THE GLOBE. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1660, 16 June 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1879.

The dilatorinoss of tho City Council in the matter of furnishing the city with a water supply for fire prevention purposes is bearing its natural fruit. Not only are people within the limits of the city utterly sick of the manner in which affairs have been carried on, but those outside are beginning to think that tho Council cannot be relied upon in the matter. A committee of tho Sydenham Borough Council sent in a report last week on the subject of the prevention of fire within tho borough, which was adopted by tho Borough Council. The report commenced as follows: — “ Tour committee beg to report that they have waited several months for the result of tho experiment of tho Waimakariri supply for Christchurch, and as there seems no probability of this settlement for some time to come, it is deemed advisable to collect tho necessary information and data for an independent water supply for the borough. With this view your committee propose obtaining an approximate estimate of the cost of resorvoirs and pumping station on the hills at tho foot of Colombo road, and the necessary distributing pipes.” The Sydenham Borough Council are evidently not prepared to throw tho matter of a proper water supply for fire prevention purposes into a distant future. They have taken to heart the lesson taught, although apparently in vain, to the Christchurch City Council in April last, at the fire in Lichfield street and on numerous other occasions, to the effect that more water is required and that as soon as possible, if a great catastrophe is to bo avoided. The Sydenham Borough Council is not willing to wait while the City Council are proceeding with their philosophical experiment, while tho Mayor is working up hydraulic tables and the other Councillors are addling their brains over tho varying reports of engineers. It is a thousand pities that affairs should have arrived at such a pass. It is so manifest that the same water scheme should apply both to Christchurch and Sydenham, that only the greatest folly on the part of the City Council can have driven the Borough Council into adopting a report for a separate supply. The manifest advantages of including both districts in one scheme are so great that] tho City Council will have much to answer for, if its conduct drives tho Borough Into starting to obtain water on its own account. Christchurch is as well watered as any city in tho world, there are numerous sources of supply within an easy distance, and yet mouths and months have boon spent in coming to a determination, and more months will be spent in experimenting, and tho whole time tho city lies at tho mercy of any extensive fire, and a district, which practically is a part of Christchurch, is driven to adopting a resolution to tho effect that it can wait no longer, and that, however inc# ironiont it may be, it must act for itself.

A joint Commission of tho War Office and tlio Civil Service Commissioners have lately sat with a view of coming to a conclusion how far it is desirable or possible to introduce physical competition among candidates for commissions in the army. The result of their labors was a report in favor of supplementing tho present literary examinations by physical competition between candidates of equal or nearly equal literary merits. This report was brought before the House of Lords, but tho Government decided against the scheme, and after a good deal of discussion tho matter was allowed to drop, the Duke of Cambridge and Lord Hardingo having, amongst others, spoken against the measure. A number of reasons wore brought forward against the intro*

duction of a physical test. It was proved that the candidates who passed under the present regulations wore sufficiently athletic for all practical purposes, and it was shewn that it would be almost impossible to sot physical against mental excellence in the examinations. As the “ Times ” pointed out at the time, there is not the slightest danger of physical excellence needing any prop from legislative enactment in England at the present moment, for there never was a time when it was in loss danger of being neglected. At the English Public Schools and Universities athletics arc an aggressive power, and often become too strong for masters and tutors. It would be strange then if candidates for commissions, who are certainly recruited from amongst the most hardy of the English youth, should bo wanting in physical attainments. The whole subject of the encroachment of physical on mental training is, however, of more import in the old country than in the colonies. However competent the colonial youth may have proved themselves in the cricket field, at the oar, and in other departments of the same order, the mania for athletics has not reached, and is not likely to reach, the same height hero as it has in England. In small communities sport cannot possibly be so varied and attractive as it is in a larger one. The number of athletic meetings all over England give an infinity of change to any youth proud of his muscles or power of endurance. During the season he may run his mile race nearly every day of the week, and may gain glory and pewter or silver pots to any extent. During the summer he may rise and don his flannels for a cricket match with almost as great regularity as the sun itself rises. Should he have a leaning towards a bicycle, ho may travel on the best of roads from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, and may even invade the Continent, and astonish the French and Bavarian peasant by the sight of a “ mad Englishman” trying to banish the “ spleen” by rushing wildly through the land. In fact the ways of satisfying the thirst for athletic exertion are legion in England. But the fact that it is so has its drawbacks. The excess to which the thing is carried accounts partially for the numberless failures among boys who go to English schools. It is absolutely startling what a small amount of knowledge many of them succeed in acquiring during their years of school and University life: they emerge from the career with the biceps of tigers and the undeveloped brains of children of tender years. The colonial youth, while losing many of these muscular pleasures, at all events avoid the temptation. The average intellectual standard reached in colonial public schools is perhaps higher than it is in English ones, partly on this account, and partly because people are, as a rule, more anxious to impress on their boys the absolute necessity for their exerting themselves. On the other hand, instances of individual excellence are probably more frequent in England than in the colonies. The prizes to bo obtained from proficiency in any of the branches of a liberal education are so much greater, that ambitious boys are stimulated to greater exertions. At any rate, a Fellowship at a College may pretty nearly be reckoned upon as a certainty if high honors are attained. There is, moreover, an intellectual atmosphere in the very surroundings of the older educational establishments in England, which is conducive to work, and which is somewhat wanting in the more practical and pushing entourage of colonial schools.