HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3247, 7 June 1916, Page 73

HERE AND THERE.

German Schools of Hate. — In the Lower no use 01 trie Prussian Diet the Socialist, Herr Hoffmann, animadverted on a recent official circular sent to the inspectors 01 schools in luo Frankfurt district, m which instructions were given to have uie children tauglit to have uie enemies of the Fatnerlaiiu. He said it was a disgraceful business, and, amiu much applause from iiis Socialist colleagues, attacked the practice of teaching children in public schools songs tilled witn hatred of J>ritain. In Hanover, he declared, two sciiooi rectors have published and circulated - "A War Reading Book lor the use of (Schools," in wnich a set of verses appears '"written by a lieutenant. ' The gist of' the verses is ; "Over there lies the enemy hi his cowardly trenches. We will attack him, and that man is a dog who will give quarter to them. Kill every one of them, even those who beg for mercy ! Shoot them ail down like dogs! Let your prayer be, More enemies, more enemies, m this hour of retribution." The Diet members moved uneasily in their seats, and the Socialists shouted "Shame!" Herr Hoffmann also called the attention 01 the House to a prominent chaplain atthe front named Scheitler, engaged in circulating books among the soldiers, in which the following passage occurs : "It is not our fault that we are engaged in the bloody work of war, ana the work of the executioner as wed. The cold iron has been put into the soldier's hand. Let him use it without fear. He must push his bayonet into the ribs of the enemy; he must smash their skulls with his musket. It is his sacred duty; it is Clod's service." "The Almighty has permitted this war for the purifying of men, and all you have to uo is to use your weapons with most effect against the Russians, French, and Belgians, but above ail others, against the British scum." Herr Hoffmann asked the House, "Is this religion?" and was answered by the Conservatives with "Yes," and laughter. A Socialist member called out, "You would drive Christ out of the Temple." The\Conservative reply to this member w r as "Go to England !" —■ Women Workers in Berlin.— Nearly 900,000 women are now at one kind of work or another in Berlin (says a correspondent from that city to an American paper). They have swarmed into almost every field of activity, no matter how difficult; they are earning more money than they ever had before; many have lost their own breadwinners, and are for all time dependent upon their own efforts. The probable unwillingness of the women to go back to their homes after the war is being more and more anticipated by the labour leaders, who say the women must go in favour of the men when the time comes. The employer who is able to hire women more cheaply than men will be loth to change to the old method, and for a time is not going to be able to afford it. A not inconsiderable degree of diplomacy, combined with a judicial use of compulsion, is going to be necessary, labour leaders feel, before the problem .can be adjusted. It is almost universally admitted that the women do not adequately substitute for the men. Women conductors, for instance, are said to be about 50 per cent, as efficient as their male predecessors, and only about half of those who go to work difc conductors are able to stand the strain. Few of the trades are harder or more strenuous than metal work, which just now, of course, is booming because of the need of ammunition. Yet there are thousands of women thus employed to-day, who do not seem to mind the heavy work, and who are earning, relatively, a great deal of money. The Victorian Age.— , The age of science, mechanism, industrial development, public improvement, and social upheaval was airly astart when Queen Victoria came to the throne. The first omnibus, introduced from Paris by Mr Shillibeer, was run on the New road on July 4, 1829; and the first railway serving the metropolis was opened on December 14, 1837; this was the London and Greenwich railway, from Duke street, London bridge, to Deptford. Then followed in quick succession the London and Birmingham railway, the Great Western railway, and others, so that by the middle of the forties London had rio fewer than 10 termini. Gas lighting had made an earlier commencement. Conceived and developed originally by a Scotsman named Murdoch in the closing years of the eighteenth century, it was left for a German "company-pro-moting expert,'' named Windsor, to apply the new system to London. He lighted up the front of Carlton House with gas o)i June 4, 1806, in celebration of the King's birthday, and promptly issued a prospectus of "The New Patriotic Imperial and National Heat and Light

