NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19101, 20 August 1925, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WORK AND PLAY. Everything in nature is governed by a wonderful rhythm, blow and withdrawal, attack and recovery, beat and rest, said Cauon Courtcnay Gale in a Rotary Club address in England. He instanced tho crash of the waves on tho sea shore and the hiss of the pebbles as the waves retreated. In wireless telegraphy, and telephony the waves of ether pulsed and. receded in the same marvellous mariner. Life was made up of a wonderful rhythm, and it was well to bear that in mind when planning one'p time. Thero should be wholehearted enthusiasm in business, a generous outpouring of mental and physical powers to secure the best possible results. There should be also tho same enthusiasm in mental and physical relaxation. Tho great thing was to find some hobby which appealed lo one and then to put one's spare time and energies into it so that it becamo a thing of increasing joy. By this means life was rounded oil and the immutable law of life was fulfilled to perfection, tho beat and tho pauso, the blow and the rest, the intense application and the period of rest, contemplation and recovery. THE ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY. A further instalment of the letters of the late Mr. W. H. Hincs, published in The World To-day, includes one written by the Ambassador to Mr. Wilson in July, 1914, from the home of the Cowper family. The gallery of family portraits is his text: " They thought they built forever, these old nobles; and I'm not sure but they did build for at least a very long time to come. Wherever any branch of the family may live, and they live all over the world, they never forget the ancestral seat, and the sons of younger sons of many generations come back to visit it and to bo entertained. This, I think, is the strongest force that binds the colonies to the Mother Country: Of such a house comes one of the greatest physicists in tho world (who is a sort of politician, too); and of such houses como great admirals and generals and administrators. The aristocracy is here and it isn't effete by a long shot. If it prove to be teachable, it will rule for many a long year. On sonic sides it seems dense. But if you take a peer to be a fool you will find out your mistake in a day or two's talk at the short range you get in a country house party. He'll tell you more than you know about artists and cows and foreign lands and chemistry and rainfall in India, and he 11 beat you riding, shooting, golfing, or at tennis and—in the evening at poker, if you wish; and after intelligent talk about theology, he'll swear at Lloyd George in a way that a cowboy would admire. . . Great' human societies are the most interesting subjects of study in tho world aren't they ? We speak about hospitality: wo don't know the A.B.C. of this fine art. These great Englishmen practise it on their fellows till it takes rank with painting, architecture and literature. MUTUAL DISCOVERY. An appeal for the cultivation of friendly relations between Britain and the United States is made by Mr. Wickham Stead in the first number of a new fortnightly British-American. "There is only one w ay. More Englishmen, more Britons, have to discover tho United States, and moro Americans have to discover Great Britain," says Mr. Stead. "Discovery soon brings out the fundamental fact that the people of tho United States aro not 'cousins' of the English, but are a great, independent, foreign nation, fully grown up, wealthy. and powerful, with an outlook and interests of their own widelv different from tho outlook and interests of Britons and wholly proof against the preoccupations which the neighbourhood of a distressful Europe inflicts upon tho inhabitants of Great Britain. A further fact, which has to bo experienced to bo understood, is that by far the greater number of Americans live for four or five months of the year in a semi-tropical climate, and the whole of the year in latitudes which, in Europe, would correspond to the region between the Pyrenees and Morocco. Thus a race —for the Americans ate a raco—still mainly descended from Northern European stocks, has developed and is developing under the influenco of warmth and sunlight. This warmth and this sunlight stimulate clearness and rapidity of thought and openness of speechqualities not encouraged by the climate of Great Britain. At the same time, tho comparative sparseness of population in the United States, tho freedom from foreign political risk, and tho uniformity of institutions, tend to produce a simplicity of mind and a lack of subtlety such as aro hardly to be found in Europe. These and many other things have to bo discovered by Britons before they can begin to understand America, and Americans have quite as 'much to loam before they understand England." AUSTRALIA'S INTERIOR. An appeal to Australians to recognise their responsibility to settle the interior torrito p y of tho continent was made by Sir David Gordon, a member of tho Lcgislativo Council of South Australia, in ar> address in Melbourne. Ho said Australia represented tho most vulnerable prizo in tho Pacific seas, yet 't was peopled by only 6,000,000 souls. The inland areas contributed appreciably to neither tho wealth nor tho population of the country, and Northern Australia was very little different from its state when tho Dutch explorers visited it in 1500. To-day its successful occupation was tho most pressing problem for Australians. This vast territory could not lie idle for much longer If honest with themselves Australians must admit that it was their lack of imagination and enterprise which had postponed a policy of vigorous colonisation. As long as the present conditions in central Australia existed, they would bo a weak spot in the armour of Australia as far as continued possession was concerned. Ho would not say that Australians had proved themselves unworthy of their magnificent heritage, but they must bestir themselves and fill the empty spaces which were a menaco. "Tho first essential is to break down our great distances," added Sir David Gordon. "Isolation is fatal. 'Better facilities for communication by land, sea and air must bo provided, and full use made of natural resources. Commerce no longer governs transport, but tho reverse, and every facility must bo giveu the outback settlers. Complete the north-south railway. Then build another east-west railway from the northern coastline of Queensland to tho north-west coast of Australia. Until our continent is intersected by railways we shall bo unablo to say wo arc doing our best to occupy our country and justify our possession of it."-