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Otago Daily Times, Issue 16753, 22 July 1916, Page 6

Tuc announcement tbat the Cabinet 1 *s a ;-eed to increase the allowances payable to soldiers' chil'licn, up to the number of five, from bd per week to 5s a week, w ill lie gieetcd with general satisfaction. It is oilv to be regietted that the Government has shovn so mu.'h tear of bom:, oa ei'-generons that tho.e reasonable inci'onea ha\e had to bo dratrged oat of it. The i oncession new made m icg'U'd to separation allowances m chddien means that the scale hps been raised from nxpente a dttv for each child to about eight-penee-haltpennv. 111 ie.=pect of five childien with whom she it. left to nnho the be t rf things e soldier's wife will rceeivo an additional 7s 6d a week. Whereu under the old scale she could look to receive—apart from any allotment from h"r husband-—the munificent mm of 24s Gd a week upon which to provide ior the nei e- c ities of a household of fix. aiiC will henceff 1 til be entitled to a, maximum of thirty-two -hillings. Smill mercies are, however, not to be despised, and this part cular 0110 represents a duirable improvement. The (Government has apparently gi\on due weight to the suggestion 10teutly offered by the Advisorv Board of the Fodeiation of Patriotic Steicties that, in default of an abandonment of the limitation of the number of children cf mirlied men accepted for service in respect of whom a separation allowance is plyable, it should refrain from accepting men with, more than five children while the system of volvnt.qy enlistment is idled u'don. Married men with more than three children arc no longer to be enlisted under the volantirv principle. While it is not easy to perceivc any logic m the adherence of the Government to the idea that allov ances should rot be allotted for a greater number of children thin five, the discouragement of the enlistment of married men with largo families is a step in the right direction, especially since there is still in the country a large "reservoir" of tingle men with no special responsibilities that shou! 1 exempt them from the obligation to answer the call for recruits. Tire fact that a meeting of at ; 7ens favouraWe to the adoption of daylight-saving has been convened .-uggo Is that the hope of securing legislation this ro^voll to provide for the introduction of the system has not been abandoned Piobablv the attempt will be made io achieve the object 111 view by the insertion of a clause 111 the War Legislation Bill now before Parriment, this bemg a measure which is elastic enough to include ,ill sorts of legislate trifles Since, however, the Government has practically taken up an attitude of " non posMimus " in regard to the leform for the present, it seems scarcely likely that the well meant efoits of its pdvooatoc will met with "iiooes;-. Yet there arc various reasons vvhvtl.e principle if dnlight-"n "g should be MrapathetirilK ie;.'ided We have in the pa-t supported the "iinement, prhic'pall v in the lrtere-ts of the pubK health, md in existing rircmn'tirre - a gre.it deal i«. to bo said •n '<-'5 favour from the point of "lew of ""tional economv. In the United Kingdom the emergency of war rompletelv overruled the eon=orvat'sn which in normal times would have st tenuously roasted the innovation, and the inauguration of the system was warmlv welco-nod 1 few weel;*ago It : fair to observe, however, that it has been found in even day pract'ce that a (ort/un number of difficulties 111 the way of its ob-e'v<nH" have presented thenreives. ObvioiHv is only the te~t of actual experience which will demonstrate the merits and the deiroius of Iho new svstem. A re poit rpon the w orlrng o[ davb'ghi saving 111 Great Britain, aft n r a moderate :ap*e of tiroe, should deride the question vhethor the permanent adoption of the svstem during the "junior months will be ad\v-able.

