NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18389, 3 May 1923, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITISH HOUSING SUBSIDIES. Within 10 days of his appoinment as Minister for Health in the British Government, Mr. Neville Chamberlain made up his mind as to the first step to be taken toward the solution of the housing problem—the provision of the necessary houses. His decision was virtually an acceptance of what is known as the Manchester Scheme or programme. The original Manchester proposal, advanced by the Lord Mayor of that city and a number of other municipal authorities in the big towns of the North, was that the Government should pay to local authorities a' subsidy of £6 per house per annum, for the provision of new working-class dwellings, over a period of 60 years. This sum was calculated to represent half the loss on the rent of each house, the condition being that the other half should be defrayed by the local authorities. Mr. Chamberlain accepted the £6 basis, though limiting the period during which it is to be payable to 20 years, with the further stipulation that all the houses are to be of the non-parlour, five-roomed type. In the opinion of experienced local authorities houses can, and will, be provided under the proposed scheme. They accept the figure of £6 as one which will enable the building of these houses to be pressed forward with the utmost vigour, and are prepared to carry out Mr. Chamberlain's requirement that they should use the subsidy for the encouragement of private enterprise. ' PICTURES BY RADIO. It was recently reported that the French Post had decided to introduce experimentally the Berlin system of photographic transmission of telegrams. The system has already been used with success by the Paris newspaper Matin, and more recently the apparatus, by which photographs are transmitted over a telephone wire, has been installed in the offices of the New York World. Interviewed recently, the famous French scientist, M. Edouard Belin, said: I foresee the■ day, and that not far distant, when every home will be equipped with a radio machine so perfect that it will reproduce net ouly the music of a grand opera, but will n.ake its audience also spectators, ho that you will be able to sit in your own room listening to and watching a performance in the Opera House. I may not !ive to see it, nor may you, though even that is quite possible, but our children certainly will. For communication by radio is still little more than in its infancy, but is growing in importance and efficiency very rapidly. I have already received in Paris facsimiles of autographed and printed messages sent by radio from Beirut, Syria, and they were so legible that, had they been cheques, a bank -would have cashed them. These I received with the same apparatus that the New York World is now installing. Photographs can be sent by radio to-day, but only over short distances. Over long distances too much power is needed, and any static or aerial currents spoil the pictures. However, I am hard at work trying to devise a means of overcoming this, and I am confident that I shall succeed possibly within a year or two. ' ' ■.;

EMPIRE FORESTRY. The Prince of Wales made a. strong appeal for a wider interest in sylviculture in his speech from the chair at the annual meeting of the Empire Forestry Association in London. "If we are to accept the evidence of those who have made a study of the rate of consumption of timber, the world, within the next twenty years, will be faced with a timber shortage, if not an actual famine," he said. "No time must. be lost in making: pro-, vision for future supplies, and steps must be taken to replant the vast forest areas devastated during the great war, estimated in Great Britain alone at 1,000,000 acres, of which probably not 5 per cent, have. been replanted. In addition to the. 1,000,000 acres cleared during the war,' it is estimated that in Great Britain there are 3,000,000 acres suitable for afforestation and for no other purpose, and the time is opportune, particularly in view of the urgency of finding solutions for the problem of unemployment. The Empire Forestry Association, as a great voluntary organisation, can do effective work by bringing home not only to the people of this country but to other countries of the Empire the need for action by the State, and also by private enterprise, which, if judiciously encouraged, can do so much in this matter. Considering how almost every kind of climate can be found within our Empire, it is unsatisfactory to learn that by far the greater part of the timber used by us is brought from abroad. This state of affairs suggests an alluring programme of operations for the. Empire Forestry Association to carry out, with the hope of remedying, even to.a small extent, this deficiency in the forest production, and economy of the Empire. I sincerely trust that this association' will gain the support throughout the Empire that it deserves, and that to become, a member and supporter of the Empire Forestry _ Association and its sister associations in the Dominions will be recognised as the duty of all those who realise the high importance of the varied work which the association desires to carrv out." . ■ J ! DESIGN IN THE UNIVERSE. Science has shown that unbroken order reigns in the universe, that the cosmic process is rational. And when we find rationality, thought, everywhere, how " shall we explain that thought without a Thinker-" asks Dr. H. E. Fosdick, who preaches to New York's largest Presbyterian congregation. "Of the two hypotheses, the theory that the universe merely liappened seems to me the less reasonable, the harder to believe; and every forward step of science increases the difficulty of believing it. Being at variance with all our experience it requires the larger measure of credulity. If there be no intelligence behind the universe, then matter has created something greater than itself —for we ourselves are intelligent. How much easier, more rational it is to believe that our personalities arc not a product ot sonic-' thing less than ourselves, but parts of a greater Personality-whom some have called the First Cause, some Mine), and some God. If you are going to rule out as impossible all the tilings that strain your imagination, you are going to fail far behind the march of present-day science. The scientist tells me that the head of a common pin is a universe, that inside it millions of atoms move in regular cycles, like the planets in the sky. I have seen it stated that two hundred and fifty thousand years would be required to count the atoms in the head of a pin. jTo me that is unconceivable; it exceeds jmy powers of imagination. Yet 1 do I not reject the scientist's assurance as unI true because I find difficulty in imagining it. An unborn child, even though he were a philosopher, would have no easy time making clear to himself the conditions of our earthly life. He lives without air: how ran he live with it? He is absolutely dependent upon the cherishing environment in which he finds himself: and he can not. well imagine himself living without it. The crisis of birth would seem like death to an unborn | child, if lie could foresee himself wrenched j from all the conditions which have hitherto sustained life. In our knowledge of j life we are at? yet only unborn children: [ our minds are in the fetal stage: we have I only in the last few years begun to discover anything at all about the mysteries jof the universe. Surely it need not dis ! courage us if we find it difficult to imagj ine conditions in the unseen world as j created and guided bv 311 Infinite Intclli | genre. There are only two alternatives: \ Either 'lie whole universe is ." whim, a J caprice—purposeless. rudderless. and j doomed to destructionor else liicrc is a God behind it all. watching the batilc guiding it. managing the whole creation a.~ a vast mechanism fo'i the production of Personality -md Character, which are eternal."