NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

' ' OPIUM EVIL IN INDIA. While in China strenuous efforts are being made to combat the opium habit, it would appear, according to the statements of a native, that the evil is en tho increase in India. "Thero is no province of British India," he says, "and no territory governed by a native prince where tho drug is not in common use. Generally it is taken m the form of pills; ' less often it is smoked. Tho consumption varies in different parts of the country, ranging from 18.71b down to 4.11b per 1000 per annum (not taking account of illicit 1 consumption, which is known to bo far from negligible). . . A considerable portion of tho drug consumed in British India and the nativo States is used not by adults, but by infants. The babies, it may be pointed out, actually are made to drink it dissolved in water, or to swallow it in tho form of a tiny pill. Taking India as a whole, fewer women than men take poppy preparations. In some localities, however, its use is so common that a box of opium is handed around among the ladies by the hostess just as chocolates would be passed about in Europe. The men and women who indulge in the vice are, for the most part, middle-aged or old, and seem to feel that it will smooth tho path of 'their dotage by its narcotic influence. As to tho races caught in the

toils, carious to say, the martial peoples have fallen under the spell more than the milder ones. Tho Rajputs and the Sikhs consume it in quantities. The Marathas, however, as a rule, are not addicted to the vice. The habit is more or less prevalent broadly speaking, among the Indians in the army. Many of them take it regularly, the year round, while others use it only during tho winter. Among the races with a commercial bent of mind, tho Marwaris are known to be the largest caters of tho drug, whereas but few Parsees take it. As a rule the vice is indulged in by the wealthy and middle classes, though some poor people ape their vice. Few cultivators, litter-bearers, fishermen, day labourers, or other people who have to earn their living by the sweat of their brow, are addicted to opium, although some members of the lower classes, such as tailors, carpenters, and those who do not do extremely hard work, join the leisured people in the habit. A largo number of railway employees, and not a few coolies, aro slaves to the poppy."

WORLD'S THRIFTY PEOPLES. That the Americans are an extravagant people has passed almost into an axiom— at least in Europe, where judgment is based on what is learned of Americans from those who travel abroad. That Americans who stay at home, and especially those of moderate or extremely limited income, are extravagant has not so generally been commented on. A writer in an American magazino contends that "it is possible to show in cold figures that we aro the least thrifty nation in the world." Americans rank below even "such poverty-stricken nations as Italy and Japan," while if comparison is made with countries in which thrift is systematically practised, " the compr/sion is one to make us ashamed." Dr. Henry Smith Williams is referred to as having recently compiled figure* which show that 10 leading European countries average 373 sav-ings-bank depositors for every 1000 in the population, whereas in the United States there are only 99 per 1000. Dr. Williams's table, showing the number of depositors per 1000 in each of these countries, is as follows— Switzerland ... 544 Germany ... 317 Denmark ... 442 England ... 302 Norway ' ... 415 Australia ... 300 Sweden . .. 404 Tasmania ... 280 Belgium ... 397 Japan 270 New Zealand ... 3GO Italy 220 France ... 316 United States ... 39 Holland ... 325 In the European countries abovenamed " there is at least one savings-bank depositor for every' family." Switzerland 'does even better; in that country are five depositors for every two families, while America has only one depositor for every two families.