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New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 16

Dr Newman is doing valuable public service by his practical lectures on the preservation of health. That on Tuesday night—which is reported in this week’s issue—abounds in sensible and usefnl hints on this all-important question. It will bo observed that he lays great stress onthe need of just that care in regard to little things which is almost always neglected—which is, indeed, almost looked upon as “ molly-coddling.” The avoidance of draughts—that most fertile source of colds, chills, and fevers ; the wearing of suitable clothing ; the prompt changing of wet or damp garments ; the adoption of a more rational method of dressing children ; the use of hot water instead of the abuse of tea ; the insistance on a proper sanitary system—all these points and others were ably urged by Dr Newman, whose counsel we hope will bear good fruit. He also referred to the prevalence of consumption, and made some observations on the subject with which we shall deal more fully another day. Lectures of this class, especially when delivered, as in the case under notice, in a pleasant colloquial way, cannot fail to do a great deal of good.

Another frightful disaster in connection with a theatre is recorded in our European telegrams. On this occasion, unhappily, the scene was in England, and the mortality is stated to be terribly large. It is feared that fully 200 lives have been sacrificed to a glaring defect in the construction of the building, there having been only a single exit provided for the whole gallery, which was crowded on the occasion in question. In the absence of any precise information on the point, we assume that the theatre at Exeter, whose destruction involved this fearful sacrifice of life, was the old one, which possesses the usual faults of oldfashioned theatres in English country towns. Had it been a new building it may be presumed that better provision would have been made for the release of the audience in case of panic. The fine old Devonshire city is by no means so somnolent as many other county capitals in England. •It has a population of some 50,000, and during the last - quarter of a century has gone in for numerous modern improvements and new buildings. It is probable that this frightful disaster will bring about a general overhaul of the English country theatres, and the ruthless condemnation of all that do not provide for such a contingency as a sudden panic. Nor should the lesson be lost sight of in the Colony. We fear that there are still many public buildings in Ne rr Zealand which could not be by any means promptly emptied in the case of an unexpected emergency. After this appalling lesson it is to be hoped that the proper authorities will in every case insist on duo provision being made for safe exit.

The French newspaper Le Temps has been uttering some very shrewd things about the Colonial Federation scheme, of which we heard so much a few months ago, and of which we hear so little now. Le Temps observes that “ the English are very much addicted to what they call fads in their modern political phraseology—that is to say, vast and generous ideas which are the enactures of the overloaded brain of politicians in search of employment, and which are received by the public with more eagerness than judicious reflection. These fads bring forth all manner of meetings and speeches, doomed in most instances to remain but of ephemeral value,, and soon to vanish into thin air by virtue of their ethereal nature.” Our French contemporary thinks that one of the most remarkable modern instances of these fads is the idea of Colonial Federation. Could there, indeed, it asks, be anything more plausible on paper and more fascinating than the idea of an immense Empire, founded on the principle of identity of language and civilisation, and comprising the whole of the countries into which the English have carried their spirit of enterprise ? But,

on the other hand, is there anything more difficult to carry into practice ? Not only must a means be found of reconciling the independence which the colonies are so jealous of with unity both of deliberation and of action, but the one great object that the Federation must aim at is a system of mutuality in the defence of Australia, Canada,, the West Indies, or other colonies by the Mother Country in those cases in which those colonies are threatened, and conversely of Great Britain by the colonies in those cases in which the Home Country should incur the peril of an invasion. But these duties of mutual assistance presuppose as a matter of course that all the parties concerned should at all times be prepared to fight’ when the casus foederis supervenes. In other words, each colony must provide an armed force, organise a navy, and put up armaments for the defence of its harbours. That must naturally involve a considerable -outlay, and, Le Temps remarks, “it is very doubtful indeed whether the colonies will be ready to pay their scot, seeing that the necessity of bearing their lot in the joint concern is, after all, very remote and hypothetical.” Note is taken of the fact that the colonial delegates who waited on the English Premier in connection with thi3 subject were most solicitous to know what share England would be disposed to assume in the pecuniary sacrifices involved by the carrying out of the scheme of Imperial Federation. The final conclusion at which Le Temps arrives is tersely stated as follows : —“ The sinews of war form, in point of fact, the crux of the whole affair. The tenderness with which the English have all of a sudden taken to evincing for their brethren at the Antipodes will never be carried from the province of sentimentalism into that of practical politics so long as the United Kingdom shall not have placed on the consolidated funds its quota of the expense required for the purpose of forming a belt of work of military defence all round the world.” There is a refreshing amount of hard common sense in these remarks.