PASSING EVENTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4949, 12 May 1894, Page 7

PASSING EVENTS.

(Lyitclton Times.) A ourMfap.mdent has supthr c if. fits plied us wstli a very infceresto? POVD..T7. leg ao.< v onnt, t^tteu from the Charities Review, o? the Austrian toot -law- svsleca. This eyslem appears to offer very widely from any of tliO3e iv foi cc amci g iho :mcicDs of Western Europe. In England, for instance, the destitute, whether little children, utrcr.g men or infirm okl people, aro ell placid on ihe same level. The same treatment is meted out in the hour of need to ..sturdy _beg#ais ai;d .leafing. VEgaboncta as to ..industrious men and women v/hose lives have "been one fierca struggle to keep the wolf from the door. Austrian . statesmen, however, hold different views, and have adopted more jrumase methods. r .hey evea discriminate in the use of the term pauper, reserving it exclusively for able-bodied men and women. Throughout the Empire, the young who have no relatives to support them are the , adopted children of the Ftate; the aged destitute ard ita worn-out industrial pensioners, and the whole population would be horrified and indignant at the thought of treating the members of these classes as paupers. Vienna boasts, and not withont reason, that it takes better care of its destitute children than any other city in the world. They are never brought into contact with paupers, and the greatest care is taken to prevent any stigma being attached to them on account of their friendless condition. If nnder ten years of age they are generally boarded out with well-to-do psasant3, who mußt undertake to care for them aa if they were their own bodb and daughters, and the official i guardiana see that they do so. As the children grow older they ate placed in j training schools where the boys are j fitted for . Bozao noef ul department of | ekilled labour and th.9 girls for housework;, special training being imparted to those who 1 display -special aptitude. "With regard to the aged and infirm, the. Viennese Poor. Laws aro essentially humane in character. Not only are the old people well tended, well fed, and well clothed, but their feelings, tasteo and prejudices are carefully considered. The principle underling this part of the system is that, proclaimed by the Emperor Joseph more than a hundred years ago— " Old age relief is a right, not a charity."

Tho English critics, who A dish fob are supposed to know someTHE thin*} of the subject, write noeth pole, rather contemptuously of the proposed American expedition to the North Pole. They ridicule the idea of devoting only one short summer to a ta'-k which is expected to eig-i<»e tho intrepid Nansen for three or four years. But Mr "Walter Wellman, the leader oi the expedition, ia not discouraged by tbe attitude of his critics. Jnet before his departure for the Arctic Seas he supplied a representative of Renter's Agency with some particulars of his undertaking. " The advantages of a summer expedition," ho 3ays, " are that we approach our work without having been weakened by an Arctic winter, and that overy man and dcg will be as fresh and strong as ever. By avoiding the winter we avoid also an enormous loss of strength, vitality, and moral force. Tbe long polar night reduces the fighting and intellect.. .1 force of even tbe best of any party. . Again, we find the summar season, with a temperature during four month, rather above than below freezing, most Guitable for the work* -in -" hand.' By using the summer We avoid the .amble struggle against intense cold and furious storms. Whereas the sledging parties of Sir George Nires in 1875 had to struggle through a temperature ranging from SO to 40 degrees below zero, and this with frequent aUrros and with heavily-loaded sledges, "wm shall escape these, troubles. Tbe -aiaa condition of things applied to the Ir 7k wood and Brainard party pf Greeley's /fipedifcion. We work only during the favourable sea-son, with an equipment e_e-ially _e*igned for that time of year, arid we hope to be able to acsomplish our end and return to our beid-quartera before \ the favourable season has bean succeeded by tbe Arctic, winter." This, it will be l , ©-...aimed, is the programme of a very : easguine American ; but as Mr Wellman has expended something like £5000 from his own poek.t in equipping tho expsdition, and is ready to run the rick which must '_-c.oa.pßny v a dash for the pole," we may well wish him sueco-S.

