may be descended from the Romans”; and. speaking as a Scot, he went on, “I can see your great, great, great . . . grandfathers marching with a cohort of the 2nd Legion and carrying the litter of Hadrian to build the wall to ' keep out my ancestors who were not then civilised.”

A section of the British Board of Trade Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom gives particulars of estate duty in Great Britain, and shows that the capital value of the estates dealt with increased progressively from £296,432,000 in the year 1913-14 to £594,708.000 in 1937-38. In 1913-14 there were two estates exceeding £2,000,000 in value, but none exceeding £3,000.000. In 1930-31 there were six exceeding £2,000.000 and five exceeding £3,000.000. Tn 193738 there were two estates of between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000 but none exceeding £3.000,000.

The number of incomes assessed for super-tax in the United Kingdom in 1013-14 was 14.008, and the total of incomes assessed was £175,605,000. By the year 1936-37 these figures had increased to 95,750 persons and to £483,739.000 total incomes assessed, surtax then having taken the place of super-tax. The gross total of incomes liable to income-tax was £1.167,184,000 in 191314 and £3,573,364,000 for the year ended 1937. The 1937 figure was the highest recorded in the years for which statistics ai’o given. 1923 onwards, and was an increase of over £200,000,000 on the previous year.

Incomes of between £2OOO and £2500 increased in number from 22,763 for 1924 to 25.213 for 1937. The number of incomes in the £2500 to £3OOO class was 15,393 in 1924 and 16,715 in 1937.

The christening of Germany’s big 35,000-ton battleship with the name of Bismarck recalls some of the achievements of that great German leader. Prince Von Otto Bismarck was born in 1815 a.nd was educated in Berlin schools and universities. In 181-7 the Vereenigte Langtag, the first general parliamentary assembly ever known in Prussia, sat in Berlin. Bismarck attended its sittings as deputy for the representative of his district, who was ill. and in liis speeches lie championed the Christian character of the State and monarchy by Divine right, and attracted the attention of King Frederick William IV. In 1851 he was appointed by the King to the position of Prussian envoy at the Federal Diet in Frankfort, and in 1858 he became Prussian Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Bismarck rose in fame. His tall imposing figure, his piercing grey eyes, his easy and cultivated hearing revealed an extraordinary personality, and his sure gift of observation stamped him as a leader. In 1862 he was appointed President and in that capacity he achieved great things for the Fatherland, although at times he came into violent conflict with the King. Bismarck’s fall occurred in 1890. the great tragedy of his life being that he fell bv the application of that very principle the maintenance of which he urged with all his powers —that the Sovereign, in the last resort must he the decisive power in the State. He died in 1898.