Company," tho profits cf which he estimated at £229,000,000 a year, out of which sum lie proposed to" redeem the National Debt and pay the shareholders a dividend of about 1000 per cent! Pali Mall and Westminster bridge were lighted with gas in 1814, ami year after year the new method was extended, until, in 1842, the last stronghold of conservatism, Grosvenor square, was captured for the new illuminant. German Canary Monoply.— At the present time there is a huge demand m the United Kingdom for all kinds ot canaries. Dealers are offering to take any number for export, and are prepared to pay good prices. A friend who called at oui offices this week (says the editor of Cage Birds, in an article advocating crippled soldiers being established in this hobby), who, by the way, is not a dealer, made the statement that he could dispose of a million canaries if he <xmld get them. Now, what are all these birds wanted for? V\« will tell you. To meet the foreip-n demand caused by the stoppage of the German canary trade. The filling of the enormous demand year by year for singing canaries has been" for geheiations also a monopoly of our enemies the Germans. During each season thousands of German Rollers have passed weekly through the hands of London dealers, and many more thousands have been exported to Canada, the United States, and to Australia, and all this trade is now waiting for England if we will seize the opportunity. English Roller canaries, possessing merit fully equal to the best German canaries ever bred, have been for some years produced in our country, but the English breeders have limited their efforts to the production of superlative songsters as a hobby. The commercial possibilities seem scarcely to have been noticed, probably because of an idea that the demand was already being supplied and that competition would be unprofitable. New York Floating Church. — New York is to lose its floating church, an institution unique in many ways. Its seafaring existence is to be terminated by a permanent haven on terra firma. The floating church, or, to speak correctly. All Saints' Church, has for four years been moored oh Mariners' Harbour, Staten Island. It is to be removed from its float, and placed on a substantial brick foundation at Richmond Terrace. But its four years in the water adjacent to Staten island constitute only a small span of its history as a floating house of worship, although it was known for most of that time as the Floating Church of Our Saviour, and was moored to a pier at the foot of Market street, on the East River. In April 1844, a number of young men formed a society with the extensive name of "The Protestant Episcopal Church Missionary Society for Seamen in the City and Port of New York." In that same year the society organised the floating church. In 1869 it was destroyed by fire, and the present one was erected. From this modest beginning has grown the Seamen's Church Institute of Sew Y'ork, with its hotel, bank, shipping bureau, yacht and its several stations. It was in December, 1910, that the floating church was towed from its mooring place in the East River to the shore of Mariners' Harbour. It was presented as a Christmas gift to All Saints' Parish, Mariners' Harbour. Soldiers' Charms. — The soldiers of the Kaiser are very superstitious, from the men in the ranks up to the Crown Prince. Wilhelm's eldest son carries a horseshoe with him on all his motor trips, and the Crown Prince Spends most of the day in his motor car. The horseshoe is attached to one of the doors of the car, and when being photographed in his motor car the Prince always insists on the photographer "taking" the side of the car with the horseshoe. The soldiers of Wurtemberg pin their faith upon a little bag containing the dry pollen of flowers, which they believe has the power of warding off the bullets. The Saxons sew into the lining of their waistcoats the wings of a bat, 'and think themselves to be "invincible. The Bavarians hold on tenaciously to a still more_ bizarre custom. Before going into battle each soldier finds a birch tree, cuts his skin, and lets a few drops of blood fall upon the tree. This ceremony, they assert, assures recovery, no matter what the nature of the wound, when the leaves begin to grow again. Now—and Then.—

Sir Thomas Whittaker, M.P., chairman and managing director of the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution, gave some notable figures to the annual meeting. Twenty years ago Consols weie 114, now they are 57; Bank of England stock was 345. now it is 197; Canada Three-and-a-half per Cents. wore 111. now they are 71 ; London and Nonh-Western Ordinary stock was 209. and now is 100; Great Western was and is now 92. City men sometimes talk of "getting in on the ground floor." That is what those who take out policies with us now and during the next few vears will certainly do. "It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good." Krupp's Fortune. — Everyone knows the part which Krupp's plays "in equipping Germany and her Allies with munitions, but how many are aware asks the Daily Chronicle) that the money with which the great firm was placed on a sure foundation, if not actually founded, came from Birmingham? Alfred Krupp came to Birmingham about 1840 with an introduction from Dr Siemens to Messrs Elkington and Mason, electroplaters, the predecessors of the present firm of Elkington and Co. He offered to them a machine, which he had invented, for rolling the metal "blanks" from which spoons and forks are made. Eventually he sold this to the firm for £IO.OOO. With the money thus acquired Krupp proceeded to Essen" and laid the foundation of tbe great fortune ho afterwards acquired.