TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11028, 17 March 1914, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

TWENTY-EIGHT JIILES FOR 2}d. One. can travel twenty-eight miles in Chicago trains for 2id, universal transfers permitting a change without extra fare to any city tramline.

.' KING LEADS THE WAY. The King , has taken aii interesting step on the royal farms. Since the beginning of the year the men employed on his farms in Norfolk have been granted..a minimum wage of 16s per week, a Saturday halt-holiday, continuity of employment", and security of tenure in their cottages.

LLOYD GEORGE AT GLASGOW. . There was one great, deep, underlying principle of all sound and jjust land laws in every land—that thejandin all countries was created by Providence for the benefit of all thoso Avho dwelt therein, and that any privileges, ranks, er interests attaching for the, time being, whatever their origin might be, to the ownership of the land that were inconsistent with that, great purpose in the interests, of the community should be ruthlessly overridden.

" PUNCH " APOLOGISES. The following quaint " apology " appears .'ill London " Punch In our last issue, quoting from a .Johannesburg telegram, we referred to the "Evening Chronicle" as a "Labour organ." fits London manager writes protesting against this description; and we now offer our heartiest regrets for the grave injustice that we seem to have done to-our South African contemporary.

CANADIAN IMMIGRATION. Canadian im migration rot urns reveal the fact that since 1900 the dominion has received nearly 1,000.000 immigrants from' the United Kingdom, a good proportion of whom have gone upon the land, and nearly 900,000 from the' United States, besides (350,000 from Continental Europe. The bulk have gone to the western provinces of Ontario,' although Quebec lias received a great'■■number, and the maritime provinces over 100,000. Hie total htmi al! countries since 1900 exceeds 2>000,000, British Columbia getting about 10 per cei'it of them. In the United States it used to be estimated that the economic value of an immigrant "taking old and young together, was £IOO. It may thus be seen what an enormous amount, of potential capital Cahada derived from this source during the last thirteen years.

art and decency. Writing upon ".Art and Decency " in the " Saturday Review," Mr Hamilton AI inchin observes:—"A picture may convey a. different impression to an artistic and an inartistic observer: be beautiful and innocent to the first, and suggestive and indecent to the second. There is a story told in. the life of a French artist---1. 'forget his name, but am Mire of the facts—of a. young woman sitting nude to a class of young artists, who suddenly jumped from the platform and covered herself with a. wrapper. On being asked her reason, she replied that a house painter on a ■ landing near was looking at her! She felt that while, to the art students, she was merely a harmony in lines, to the uneducated' workman sho was an undressed woman ! The National Gallery is not intended for artists and

adults only, but for all sorts and conditions, including pious people and tho youth of both sexes. Even tho Romans recognised tho maxima roverentia duo pueris virginibusf|ue. Michelangelo's ' Leda ' is a. fine thing in its bold pagan way, but it is impossible, at least to me who was trained as an artist in ofie of the greater Parisian ateliers, consule Planco. and am not at. all prudish, oven to imagine it exhibited' in the public rooms of tho National Gallery."

PIGEONS NAMED IX A WILT;. Mr Samuel Cash Showoll, of Redcar, Yorks, who died January 1, leaving £660-1, directed his executors not to dispose of his pigeons until the expiration of the lirst breeding and show season.after his death. They aro to provide for the keep of the pigeoi'is from tho rent of his garden ground at Coalham, Redcar, ami to pay £lO to J6hn Tliwaitcs, of Kcdcar, lor looking after them.

INDIANS IN CANADA. " The Red Plan's Transformation" is the subject of one of tho articles in the February "Sunday at Home.''' According to the writer tho decline in tho numbers of the Indian population of Canada has been arrested. There are computed to bo 103,000 Indians in the dominion, and one-fourth of these aro in British Columbia. The Indians have nearly (30,000 acres under nop, and their yearly harvest, without counting their cattle-raising, amounts in value to something like £300,000.

CORNLSHMAN'S HEIR MUST WORK. An interesting proviso is made in the will of -Mr Richard Rol>crt Loane Rosomtui, of Prestacott Farm, LauncilFs, Stratton, Cornwall, who eft estate of the gross value of £44,012, of which the net personalty Has been sworn at £3700. He left his household and personal effects to his nephew, Richard Robert Loane •Rosomnn, "provided that hf! is employed in useful work of some kind and shall so continue." The residue of his property he left as to three-fourths to his nephew, " provided he is employed m useful work of some, kind."

