Sayings of the Week

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 19, 12 May 1909, Page 3

Sayings of the Week

Back to the Land, UNFORTUNATELY everywhere in advanced nations there is a tendency on the part of the people to drift to the cities and towns. In England over throequarters of the .whole population are in the towns and cities. This tends to national ddcay, and the great salvation of a nation is to keep its people on the land. Statistics as to the physical deterioration of the poorer classes by city life show that a country should make the utmost effort to check the drift to the larger centres of population. This tendency is evident in New Zealand also. In 190 ft for every 100 persons resident in the counties 92.5 resided

in boroughs, while in 1901 for every 100 in the counties there were 84 in the boroughs. That is to say, in a period of live years the trend towards the cities Increased by 8.5 per cent.— Sir -Joseph The Purpose of Museums. Museums should be made educational. The mere exhibition of a lot of specimens 'does very little good unless it is explained {where they came from and their relation to the different species. Some really good museums fail in this particular. They are made for those who already know, and do not efficiently educate the .people who do not know. —fir. Thomas 'Hodgkin, D.C.L. Frank Morton’s Ideal Woman, The world is full of food, but a truly good dinner is still quite the rarest of earthly events. There are probably more perfect poets in the world than perfect cooks. We have all heard of great men marrying their cooks, and all these great mon have been very wise. If you have a good cook, you may take it is an axiom that it is better to marry her than to lose her. But you must not deceive yourself. Blessed among women is the good took, and she doesn’t occur much ofteucr than once in a generation. — Franfc Worton. * * • • The Best Antidote. Books were a great factor in the making of true men and women, and when they had such an institution as the one they were in it was a matter for- great gratitude. They had heard a good deal about immoral literature. He considered the best way to counteract it was to provide moral literature, and that was done by the Leys Institute.— Rev. 4. MaoCaulay Caldwell. • • * • Faults on Both Sides. The rich have been too ready to hand over their children to nurses and governesses to be educated, and the poor to hand theirs to the State and get them educated anyhow.— Canon Newbolt. An Honest Trade, One advantage of technical and manual training is that it gives a boy a bent for an honest trade, instead of an ambition for quill-driving in gn office.— Ur. O. J. Iftre Auckland. « . .'. - '3s- - -

An Australian Navy. I am in favour of the Australian navy for two reasons. First, because I believe that it would provide greater opportunities to Australians to show their skill and grit, for by the formation of a navy Australians will have a direct opportunity of serving in ships that I hope and believe will still continue to be part of the navy of the Empire, and of serving side by side with the men of the older service. lam also in favour of the project for a wider and Imperial reason. I believe that the time is arriving when every part of the Empire must make duq contribution to Imperial defence. — Lord Dudley.

Sunshine and Shadow, In life sunshine and shadow succeeded one another as quickly as on an April day. Whether the result was happiness or sorrow depended a great deal on which elements they looked at or brooded over. If they turned their backs on their blessings and magnified their troubles they made themselves miserable; if they looked to the sunshine and left the shadows behind them they would find that they had much to be thankful for, and in most eases that the good things were real, while what seemed evils were but blessings in disguise.— Lord Avebury.

Financing the Farmer. The lending of money to farmers and others for acquisition of land and its development should be done by mortgage and investment companies or by means of the Advances to Settlers Department. No bank has a right to lock up its funds (which very largely are lent by the public either at call or at short date) in advances on land. I am hopeful that during the coming session of Parliament our picmbers will see the wisdom of authorising the raising of a large sum of money by the Government to be lent by the Advances io Settlers Department. — Ur. Harold Chairman Bank oX New Zealand. -

Only One Fleet. There was only one fleet in the whole world that was at sea f rom January Ist in one year to January Ist the next year. That was the fleet of Great Britain. The defence of Australia lay in the defence of these high-roads of the sea. The whole control and protection of these roads must be in the hands of a central Power, the great force of the British navy. The best defence of the Empire lay In the power of instantly taking the offensive.— Admiral Poore. Ladies Please Note, I believe, in especial and most emphatically, that the political enfranchisement of women in New Zealand will prove, in the ultimate result, to be the worst thing that ever befel the country; because in practise, the great majority of the women that trouble to vote are either tools or dupes. I find women in this country voting for men for all sorts of reasons—■ because this man or that is such a “good” man, because he is a teetotaller,

because he was so good to Willie that time, because he is so awf’lly nice, because he is so kind to his mother, because he is such a good speaker And I find, as I go about, that of the questions that most vitally affect this state endangered, these voting women know little or nothing. Many of the wisest and noblest of the women do not vote. In England, many or most of the noblest and wisest of the women are guided, by some divine intuition that directs the whitest souls, to oppose the suffragists' cry and claim. I’m glad of that. I am glad of it because there are

perilous times ahead for the great nations. and I would not have mv England weakened now. I am glnd of it, bccauM I realise that the future is for the Individual, and the average woman move* naturally in masses whenever she gets into the arena of public affair*. — t'ranh Morton. • • • « Melba's Tribute to Labour. I had no idea to what extent Labour legislation prevailed here until it was brought practically home to me. In one of the towns where t sang I was unable to get any supper after the concert. The members of the Cooks’ Union would not work after seven p.m., and had my butler not gone to work and cooked me a chop I should have had to go supperless.— Madame Melba. * « « • The Essence of Liberalism. The true principles of advanced Liberalism lie below the National Annuities 1 Bill and Land for Settlements Finance J Bill, namely, that the State should, like ' an intelligent parent, actively promote , the material well-being of every man and . woman who, without sufficient means, is ■ anxious to help himself or herself; that the degree of such promotion should correspond to the burdens of parentage a man or woman is bearing in the interests of the State; that self-help must precede Slate help. These principles sum up the , essence of advanced Liberalism. — Sir ' Joseph Ward. • * • • Sciontlflo Emigration. From every point of view, moral, physical and political, I have very strong feeling that we ought to be at work promoting scientific emigration from the old countries. Wo should not simply hurl our wasters out to the colonies, but choose the emigrants carefully and send them out according to the old Greek system under which families and whole villages were sent away. Thus old ties were not altogether broken when they got into the now country. If this were done side by side with the back to the land movement. It need not be a movement, that the Labour party need have any fear of. It would do more than many battleships to secure the country from invasion. Judiciously promoted, emigration is the true defence of Australia, and I only wish that it had been set about a few .years ago.— Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L. 9 * • 9 True Imperialism. The true link of Imperialism is the link of a law common in its essential principles to all subjects of the King, a law which binds the Empire together in administration which is founded on unfailing loyalty to justice, on the unprejudiced search for truth.— Lord Shato.