NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19149, 15 October 1925, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

———~o— —- TWO STRINGS TO ONE'S BOW. "Working hours may l>e long, hut everyone ha-s some leisure. Most people have a hobby—golf, or a cabbage-patch or a camera—but, a hobby is a mere amusement and usually rather unconvincing. What is wanted is something very much more real. It may he carpentry or photography, or rose-growing, but it must be done absolutely in earnest. It can, in fact, be made a kind of second profession," writes Professor K. de B. Codrington in the Evening News. "If you are interested in rose-growing, why not become a rose expert? If you dabble in carpentry whv not become a carpenter ! If you are of the bookish sort and interested in science why not take up one or other of the branches of science ? There are evening classes to be attended and examinations to be worked for. It needs energy and determination, of course, but it can he done. And once done you have two strings to your bow from the point of view of bread-and-butter, and can face life with doubled confidence. As a matter of fact, you will also find that a second profession is an excellent foil to your everyday work. I'or one 1 thing, it is your own. and to give your individuality free play after a day's office routine is a very real relief. It is a sort of working relaxation, not a mere lounge. And it leads somewhere." THE PROGRESS OF CIVILISATION. Taking a broad view of the world, the Bishop of Winchester, in an address at the Stockholm Conference on Life and Work, said:—"We have lived through one of the most terrific explosions m the long story of the world. \N e find the nations still suspicious of each other, still spending colossal sums of money on armaments. We find movements on every hand nationalistic, industrial, social, largely based on self-interest, almost wholly concerned with the tangible and material aspects of life, leaving out of count those great, moral foundations upon which alone any true life can be based. Y.et the. Kingdom of Ciod is here. There has been a marvellous change of outlook. A few examples will make this clear. The sanctities of treaties, the tendency toward a larger recognition of international law, the whole movement is equally definite in those countries at present outside the League. The same phenomenon is obvious when we look at such matters as the conditions of labour, the growing condemnation of any standard of values which exalts things above souls or property above personality. We have only to recall the extraordinary progress made in the last half-century in the treatment of women, the care for motherhood, the education of the children. We may sum it up. in fact, by saying that a new community conscience is fast being formed, and that this is aheady making itself felt as something to be reckoned with both in the dealings of nations with one another or groups and persons within those nations." REFORMING THE BLACK COUNTRY. How Lancashire coal-owners have commenced to clear away the great mounds ui' refuse-from the pits which dot the mining district is described by the Daily Telegraph. stretches of what might be arable land are occupied with these useless heaps, which are unpleasant alike to the eye and to the nose. It occurred to a public-spirited firm at Atherton that something might, be done. Merely to level the heaps would not suffice; it- would only enlarge the desert area. The firm, therefore, decided to remove the top layer of soil from certain fields, spread the pit refuse evenly to a good depth, and then replace the soil. They have dealt in this way with about fifty acres of land and they are well satisfied with the results. The land is now under the plough and is yielding good crops, while the whole appearance of the district has been greatly improved. This Atherlon experiment proves that, mining districts need not be hideous and that the obnoxious waste heaps may not only be levelled, hut turned to good account. What has been done it) Aihcrton can be done in many other places and the saddest spots in the Black Country need not be regarded as irreclaimable. H will cost money, but the money will he well spent, and there is an abundance of unemployed labour that might be turned on to the task. In the near future, when factories are driven by electricity from central power-stations, and the smokecloud is lifted from the industrial districts, even the Black Country may be green once more.