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Otago Daily Times, Issue 17871, 28 February 1920, Page 8

One has a feeling that the time is considerably out of joint in reading of the serious problems urgently requirmg solution in the national interest in the Old Country—the lack of houses, unemployment, soaring prices, industrial unrest, the bread subsidy, and so forth. But in a London message we also read: "The football fever continues, recalling the best boom days." It is recorded, further, how the officials of a certain club received applications for some 50,000 reserved seats within 24 hours of the announcement of a particular fixture. The British public, it is implied, is at present football-mad. Its mood may reflect a certain reaction after the war period, but the picture that is presented is not very inspiring. The immense popularity formerly enjoyed by the League matches in the OH Country has not taken long to revive. The unsatisfactory feature in the matter is that theso games are not providing healthy sport for the younger men of the nation. In the conditions by which they are surrounded they are reminiscent of the gladiatorial contests of the ancient arena. The players are professionals, paid for their services. Their contests provide a medium for betting on a great scale on the part of the public, which attends in its tens of thousands, animated larger by a spirit that has no special kinship that interest in athletic prowess which it is good for a nation to possess. It is the old story of too few players and too many onlookers. Not by following that course does a people maintain or improve the standard of its physical development. There is another side to the matter. -.The crying need of Great Britain to-day is increased production. Only by industry can the nation hope to lift its shoulders above the difficulties in which it is involved, and regain the old commercial supremacy necessary to its prosperity. But it is not particularly encouraging to find so large a section of the community feverishly interested _in football. Such enthusiasm will certainly not enhance the working capacity of the nation or the lagging output of its industries, as compared with the demand of the world's markets.

The Great War brought forth many surprises, and not least so in the direction of the development in individuals of unsuspected aptitudes and qualities. One of these surprises was Ignaco Jan Paderewski. For years Paderewski had enjoyed a world-wido reputation as a virtuoso of the pianoforte. It was natural to regard him as a musician wedded to his art. In popular tradition his very fingers were heavily insured against accident. A figure that seemed 1 less likely to seek voluntarily the hurly-burly of war could hardly have been named. But the Polish temperament had to be reckoned with, and the struggles of his country were too much for Paderewski to contemplate from a distance. He rushed into the melee, and ere long provided illustration of the fact that virtuosity may readily become swamped in patriotism. It was with almost a gasp that the world realised that this idol of the concert platform had actually become Prime Minister of the new Polish Re> public, and that he was the central figure in one of the most disturbed corners of I'Jurope, settling policies, negotiating with the Allies, and living in danger of l>ombs an/J assassination. The exploits of tho Italian poet PAnnunzio have provided a certain parallel with those of Paderewski, but have contained a filibustering and freakish element. We are now told that Paderewski is resting at Lake Geneva. He is said to have described his patriotic mission on Poland's behalf as finished, and to have announced that ho has retired from tho concert platform, with the intention to devote the remainder of his life to musical composition. Tho pianist's decision not to seek any repetition of nis former artistic triumphs before tho audiences of Europe—to say nothing of the dominions—will be a blow to managerial enterprise. A concert tour by the Liberator of Poland might well be a matter for extraordinary inducements. But we may hope that in devoting himself to composition Pad'erowski may find powerful inspiration in tho war scenes in which he has been participating and in the national re-birth of his own beloved country.

Lady Astok apparently scored a distinct success in the House of Commons in her first speech, which is said to have been conspicuous for its wittinesss as well as for pathos. ■ The subject of debate was scarcely romantic, being a question of tho removal of wartime liquor restrictions. Lady Astor defended the restrictions as tending to keep down the convictions of women for drunkenness. The ocevden ot her debut on the floor of th<? Howe yo»

not permitted to go unmarked. Members flocked in, wo read, when they learned that she was speaking, and she received an ovation upon resuming her seat. So far there has boon a savour of indulgence about reports of the attitude of the House of Commons to its woman member, a desire to be polite, appreciative, and encouraging. This patting on the back is not likely, however, to bo a permanent liabit. The novelty of a woman occui«iit of these benches so long reserved for tho sterner sex only has not yet quite worn off. The feminine .invasion of the House of Commons has been happy in its pioneer, the representative of the Sutton Division Of Plymouth. It is a freak of chance that the first woman to sit as a member of the Imperia.l Parliament is not English born. By name of Nancy Witchcr Langhorne, before her marriage, sho is the daughter of a gentleman of Virginia, and by another curious arrangement of circumstances this "daughter of democracy" is a peeress who now sits in the House of Commons. Lady Astor took her seat there for the first' time on December 1. In the words of Mr j Philip Gibbs: "Shortly before 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon a revolution happened in England. It was when, for the first time in the long history of the Old Mother of Parliaments. a woman advanced up tho floor of the House at the bidding of the Speaker, and took her place as a representative of the people." All accounts of Lady Aster's deportment in the novel circumstances of her situation have been highly complimentary. She has betrayed an enviable selfpossession in a position in which she is perhaps peculiarly open to criticism as the suggested forerunner of many women "who will be among the legislators and conthat new world which is already appearing above the horizon of old thoughts and old traditions."