NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13171, 8 May 1906, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PALACES AND PAUPERS.

Mr. F. A. Mackenzie has contributed four articles on London workhouses to the Daily Mail, which we are not surprised to learn have caused considerable stir. The palatial style in which indoor relief is administered by the London Guardians is simply staggering. Paupers are now lodged in palaces. " The old simple- style of workhouses," writes Mr. Mackenzie, " has given place to elaborate stonefaced structures, with wide carriage drives, and at times with great lawns and siirubberies around their lofty apartments." Great buildings mean corresponding contractors'- bills. In St. Olave's a new workhouse cost close upon) £300 for each inmate, or enough, to house six or eight people in two cottages such as those shown in last year's exhibition. " How many working men ratepayers," asks Mr. Mackenzie, " live in a house costing . . . £1800 for a family of six?"' It is only fair to say that the guardians seem to have got value for their money. The baths are of porcelain. The handbasins are fitted with hot and cold water pipes. The floors are of parquetry. The kitchens are lined with white tiles. The kitchen ranges are heated by steam, and the ovens by gas. The wards are warmed by hot water, with the addition of open fireplaces for the sake of cheerfulness and ventilation. Naturally, when the paupers are lodged on this scale the rooms in which the guardians transact business are not forgotten. Consequently we are not surprised to learn that in one workhouse the Boardroom chairs cost from £4 17s 6d to £9 10s each. A guardian is too precious an article to have his portly person supported by anything less costly than mahogany and Spanish leather. In short, from first to last the pauper is treated as an Imperial functionary, who must be kept in such a way as to reflect glory on, the ratepayers who have to feed this monstrous cuckoo. It is no matter for astonishment that workhouses built in this fashion are found highly attractive. Mere external splendour might be wasted on the class by which they are chiefly filled. But the food supply is on a corresponding scale. At the Poplar Workhouse the contracts are for the supply of the best English wether mutton, and for the prime cuts of bacon of the most esteemed brands. There—and we dare say that in this respect other London workhouses are not behind Poplar—no pauper is insulted by being asked to eat Australian mutton or New Zealand lamb, or to put up with any part of the pig save that which furnishes those " streaky" rashers so dear to connoisseurs. It is by these means that the London Guardians secure the presence in their workhouses of " over 5000 healthy men and women in the prime of life, a large proportion of whom are living in comparative idleness, to the permanent destruction of their power or will to work." And this does not include the casuals. The really wonderful thing is that, under the system which the guardians of the poor in London have set up, and which the Local Government Board has hitherto, whether from fear of unpopularity or from easy good nature, been content to tolerate, any man or woman who has not ample private means should prefer paying rates to living on them.

WEATHER A MONTH AHEAD. Professor Willis Moore, chief of the Government Meteorological Department at Washington, announces that it will shortly be possible to forecast the weather a month ahead, owing to the. great advances in the system and methods of observation. The present forecasts for 48 hours ahead are based on observations of continental surface conditions and atmosphere, together with certain limited maritime observationstransmitted by wireless telegraphy. Great developments of the system of exploration and observation in the upper air to the 10mile level will be the chief factor in the longer forecasts. By the invention of delicate automatic recording instruments attached to balloons and kites, together with wireless telegraph keys, new knowledge will be obtained of the temperature, moisture, pressure, velocity, heat, absorption, atmosphere, and analysis of sunlight at various altitudes. The arrangements for the longer forecasts are now being completed, and the professor declares that as the system is extended and co-operation is arranged with trans-Atlantic and transPacific countries, there is every reason to aspect that it will be possible soon to forecast the general weather and character of an entire season, and ultimately to predict the weather for a whole year ahead.