NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13767, 4 June 1908, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SOCIALISM

AcooitDtXG to Mr. W. M. Mallock, in his interesting work recently published, " A Critical Examination of {socialism," socialists are confronted with two great problems. "It is on the.-e two problems," writes Mr. Mallock, "that everything will be found to turnone being the problem of how, under the conditions which socialism would introduce, the ablest men could be discovered, and invested according to their efficiency with the requisite indus-

trial authority ; the other being the problem of how, under the same conditions, it would be possible to secure from such men that full exertion of their talents on which the material prosperity of the entire community would depend." But why, the socialist clamours, will these heroes of industry demand so much more than all other heroes''' Mr. Mallock answers:—" The swimmer who had plunged into the sea to save a woman from drowning would not take a second plunge to rescue her silk petticoat. The socialists, in short, when dealing with military and other cognate heroisms, ignore both of the causes which alone make heroism possible. They ignore the fact that the internal motive is ■ essentially isolated and exceptional. They ignore the further fact that the circumstances which alone give this motive play are essentially exceptional also, and could never be reproduced' in social life at large, except at the cost of making all human life intolerable." The socialists, the author maintains, do not understand the nature of this surplus wealth which they so unceasingly attack : " They not onlv have," he writes, "as a rule, no experience oi wealth themselves, but they are further generically distinguished by a deficiency of those powers that create it. ' They arc like men with no muscles, who reason about the temperament of a prize-fighter; and their conception of what wealth means for those who produce and possess it is apt, in consequence, to be of the most puerile kind. It is founded apparently on their conception of what a greedy boy, without pocketmoney . feels when ho stares at the tarts lying in a pastrycook's window. 7 '

JEWS AND CHILD MORTALITY. " Infant Mortality as Affected by the Habits of Parentis was the subject of a paper read by Dr. E. W. Hope (Liverpool Medical Officer of Health) at a Conference on Wastage of Infant Life, held in London. Towards the close of hie address,

the lecturer gave some impressions of the care exercised by Jewish parents hi the upbringing of their children. ■ He said:

' I desire to add a few words in reference o the Jewish community, and for the pur-

poses of my illustration I take consecutively 50 poor, some very poor, Jewish families. The family earnings averaged from 10s to 30s per •week. _ The points which stand out are: First, that in every i instance the children are well looked after, ! all suitably clad, and not one ragged or i barefooted child seen. The beds were clean, and always a cot was provided for the baby beside the mother's bed. Domestic dirtiness is uncommon, but- even where it existed at all, the mothers seemed to realise their duty and responsibility to their children, and to act upon it. Thriftinees and 'eobriety were universal; no drunkenness at all. A noticeable feature which always impresses the visitor is the attention given by the mothers to the children's food. In no single instance was the midday meal wanting; moreover, it ie prepared in a way which the children relish. It must be remembered that some of these families "were in receipt of relief from the Jewish Board of Guardians, but others, of course, are fairly comfortably off tor that class. With regard to the numbers of children born, the average in the family is not largo. The maximum was 10, and thatonly in one family. The average is four; nut the figures as to the numbers who have died compare favourably indeed with that of the Gentile races iu the same social scale. In the 5C families the total number of infante born was 255, and the number j of deaths which have taken place at various ages, and by no means all in infancy, was 29figures which •'peak very favourably.''

It ie notified in last week's Gazette that a Civil Service junior examination and a. junior national scholarship and free placo examination-trill be held in December. A Civil Service senior examination and an examination for teachers' certificates of class 0 and class D will be held is January, 1903,