Tur intimation by R'r George M Lean of In. desire to be rel'eved nftcr tins Year of tho offire of president of tho Dunedin Jockey Club will be iecci\er] with smcete revet, though not -with threat smpii=e, by that section of tho public which is interested in racing and particularly by tlio local suppo'-ter- of the turf. Sir George has for 'o many years occup'ed the po~i111>n from which a retirement is now con templated by him that his name lias become more or less india'ohihlv associated «,th that of tho Jockev Club, and the -e cince of ties that hayc, as in this ci=e. er.dured so long and that ha\e so tnuivphn'itly o\ercomc the onslaughts of T.nc. its incidental wear and tcr, ,<■ necessarily an event tinned with sad 'less for three immediately concerned. 'I he race-goer* ir» moreo\er, •ulio ha\f rec'etfullv at the mo r o recent meet maiked the abier.ee from the trnol: of tho ?; ots—the colours of Sir George M'Lern—that vice m"ees!-fully > "vitd in the na«t bv mc'i performers as T,uly Emma, St. Jame<, Clair, Lord and Pampero, wul be tempted to true rath«r ruefullv tha onward march of the years in the prospecth e t\ ithdrawal from tl" 1 adnn'iiitiTt-'on of turf affairs of a fpo-tMnan who participated in rac'n ; fo- the a! e of the «pott it-elf and v.ho'-o presence at the head of the executive of the Dunadin Jockey Club has been largebio the advantage of thpt institution.

\ i. T rn n w hic'i e publish this morning from a corre-poiident who complains, am .nr other things, of what he regards as an indiscriminate issue of " Anzac" badges, suggests the existenc6 of a real

clanger, amounting indi*eel to a cci'l ainty, Out thi' u r:n " Ai'zu " may lo'-o its '|)('li,i! >• )giiili< .nice !t is m fact now emp'ov eil as :n■ expie-sion goiiT.illy ap plitablo to all (he An-trail.'lis ami Now '/, alaii lor-- engaged on active 'rnuc, so Ui.it it t overs men who were not participant. Ip the |)iiiticiilat tampi'gii ni which 1 1.0 n unc was coined It seem', to us that this l. somewhat unfortunate and th.it it v. oiild he tlesiiab'e if, Ihe application of the word wire restricted to Mich members of tho ovei'e.i* contingents iii at Lually fonjlit in the hi-tone and hcoi opeiatio i , on the p"i insula of Ga,'lipoh it involve, no relit t on upon the g.'ll.'iit men fresin Austiaha .Mid New Zealand who are now rv in" their country in France hut who never saw Galiipoh to °ay that the descriptive name " An/nc" is m a very definite c < rrv-takcnly applied to them. Tii'v have liael, or wi'l have, their hapti ni of fire upon another field—in O ome le pwts under miie'i more favourable rond turns than ever obtained at Gallipol— and it .hould not be impo i <-ib!e to fit th m with a title th..t would leave to the men who endured the liarcMtips of the inv.i*? on of Tm!.-ev the enjoyment of tho di-tin(tivo t'tlo vkich tl'ev have riceived. The mcninii", of \n/ac are °o glorious and ro piecious from a national standpouit t'-it tho t ,+ le merits retention in its o'lrnial significance and pr"~ervat:on f'v ni th" corniption in-wilved in its appli citior to the men who not lev. hcroica'lv, are engaged : n operations in an entiiely difleient sphere

Wjtfm tho real v. ork of undertaking the commercial campaign against the enemy Pov< er.. is begun, it seems highly probable that British conservatism mu«t, in vnrous particulars, g.ve way to more mo Via piactices. In no respect is this mote tine than in the matter of education. What has been a potent factor in building up the complete <y teni <f espionage which In. given Gemenv an intimate knowledge of what is tiansp.tnig m Entente count>ic=? Undoubtedly the linguistic attainments of the German agents. As Mr D. Goldblatt, editor of the Yiddish Lcx'Von, writing m Chambers's Journal, convincingly puts it' "German v ar interpret e>'> are now talking English, Fiench, Flemish, Duteli, Walloon, Turkish, Arabic, BuiQanan. Seibian. Creek, Rumanian, Lithuania", Russian, IV,h"h, Chinee, and Peician." The British comineicnl traveller too frequently goes into a foreign country with an interpreter, and thus ninitoi grievous misundcrtaiKlings, business and otherwise. The German, on tho other hand, "carries his interpieter between his teeth, and conies thiough cheaper and sure t'ian any other." It is possible that one of the good results of the piesent war may, tlno"gh the comladeship of cur soldiers with those of the allied countries, be the acquisition by greit numbers of Biitith people of some 1 t.owiedge of foreign, languages of which previously they knew nothing. But it is patent that for the nuipo c €S of commercial intercommunication, a knowledge of one or tv.o foreign lang-uage; is absolutely indispensable. The British commcrcial woild has in the p£LSt not sufficiently appieciated this.