NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22615, 31 December 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

DEMAND FOR COLONIES Speaking on "Colonial Problems" before tho Royal Empire Society, Lord Lugard referred to tho demand by certain Powers which did not possess colonies for a share in their control, and also to Germany's recent demand for colonies. "We feel that British honour is deeply involved," he said. "That we should declaro ourselves ready to share any economic advantages accruing from our colonies is an honourablo gesture of goodwill. To hand over on demand, as though they were slaves or cattle, peoples to whom wo liavo pledged our protection is neither consistent with our national honour nor, in the long run, would such a surrender make for peace." FREEDOM OF THE SPIRIT "Wo never sit in judgment here on what may happen in foreign countries, but I am resolved that in this country neither of those forces will ever triumph —neither of those forces," said Mr. Baldwin in bis speech at tho banquet of the Lord Mayor of London. "In this country freedom of tho spirit is our life and our breath and our hope, and there is no room in our country for any form of organised belief. That being so, wo believe, without sitting in judgment on anyone else, that we have a contribution to what the world needs to-day. If that contribution of ours were lost owing to our country failing to maintain her position in the world the world would bo the loser. Every great nation has something to give the world. Freedom of the spirit is our contribution; let us see to it that we keep that llatne bright at homo and that wo are prepared, if necessary, to fight for it to the very end." ESSENTIALS TO FITNESS "L prefer the word food to nutrition," said Lord Horder, the famous doctor, in a speech in the Houso of Lords. "As a scientist I am interested in calories and vitamins; as a doctor 1 I am a little dubious if Nature really intended us to bo so selective in our diet as some people suggest. But as ono who is anxious to avoid tho delays that exasperate 1 would say: Look after tho accessibility of food and nutrition will look after itself. Fitness for living, fitness for working—fitness for fighting, if it must be—can never bo obtained by physical measures, whether theso bo educational or recreative, There are other still more basic things that aro imperative in this matter: food, shelter, air and leistiro. All theso aro essential to that riso in health and morale, which, if we take the long view, aro requisite. I hope, however, that we shall not bn regimented. I cannot think it is necessary. Let the Government have faith that if the people of Britain are given tho modest requirements of security at homo and security of sustenance their sturdy common sense will do the rest. The word 'democracy' has been debased, but if I dare use it I would remind your Lordships that democracy, especially a democracy asked to bo physically lit, also advances on its stomach."

FALLING BRITISH POPULATION There were few things more needful in Britain to-day than societies able and willing to study statistical facts and foster a greater public disposition to face facts, said Mr. E. Raymond Strcat, president of tho Manchester Statistical Society, in a recent address. The price of ignorance was apt to be both painful and high, but there was little sign that those in authority noted these facts. "How many people realise," ho asked, "that a great decline in tho number of children between tho ages five to fifteen lies immediately ahead of us —not a small decline, but something of the order of 15 per cent in ten years, or more than a million less than at present? Wo can state as a fact that there will be, for instance, at least 92,000 fewer girls aged fifteen in theso islands in 1945 than there are at this moment; 83,000 fewer aged fourteen, and so on through each age. It is so improbable as to bo virtually impossible that births in tho noxt year or so should increase so as to bring the decline to less than a million. Certain things are known almost as definitely. Twenty years hence, if nothing is done to influence and change present tendencies, a decline in population will set in capable of reducing us in A.D. 2036' to a numerical strength little more than that of present-day Switzerland. What do wo think about that? Do wo desire policy to confirm or alter such tendencies? Similarly, there are tendencies at work in tho relative distribution of population between cities and tho country which, if they remain unchanged, will fundamentally alter conditions of life in this country."

UNIVERSITY GRADUATE'S PART

"Our public lifo relies upon voluntary service, in much of it for the actual execution of necessary functions, in all of it for the discussion and decision of the principles by which executive action shall proceed," said Sir Hector J. W. Hetherington, principal of Glasgow University, in addressing graduates. "In such a system, which is broadly what wo mean b,y democracy, the unfl'crsity graduate lias, 1 judge, an indispensable part. All questions of public concern spring from or affect personal or sectional interests. It is perhaps inevitable that the discussion of those questions will proceed through agencies committed to the support of one or other of the sectional interests in an atmosphere charged with sectional or party passions. Out of such conflicts and in such an atmosphere wise policies do in fact occasionally spring. Hut a wise policy must take account of more than the temporary interests of the temporarily triumphant majority. And it is apt to be found more easily to be recommended if in and above the battle there are somo who are less easily moved by the shorter view or the nearer interest. You can understand, you can mediate, you can open the way to good sense and conciliation. You ought to be less easily misled by interests and prejudices since you have had some training in the habit of larger, more leisurely thought of dispassionate consideration of causes and consequences. Steady thinking ought to be more widely your possession than that of any other social group, and if you will bring it to the exchanges of political and economic debate you will bring an element which will strengthen and deepen the mind and spirit of our people and our time and add a new security to our institutions."