It is not only in th. iieligioub matter of the female franteaching in chise and local option tbat state New Zealand is now pointed schools. " to a. an object lesson for the Mother Country. Regarded a. an infant colony (onr London correspondent wrote on March SO), it must bt* corf.s?ed tbat young Maoriland kicks vigorously in its cradle, and that ito m -'yell-us precociiy is teaching a thing or i7/o to its aged parent, who looks with a eo.t of benign .encouragement and CGV"?iV;on_ pride through itß spectacles ou ita CTowing off.prii-g. The recent he ted di.euEaioh ih church circleß over the problem of religious versus secular education" "in tbe Board schools has BUp-j-ied Mr Arlhur Clayden with a convenient topic for drawing comparisons favourable to New Zealand. In a letter to the Da\ly Chronicle he points out that tV-o controversy which raged about this ***< xed CjU?.tion in that colony was thoroughly tbresbed out to a firm conclusion, and he asserts as a fact of gir_t -ignificaoce that the ablest disputants in favour of pure secularism wero earnestly religions men, tbat the Sunday ee'hool system has supplied all the purely ■religion, teaching necessary ; and his boa-i; is that "nowhere in any part of the British. Empire is there a . higher -noral standard among ihe youth than in the colony, ex .New Zealnnd." Ho enlarges on the practical impossibility of any common standing ground for religions education in the Board schools being found among conflicting sects o. High and Low Church, who are disagreed on the question of conscience, and the Nonconformists, who are divided amongst tbem-felves. Ha is persuaded, finally, that the only logical position at all tenable is that reached by New Zealand.

The disquieting cableTHE ikdian grama cf the last few days armt. give special interest to the report of a lecture delivered a lifctlo time &%o by Sir Hector Kormnn, in the rooms o? the Queensland United Service Institution, at Brisbane. Sir Hector took as bi3 subject " The Indian Army/ and gave the following particulars of a force towards which maay eyes are turned at ths-present moment:— The- army in Iridia, according to • tho SBtioiatos for 1833 04, consisted of 49G officers of Royal Artillery serving with British !.att?ris3 arcl eompaniea, the Strength of tho latter being 12,822 men \{all ranks ercapt officers; 33 officers of

: thft Royal Artillery, 4454 native artillery - ! man of nil ranka, 7030 artillery horses; • 9 rogimoats of British cavalry with 261 : officer«, 5418 of other ranks and 4725 troop : horses ; 35 regiments of native cavalry and a tew smaller corps of that aim, the latter ranging in strength from the Guide '• Cavalry of 475 men to tfce Bombay bodyguard of 71 men, the whole native cavalry aggregating 582 British officer* and 23,064 natives of all ranks, with 20,926 troop , horses (17,240 of which were Government i property, tbe rest being the property o£ the I native officers and men) ; 56 officero and iBS European non-commissioned officers j of Royal Engineers attached to the Sappers ; and Minarg, which consisted of 3844 native i eoldiers of all ranks; 53 regiments of Bri.l fcish Infantry, with .1537 officers and ; 52,178 of other ranks; J 2B regiments of i Native Infantry, with 1128 European I officers and 112,527 natives of all ranks. The whole strength of the army, including 'general officers, staff officer?, officers of j Royal Engineers, in various professional j employments -.-and military officers in > varioug departments and branches of the public service, amounted to 5048 Europe&n .officers, 70,599 European soldiere, 143,970 ; native soldiers, or a total of 219,617, with , 430 .field and mountain guns fully equipped. In addition to the above force there are 32,354 volunteers, thg small armies, including the Hyderabad contingent, maintained by various States under treaty, and the military police. Altogether it ia estimated that tho Government of India could muster, without reinforcements, about 300,000 officers and men to hold garrisons and forward field armies. In 1857, afc the time of the mubiny, oboufc 40,000 Europeans and 230,000 natives.^ were on the strength of tha Indian army. Since then the European element has risen by 30,500 men and the native element has fallen by 86,000 men. The native soldiers of to-day, however, are far more officiant than thosß of forty years j ago, and a larga number of discharged ! Sepoya would make formidable antagoI nistg. England is certainly better piepared than she was in 1857 to suppress a native rising, but it is to be hoped that she will, never be called upon to again assext'her supremacy by the force of arms.