' MR BIRR ELL'S GHO9T STORY. "Mr Birrell'told a ghost story at' the Bristol Fuiitl dinner, when responding to the toast, " Literature and Journalism." liv referring to a'recent speech bv Dr Silvanus Thompson on tlie importance of science. Mr ..Birrell 'said :—I don't know, my Lord Mayor, whether you ever have bad dreams, but I have been haunted ever since I was almost a boy by the constant repetition of one and the same dream. It comes to in© again and again. Jt is this. I dream lam Walking about somewhere in some plain or desert, and T suddenly encounter the agitated ghostof Sir Isaac Newton. He approaches me. his eyes almost starting out of his head; he. tolls me who he is, and how ignorant he is of all that lias happened in the woi'kl of science since lie left. "Nov.-," lie savs,l want, you to tell mo in a few words, for I have only a quarter of an hour left, all that has happened* to the race: the progress. How is it? 'J know what it was when. I left it. What is it now?" My heart sinks, and. covered with confusion, T stumble. I T stammer, T become more and more involved, my ignorance becomes morfc and more apparent/and at last the unhappy ghost, throwing 1111 his hands, leaves with dismay. That dream constantly comes to me. The only difference is that, the moment the unhappy Sir Isaac Newton sees me now he sats. "Oh, that old ignoramus," and departs.

PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN AMERICA. There is one thing that the American nature resents more than anything in tho world, and. tlvat, is an attitude of superiority, and especially one ot patronage.. This is . a point Mr James Davenport Whelpley; who writes in the "Fortnightly" on "Public Sentiment in America"), which has. done more to cause misunderstanding- between the English and American peoples than anything else, not excepting wars. The two peoples, he. declares, are separate and distinct nationalities, with different mental habits and' different points of view. The question of thfe Panama' Canal tolls, the trouble in Mexico, the refusal of tho British Government to participate in the approaching. San Francisco Fair—these and other things liavo combined to- cause a revival of the anti-British feeling which, for so many years, past found constant expression in America. The action of the British Government in relation to the Panama Exhibition has accentuated the impression that the whole attitude towards Aniericah affairs and American ambition is not so friendly as it has seemed to. be for tho past few years, and that, for some reason or other, a change has come about. The writer pleads for a better understanding and a closer union, in sentiment and in fact.

MIXERS' MYSTAGMUS. Giving evidence before an Australian Miners' Wages Board on mystagmus, I>r John Kerr stated that about 25 per cent of his practice consisted of persons connected with mining. There was miners' mystagmus, peculiar to miners, and tliero was mystagmus which was very often the symptom of another disease such as from the brain or spinal cord or the ear. It was three or four years since lie was first called upon to treat a case of miner's mystagmus in the district, but it had been more, comnion of late years. Mystagmus was generally .believed to be dtie to defective illumination, although there was a difference of opinion on the point, some believing it to be due to the position in which a man worked. From his own experience it had been more common since the introduction of tho Davy lamp into the district. A man suffering from the complaint could not continue working. If lie did go on working it gave rise to such distressing symptoms that his work was too painful and everything was dancing before his eyes. It was possible for a. man to recover fronj the complaint, but lie did npt think he would recover from it if he continued at his occupation of getting coal with a similar lamp. A man who lias once'had it was very apt to get it again, even when he had recovered by being above ground, if he went back under ground.

MARRIAGE IN THE SLUMS. "Workers in the poorer districts of London are often faced with the problem that after marriage girls lose pride in_ their personal appearance. The headmistress of a girls' school at Limehouso has reported to the London County Council that long experience compels her to confess to a feeling of grave uncertainty respecting the lasting effects of the efforts to secure improvements in personal cleanliness, general tidiness, and self-respect. It cannot be denied that material success attends the action of the teachers while the child remains at sehool. But the evanescent character of the improvement is marked iu slum district*; soon after the pupil reaches " leaving " age. Another headmistress says that tho poorest girl will still marry a, man who is out of work, who she knows will not work, and to whom she will give poc-ket-money out of her own earnings.. It is only by '.raising tho level of these girls, so that thev will refuse to marry a man who has no permanent employment, that the casual and the loafer will cease to be. A prominent social worker, discussing the question with a newspaper representative, said the poorer parts of London were filled with matrimonial tragedies. The reason for these unhappy marriages and the girl's untidy appearance is at once obvious. The ebild-wife is brought up against the hard facts' of life before her mind has been properly opened to the world in which she lives. Sho finds herself invested with new and strange responsibilities, and the struggle to keep together a poor home becomes daily more

irksome. Tims she loses interest in. lior home and in Iter personal appearance. She has entered uponq an unknown task without proper equipment. Is it any woitdcr that from being a smart, attractive young gii'l she degenerates into a slatternly housewife?