NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17845, 28 July 1921, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

AUSTRALIAN CITIES. The concentration of population in the Australian cities is evident from returns of the latest census. The total population of New South Wales is, 2,096,393. of which the Sydney metropolitan area comprises 897,640, or nearly 43 per cent., with 524,927 in the provincial urban areas. The rural population is only 664,502, or 31 per cent. In 10 years, the population of Sydney has increased by 42.60 per cent., and that of the provincial towns by 24.47 per cent., while the increase in the rural population has been 13.11 per cent. Similar conditions exist in Victoria, where of the total population of 1.530,114 no less than 765,846, or more than half, is resident in the Mel-, bourne metropolitan areas, with only 187,516 ditributed among the provincial towns. The rural population is 571,535, or 37 per cent. Melbourne has increased its population in 10 years by 30 per cent., against 4.28 per cent, in the provincial towns and 5-46 per cent, in the country districts.

DISTRIBUTION OF MTLK. Problems associated with the distribution of milk in Melbourne have occupied the attention for several months of a committee appointed by a conference representing the various interests concerned in the metropolitan area. It has practically completed the drafting of a Bill which is to be submitted to the Minister for H<»lth with a view to its enactment during the present session of the State Parliament. Five authorities are now concerned with the control of the milk supply in the metropolitan area.. The Department of Agriculture supervises the production of milk, the licensing of milk distributers, and the licensing of milk shops; the municipal councils supervise the sale and delivery of milk; the Railways De l partrdent controls transport; the Commission of Public Health has a supervisory control of councils, so far as milk distribution comes under the jurisdiction of the Health Act; the Food Standards Committee fixes the standard with which all milk sold must comply. The proposed legislation provides for the examination and grading of milk, involving tha establishment of central depots. The advisory committee is now consulting the municipal councils with a view to deciding whether control should be vested in a single commission or divided among the municipal authorities, with a co-ordinating committee to secure uniformity.

SUNSPOTS AND AURORAS. The brilliant auroral display and the magnetic storm that occurred in both. North and South latitudes last May have revived discussion in England regarding the association of the. two classes of phenomena. Attention has turned particularly to the question why large sunspots often appear without producing any terrestial effects, and magnetic storms sometimes occur in the absence of sunspots. Perhaps the theory which is most popular at present is that known as the " hose-pipe.' This theory postulates the ejection of confined streams of electric corpuscles from disturbed regions of the sun with a speed approaching that of light. The suggestion is that this stream" meets the earth and ionises the outer layers of the earth's atmosphere, or, in other words, converts it into a gaseous conductor of electricity. When this electrical condition is marked, it is accompanied by auroral lights and other luminous displays in the sky. Among the scientists who approve of this projection theory of sunspots is Sir Oliver Lodge. He suggests that the eruption is due to atomic disintegration at a critical temperature, which he provisionally suggests to be Tsoodeg. centigrade. If this temperature is _ locally obtained, in any region something violent ought, to happen, for electrons would be -shot off in masses, and a large number of hydrogen atoms would break up. This is what Sir Oliver reckons ought to happen, but, as he says, his theory and calculations will have to run the ga.untlet of scientific criticism. Six Oliver Lodge says that the existence of a whirling tornado of electrons in a sunspot was proved spectroscopically by Professor Hale, of Mount Wilson, California, and was a particularly brilliant piece of scientific work.

PRESERVATION OF LIFE. • In his presidential address to the Incorporated Institute of Hygiene, Six Malcolm Morris said that in the United Kingdom the death rate had fallen in 50 years from 21.4 per 1800 to 13.8. But that does not justify a rest-and-be-thankful spirit. We ought to aim at nothing less than the reduction of the present rate by one-half during, the next half century. In the same period infantile mortality has gone down from 149 per 1000 births to 89. But in New Zealand the rate is only 50; and Dr. Harold Westergaard, of Copenhagen, holds that in all civilised lands it may be ultimately reduced to between 30 and 40. While we have been saving children mothers have not been saved. Every year more than 3000 women perish in handing on the torch of life to the next generation, while of those who survive the ordeal a substantial proportion rise from childbed to live a life of chronic invalidism. This ought not to be. Sir Malcolm insisted that the teaching of hygienß in schools ought to be made more interesting. "If only a tiny fraction of such ingenuity as is displayed % the conductors of our great newspapers in making the day's news attractive to all classes of readers," he said, " were exercised in making hygiene interesting 'to children, there would be no need for teaching personal hygiene to adults. A lavish use should be made of diagram and picture, and the lantern elide should be pressed into the service."

THE CAPQRETTO DEBACLE. Some enlightenment on the overwhelming of the Italian forces at Caporetto in October, 1917, leading to the retreat to the Piave, is afforded by General Cook on Italy's operations in the war. In the first days of January, 1917, there was an inter-Allied Conference in Rome. The victories of the Italian Army had revealed what it could have achieved had it been reinforced by Allied troops and by the despatch of artillery. Mr. Llovd George wanted to send to Italy from 300 to 400 guns of all calibres, and some AngloFrench divisions, but the Allied General Staffs were always convinced that the Western front did not favour any transfer of forces. In August, 1917, the offensive on the Isonzo, which resulted in carrying Italian arms across the great Bainsizza plateau, and the capture of 558 officers and about 30,000 men, had a great moral effect on the Army which had before showed some signs of weariness. Genera] Cadorna declares that he intended to prepare at once for a resumption of the offensive movement, but in- • formation which he received made him change his plana. The Austrians meant to try and retake the lost ground, and an attack against him in great force was probable. He gave orders to pass from the offensive to a defensive organisation of the Italian front, and informed the Allies of his decision. But the Allied Chiefs of Staff did not seem to appreciate the reasons given by General Cadorna. They never believed, to the last momentj in a great combined German-Austrian effort on the Isonzo, and therefore disapproved the change in plans of General Cadorna. The ultimate consequence of this difference of view was that they withdrew the 99 Anglo-French guns which had been in Italy since the previous spring, and suspended the despatch of 102 French 'guns which had alre-idy been promised. The momentary disagreement with the Allies, observes (General Cadorna, would not have arisen—no misunderstanding would have taken place—"if there had' existed then the Inter-Allied Military Council which had its birth a month and a "half after but only as a ooDsequenco of the sad exp*neaoo of Caporetto'*•