Topics of the Day.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 19, 9 November 1910, Page 44

Topics of the Day.

By Our Landon Correspondent.

•THE BRITISH ARMY 03 xOUR— A MILITARY CIRCUS.” LONDON, September 23. «7T SCHEME to familiarise the f I people both of this country j / X and of tl»e overseas Dominiutis with the daily life and awtu-rl conditions of service of all ranks in the British Army, to stimulate recruiting, and to give iuu.li needed help to several 1 of the military charities, is now being elaborated by a board composed, almost entirely of Army officers. Tlie details of the scheme have not been finally settled, but, broadly put, the idea underlying it is to take the British. Army in miniature, on tour, first, throughout 'the provinces, and then in Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and India. The organisation, the military details of which are being carried out by Colonel A. G. Burn, of the Indian Army, is to consist of 50 0111001*, 100 non-commissioned officers, and 1000 men, all of whom must have served with the colours. It is intended that every branch of the Army shall be represented • —lnfantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers, Army Service Corps, and the Royal Army Medical Corps—with the appropriate equipment, and that there should also be * naval detachment composed of men

who have served in the Navy, with guns. A “permanent camp” is to be established at Watford, and here the men are to be trained for the display which will be given in every town or centre visited. This display will follow the lines of the Naval and Military Tournament held in London, and it will conclude with “The Charge of the Light Brigade” as a spectacle. The tour is to begin at Birmingham on Easter Monday, April 17, 1911, and it is contemplated that it will extend over three years. That, at all events, is the period for which the men have to “enlist.” The rate of pay has been fixed at £2 per week, with free kit, rations, arid sleeping accommodation. It in estimated by the promoters, who are mostly military men, that the weekly expenses of the undertaking will amount to £2500, but they “confidently expect that £200,000 will be easily raised as the result of three years’ work at Home and! in the colonies” for the purposes of the military charities. The profits of the tour, we are informed, are to be handed over to the trustees, and they alone will bo charged, with the duty of allocating the money. But apparently charity is not to have a look in until an unnamed group of investors, who are putting £50,000 into the scheme and drawing 10 per cent interest, have recouped theni•alvee.

The scheme has been submitted to the War Office with a view to enlisting the approval ana support of the Department, and! the matter is now under the coneideration of the Secretary of State for the Army Council. An adverse criticism of the scheme appears in this week’s "Truth,” which proteats against the War Office sanctioning “the organisation, of what is nothing more or less than a huge military circus by some nameless syndicate.” THE TRAGEDY OF THB TEACHERS. England's social system is chiefly remarkable for its shocking want of system. The English are wont to declare that they “muddle through” sooner or later, and rather pride themselves on their indifference to logic and system. But the muddling through is not only a slow and wasteful process, but a very, painful one for the victims. Consider, for example, the plight of England’s unemployed school teachers, a mass meeting of whom is about to be held in London. Many distressing stories of their struggles to get work are being received by the recently-formed Unemployed Teachers Committee. It seems that seven years ago there

was a dearth of teachers. Then the London County Council attracted so many young men and women into the profession that the market was glutted. From one extreme the profession was brought to the other, with the result that now, for lack of system in regulating the supply, there a re about 1000 teachers unemployed in London and between 4,000 and 5,000 in the provinces. All of these have been trained at a cost to the taxpayers of £3OO each, not to speak of the sacrifice made by the parents during their children’s seven years’ studentship. Six thousand fully qualified teachers are coming into the profession every year for whom, according to their committee, no work can be found* The following cases show the straits to which certificated teachers are driven to obtain a bare living:—• 1. After applying unsuccessfully 351 times .for appointment as teacher, has taken a situation as governess at £2O a year. 2. Is working as printer’s reader; made 150 applications for work. 3. After 210 applications, is working as a teacher on “supply,” that is, teachers odd days at so much per day. 4. B. Sc. had to accept an uncertifieate<J teacher’s post at £75. 5. Clerk in a elothing factory, 9s a week, hours 8.30 ran. to 7 p.m.

9. Addressing envelopes at 3s per thousand. 7. Clerk tn a bookseller at 15s a week. 8. Two men. working aa far* labourers. 9. Addressing circulars at ids a week. 10. Becomn clerk in the Civil Service at A 50, of which. 5a per week ia deducted until the Government grant to the training college ia repaid. 11. In deaperate straits a girl has ear gaged herself a» a governors in a small private school at Ji 15 a year and live out. 12. Two men are farm labourers. 13. A girl, whose widowed mother struggled eleven years to give her, daughter a college course, is a lady- clerk at 10s a week. For a teacher’s position at Willesden, there were 600 applicants, and in one London division there were 200 teachers waiting for one post. In some 300 or 400 cases under the committee’s notice the applicants could not get places because they were Nonconformists. Meanwhile there are 63,000 unqualified teaehers at work in the schools, and thousands of teachers are in charge of classes far too big for any one man or woman to deal with efficiently. The whole situation speaks eloquently of the lack of system. AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL. The opinion of a Spanish lady who recently died in London, concerning her relatives, has juet been made public by reason of the proving of her will. It is expressed therein with considerable venom.

“As to my sisters, nieces, nephew, bro-ther-in-law, and cousin, nothings—nothing shall come to them from me, but a bag of sand to rub themselves with. None deserve even a good-bye. I do not recognise a single one of them. It is useless even to communicate my death to them;; they have too much abused and lied against me.” As regards her husband, who survives her, the lady’s opinion may be gathered from the restrictions she placed on the use of the thousand pounds eha bequeathed him. “He cannot touch this £lOOO, or do anything whatsoever. He must live on the interest which he will have from this sum, and if he remarries, from that day the income and the capital shall no longer be his. “He may dispose of them only if he becomes a, monk in an order, otherwise it is only income, and I repeat It—lf my husband remarries, from that day neither capital nor interest shall be for him any more, and on the day, say, of his death, if he remains a widower, this £lOOO, with the rest of what remains of my estate,' shall be to found a house of refuge for couples without children who cannot find means of housing, and who are in the most complete need of shelter.” naving vented her spleen on her relations, the testator became quite charitable. She left £4OO to the Society for the

Protection of Animals, on the eonditfoß that they took care ef her doge and estb* aqd half that amount to the Littfe Sinters of the Foor, providing that Bill at them prayed ae long as her body re-mat*, ed above ground, and followed her to tfl>« grave. Thia, is not the first time by any means that a will registered at Somerset House has disclosed a testator’s opinion of his or her “nearest and dearest.” 1 Some little- while ago a testator living neax Birmingham left hie property to his daughter on condition that she paid to a person named the sum of 3Jd for ths purchase of a hempen eord or halter foe th* use of his- dear wife, “which I trust she may make use of without delay.’* Two years ago a railway official stated in his will that — “Aly estate would have been considerably larger if it had not been for my unfortunate marriage with the princess of human -■ ■ ■■. and the cleverest known legal daylight robber. My associations ■with this perambulating human vinegar cruet I consider to have cost me considerably over £400.”