NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2396, 27 February 1915, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Five years ago the population of the Dominion reached '.the million mark, and when the annual estimate came to be made on December 31 last it was found that we had put 158,438 on towards the second million. The growth has been steady and' decidedly better than in the two five years previous to 1910. But for the departure of the Expeditionary Forces the actual gain for the year would have been 23,332, which if below the record increase of 32,035 in 1913, must nevertheless be taken, as a fairly satisfactory figure in view of the altered circumstances. The number of marriages for the year 'is a record-doubtless for reasons due to the war but the rate per thousand of the population has on several occasions been exoeeded. The death-rate also shows a decline to a' figure below which, it has fallen only four times m the last quarter of a century. The main centre of interest in these annual returns is the birth-rate, and here one finds an ominous continuance of the drop that took place in 1913. For the second time in twelve years the rate is below 26 per thousand, of nooulation, and the figures show, a marked decline from the comparativclv high ratios of increase in the period from 1905 to 1909. It is evident that the birth-rate problem is still with us. With a similar proportionate decline in the year on which we have entered we shall be back to the same position as at the end of the 'nineties.

We have to thank Mr. Ostler for throwing further light on the situation now obtaining at Victoria College with respect to the continued employment, of an uiinaturalised German on the'professorial staff. Mr Osti.er tells us that the College Council, of which he is the president was informed .by the Government that the professor in question was a peaceable alien enemy, and as such came within the scope of the Proclamation of August 19 last, lie could not be dismissed, had the Council so desired; without breach of contract for which damages could be recovered in the Courts. We must confess that we are somewhat at a loss to uudcfaUnd tho attitude -Juali Me, Osiujb tells us thft Gov-,

eminent has taken up in this case. On December 2 last Mlt. Herdman made it known that instructions had been issued that all Germans not naturalised were to be removed from "all forms of. public service, and that this rule was to apply to all branches) manual and clerical,_ and was "a matter of Government policy." This is emphatic and explicit enough. Professor von Zeydlitz ib not under the Public Service Commissioners, but his salary, exoept for the fractional portion derived the students' fees, comes from the State's coffcrs. It may be a reasonable policy to discharge every German labourer in ,State employ and to retain tho services of enemy subjects as instructors in our university colleges, but it does not strike us as being, so.

How many English profess_orsare teaching modern languages in German universities to-day, wo wonder ( Even our tongue, we are told, is referred to, not as English, but as "North American," and the French languago is described as "Western Swiss, instruction in both of which is discontinued. No one in a British community wishes to see adopted the brutal German code o£ treating enemy subjects. There such notices as the following were served on British, French, and Russians remaining in Germany after the outbreak of war:

"As a foreigner yon have no claim to residence or protection in the German Empire. For the present, however, unless the General in command dispose otherwise, your deportation will be. suspended on condition, that you-do not leave the district of without permission. from the police, that you will apply yourself "with all your strength to Whatever work is assigned to you by the local police authorities at tho customary rates of wage, that you will abstain from any action which may be regarded for whatsoever reason as opposed to the interests of the State. Failure to comply strictly wifcli any on© of the above conditions will expose you to imrri&Hato arrest."

Such are the methods of those who ■ have loft fhe cathedrals and universities of Belgium a heap of ruins. Ail English professor permitted to remain hf Germany, according to the interpretation which we understand has been given to these rules, would most probably be employed in the removal of streot garbage under the gentle supervision of the Prussian policeman.