The Star. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1901. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6994, 9 January 1901, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1901. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

When the Exhibition' ektses, the Managing Committee 'will be in a position to congratulate itself ivot only on the excellence of the Exhibition itself, but also upon having provided its ..patrons with ai series of most eiijoyabl& entertadumfeE^ Every evening since the opening of the Exhiuitaon the Agricultural and Industrial. Hall has been/ filled by appreciative audiences, and on some evenings the. building;, has been literally packed- in! all <parts. Ojithese occasions the ventalatfion, of the 'Mi 'has proved insufficient for the strain / placed upon it. On one or two evenings in particular the atmosphere in the upper, portion of the building has been stifling — so stifling, indeed', that members of the audience have been obliged to leave their seats before the close of the entertainment. We stand the Hall Company contemplates making certain alterations with the idtea of improving the ventilation of its property. In its own interests, -as ■well as in those of the public, it is to be hoped that it wi3l make them without ioss of time. ; In deciding to establish a properly' organised Tourist Traffic Department the 1 New Zealand Government -has made a "wise move. The need' for a Department of this character is emphasised' every day. The sce'riery ot this colony offers abundant attractions to people from other* countries, and yet the tourist traffic is not very large. ThlS is due to the fact that the facilities offeied to travellers are nothing like so great?a£ they ought to be. We pride ourselves ;im being a progressive community, but in>.<&cime respects we are singularly backward, and in none more particularly than, in our means of locomotion.- We may noir Notice this fact ourselves, but it does not escape the observation of strangers, and undoubtedly it prejudices them against New Zealand. The Government has determined to remove this reproach not a moment too soon. The question of recreation for business men is one which, gives rise to mamy conflicting opinions, especially among 1 tJhe medical profession. Speaking to a representative of this paper a few . days ago, a medical practiti<xcer. advanced! a theory about holidays in which he himself pro-. fesses to be a firm believer, but which he thinks will not commend! "*- itself to the majority of the public. .Substantially fiis idea amounts to this: — "A person works fifty weeks of; the ye&p in a crowdied) city, and spends, say, two. f Vv4eks either in anotiher town or in roaming about sightseedng. Even if he retires into the country he keeps both mind and' body continually at work. He prattles about the benefits accruing .from change of^scene and life. In reality he is making a terribTe mistake. Instead of still further his store •of energy, he ought to do his best to conserve it and even add to it. How can he do this? By spending the, whole of his holiday in bed. " We ore quite ready to admit that our medical friend's theory may be a sound one in every respect, but we hardly think that it will be acceptable tc holiday-makers to believe that they are in . good health. . - What is urgently needed in China, just now is another Lord Cromar. That is the opinion of the Hon T. H,; T^hitehead, a member of the Legislative Qouiicjl of Hongkong and a banker, whose experience of China covers upwards of twenty-six years. Mr W'hitehead considers that the present trouble in the East has been brought about by the European Powers annexing or stealing Chinese territory. That is not the way to treat the Celestials. They the amenable to reason, and, when ' skilfully governed, they are easily led. But they will not lje pacified by a senseless display of brute force. They believe in, and are more friendly disposed towards, the British than towa.rds any other foreign Power. Fiscal reform wiil largely help the solution) of the Chinese problem. In this direction Chinese statesmen would welcome skilful guidance from the British, for the reason that they know what England has accomplished in Egypt. That is why Mr Whitehead : thinks that another Lord Croiner is required 1 . ,5 ' In a lecture on " Method and' Organisation in Business," recently delivered by Sir Courtenay Boyle, Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade, in connection with an evening commercial schoof, the lecturer in-. t sisted on- the importance of care, in opening, envelopes and addressing letters, and .showed how it was possible for international trouble to arise, simply from a little inattention. Not very long ago, lie -said, a very .serious trouble took --place because an imrportant despatch which was nie^nt for St > -Petersburg got into the Washington postI bag. There was a delay of fifteen, or sixteen days before this very important despatch could be got. All the trouble resulted from a mere little bit of carelessness on the part of the gentleman concerned in putting the letter into the bag. Evidently, important as it is in diplomatic matters not to let the cat out of the bag, it is equally important to put it into the right bag. This has been the century of giants (says London "Truth"), but the century which came in like a lion is going out like a lamb. Napoleon, Wellington, Nelson, Pitt, Bismarck, Gladstone, Beaconsfield, Fox, Talleyrand, Moltke, Goethe, Schiller, Byron, Tennyson, Wagner, Turner, Darwin, Faraday, Huxley* Davy, Dickens, Thackeray, Scott, Carlyle, Macaulay, Landsecr, Lawrence, Canova, Thorwaldsen, Meyerbeer, Weber, Schubert, Newman, Wordsworth, Shelley, Southey, Washington Irving, Mrs Siddons, , and, great as any, Victoria, are names that have Been cut deep in the his r tory of the race. Five hundred men and women of genius have their names associated' with the century, but where are ten I that are living? Fashions of thought and fashions of feeling have all changed, and the sentiment of Dickens because it is not cast in the form now in vogue, seems to us mawkish and absurd. The points which have not suffered in Dickens are his humour and his astonishing vigour. The " Spectator " thinks that the amount of " stuff " he put into each novel is something prodigious. The modern novelist may remoreelssly conduct his hero from the cradle to' the grave, but yet his work will appear thin and attenuated beside, that of .Dickens, .for in .the most favourable cases it is very seldom that more tba>n three or four of the characters of a' novel of the' day, really live. ; The background is filled With outlines. There were, very S&w outlines in Dickens's work, and a

.."AV.I of subordinate- characters spring at •.:.c !•> mind. Take, us examples, Dr Sli\;:ig, Mrs Miicawbeiv (a brave and lively shade, to whom the writer presents the most respectful admiration), Mr F.s Aunt, Miss SneveUicci, the .. immortal Crummies, tie brothers Cheeryble— whaSb are these but minor characters? Yet one and all they are possessed with a vigoura ndl a life only accorded to " principals " by the parsimonious novelist of to-day.