NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1555, 26 September 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Mn. Heudman is to .be congratulated on the_progress made with the Public Scrvice Bill. The measure has now passed through its most critical stage so far as the House of Representatives is concerncd. and should not encounter any further difficulties until it reaches the Upper House. Although the Bill was amended in various respects during its progress through Committee, in 1 the majority of cases at the instance of the Minister himself> its vital principles remain unaltered. Under its provisions the larger part of the Public Service will be removed beyond reach of political favouritism or fear of political enmity. Moreover, clauses have been included which improve the position of Public Servants in material particulars; and on the whole the Bill, as it now 1 stands, gives promise of proving of material benefit_ to the members of , the Public Service as well as to the public. How the measure will fare at the hands of the Legislative , Council remains to be seen. It can > hardly be said respecting it that the ; principle it embodies has not been : before the electors for their deci- J sion thereon. j Reckless talk about sterilisation, ! such as that indulged in by some ■members of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board at its meeting on Tuesday, regarding the treatment of consumptives, is likely to do much more harm than good. It spreads a feeling of alarm and distrust among sober-minded people, and thus bars the way of more rational and possible movements for the improvement of the race. If ihd question was not one of the utmost gravity, the assumption of omniscience by some people with little or no expert knowledge regarding problems concerning which the highest' authorities speak with the greatest reserve, .would be quite ridiculous. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and • it is supremely dangerous when ap- i plied to matters attccting the very ' foundations of society. A distinguished after discussing - some of these delicate questions of social surgery, asks: "Who is sufficient for these things?" Some members of the Wellington Hospital Board may be. quite prepared to 1 answer: '.'We arc," but it is very 1 doubtful whether the general public j will be equally ready to endorse this \ cheeHul conndcncc in connection i with a problem bristling with diffi- ( cultics and dangers. There is a ] tendency among many people to re- ] gard the tentative, theories of scicn- ! tists as established facts, and this '! seems to bo especially the ease as i regards the question of heredity, j one of the most difficult and intri- j cafe problems with which modern , science is at present grappling. The i authorities are divided between sov- i cral rival theories, and l;h" final solution is not yet in sight. This very ] question as to whether consumption '■ is inherited is still awaiting a de- < finite answer among real scientists, i though some of the camp followers j appear to. have settled it to their I own satisfaction. According to the j views of l)u. H. L. Henxkssy, as I expressed in the latest edition of the ' finojcl-oimdia Britannira, there is a { "ae.ncrol and increasing pendency to i miuimiw qr deny ths iullucncs of [ i

heredity" in the spread of consumption. The occurrence of the disease in offspring is said to be due to infection from the parents, and it is even denied by some authorities that the children of consumptives are specially predisposed. Until more light has been thrown upon the subject by scientific research, the adoption of such a drastic proposal as that suggested at the meeting of the Hospital Board must be regarded as outside the sphere of practical Solitics. In any case, as the RkV. ,!. van Stavehex remarked, "sterilisation had nothing to do with th.o Board," and in the meantime its members could more profitably occupy themselves in promoting some of the more practical; if less heroic, methods of coping with the scourge suggested by Dr. Hardwickk Smith who is able to speak with some authority on the subject, i One of to-day's cable messages about the confusing Balkan imbroglio (to use the delightful word now almost exclusively dedicated to Balkan politics) records a notable saying by the gonial old King of Montenegro. If he were not a King, lie said, he would be the first to fly to arms. He meant that he is aching to grasp a real gun and really fight like his friend the blacksmith or the woodcutter. It is only two years since Nicholas, fifty years a reigning Prince, was admitted by Europe to Kingship. His predecessor and uncle Peince Daxilo was only a clergyman; his wife carried wood from the hills to Cattaro for sale; his Kingdom is not as extensive as Otago, and its population is 250,000 or 300,000. In some, respects he is the ideal King, walking abroad amongst his subjects and living really amongst them—in every respect a citizen amongst his subject citizens. A day in his life has been said by a writer in the Paris Gaulois to be just like the life of a Paris shopkeeper, only less exciting. He is treated as an elder brother by everybody; he spends very little on clothes; he quarrelled violently once, as the wearer of a brass watch, with a hotelkeeper who came to show him his nice new gold watch; he scolds or advises his subjects on the highway; he is worried because his daughters ! spend large sums on clotheshe is the best depositor in the savings bank in his own country ; the bread he eats is baked by the Queen: he is a fine revolver shot, and is ardently proud of the fact that it has • required no laws to secure that in proportion to population, he possesses far more vigorous soldiers than nny other monarch on earth; and his daughters have bv marriage united him to the Royal Families of, Servia, Russia, Germany and Italy. In 1895 Gladstone, a great'admirer of Nicholas, declared that "the traditions of Montenegro exceed in glory those of Marathon and Thermopylae and all the war traditions of the world"; for it kept its independence for centuries against the conquering Turk. It is not surprising that this Homeric King—old "Nikita"— chafes because, after all, Kings must not snatch up guns and go forth with "the boys" to fight.