PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 November 1924, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION.

11EAI;TI IV OCCUPATION'S. ‘Tlit: healthiest occupation appears to lie the inamifaetiirc of glut: and manure, an interesting commentary on tile widely held theory that had smells cause had health. These men. with electricity supply workers and machine compositors (though not ordinary printers), alone have less than half the average death rate; and eve., if the figures can to some extent he explained away, these trades must he conspicuously healthy. They arc: followed in the scale of health hy clergymen. gardeners, farm ialxiurers, and gamekeepers in that order. 'I he other intellectual callings, fiiuh as teachers, doctors and lawyers, are all healthier than the average. lint it is an interesting. and rather beautiful fact that, while doctors have the highest mortality of their .group, their children have just half the death rate of those of any other calling. The next healthiest indoor trades nr lithography tilld soap-making.’’—l'rnloX'or .1. 11. S. Haldane. in a review in the “Nation I ’, o. the statistics of occupational mortality in England. A EKE.NTT I VIEW.

‘•We must he very grateful to Honied for not having confused ‘security’ and ‘reparations.’ as has lioon hitherto the case. Repo rat ions must he argued over among financiers in London. Sociuity has to he guaranteed to u; by the League of Nations in (leneva. Tor security lies neither in the Ruhr nor oil the 11 hi no. There will he no security anywhere for its as long as we stand alone. In ten years lienee France will hardly he aide to mobilise tlnee and n half million men. whereas (leiniany will have at her disposal ten million. It can be said that our sacriliee saved Europe- from the greatest military domination ever known; it now belongs to Europe to guarantee us against any roc nr re nee of this aggression.''—Paul Rancour. in the •‘Oeuvre. 1 '

THE SEtTIKT OF YOUTH. “The battle should he waged in the realm of the spirit, not id the llesli. Not, if you are an ojjl woman, will you triumph by wearing lownecked frocks or marrying a boy young eimagb to lie your grandson ; lior, it you are an old man, can you hope lor victory by buying coloured socks and ties, running to catch trains, or dancing all nigbt with Mappers. The battle field must be the mind. Then you may so order it as to he aide to say with truth: •‘There is no thought I have ever thought T cannot think again, no childlike lancy that 1 cannot agitiii evoke; no high emotion, generous wish, and burning enthusiasm that I cannot now feel as .strongly as 1 ever felt it. For mentally it is possible to remain young all one’s life.” —W. 11. .Maxwell, in the “Evening Standard." A NATION OF PKIfSONAIITY. "A detached ohs.-rver with no national prejudices would unhesitatinglysay that Ilritain has led the world in powerful personalities. She still leads it in s| ite of the pessimists. Jt 'would ill become us to boast, because the in It iii-nc c- which cause- us to produce outstanding men and women arc- largely beyond our control- climate, race, tradition, the necessity for stmgglo, our open-air habits, all these and other factors are responsible-. Hutwhile we may not boast, and while wo may pay tribute to the distinguished leaders in other lands, we may at least allow ourselves a me-asim- of satisfaction that in these times, when prophets of evil think we are going into the- deeps, we have set the note for the world in most dire: lions ol human t-ncloa four, and that it looks very Minch as if we wen- going to continue to do it." Frank W'ilmol. in "The Sphere." A COMMERCIAL PHOPOSITTON.

11l llllib will'll aeroplanes began In lie Pet ween London anil I'm is, ilit-re were tlir |iieslions civil aviation bad to answer. Can IPO-miles-in-b-Mir air transj-olt In- made reliable.’ Call il bo made sale.' Can il |ay r Dining (lie present summer they have attained a reliability figure of !>l per cent. Even with winter fugs, the all-the-yenr-roimd figure is as high already as HS per cent, liritisli ’planes have tarried nearly .-,0.000 | assengers, pmd only six have Inst their lit os. For the first time, with Imperial Airways (our national company) forming plans for ten years ahead, and with ’planes forthcoming which will carry “0 per cent, more paying load, for any given power, than do existing craft, aerial tr:ms| nrt Inis n chance to make rapid progress. There - every prospect now that the speed and safety of living will be combined with eommereial success.”—“Daily Mail.” NEW A (IE OF COURTESY.

•‘The Mil.il ists are having lots of I’im with the new keen interest in onod nuinncr.s. hut u more encouraging or pleasant sign of the times (■nilhi hardly he discovered. The truth is. Aiueriiaus realised suddenly and regretfully that .somethin*; very precious departed with the old-fashioned courtesy. To-day ‘gentlemen of the old school’ are no longer ca.ru stared, hut

copied. Children have begun to curtsey and little hoys gravely hold their mot.liers’ ehaii.s for them. People genuinelv want manners now. and so manners will he acquired.”—‘’Collier's Weekly.” FACT, DESPITE AEGFAIENT. “For tlr.-ise Superlative economists who, after bellowing their demand that Germany ‘must, pay for the war,’ are now quarrelling with the only means of making her pay for even a fraction of it. and who oppose the promised loan on the grtiund that hy it we ate financing (termany to compete with Itritish exports, one fact alone ought to he enough to calm their fears. That fact is that the City is already, and very greatly to its profit, financing (termini industries, providin'; (termany with credits and accepting (termini hills to amounts vastly greater than the forthcoming hum’; and hv doing all this is helping to maintain ihondnii as the world’s centre of iinaure and to promote the free movemet of goods and capital. Nothing hut what in the end is good for British trade can come from these activities. Hut there are some people even now who think it possible both to eat your cake and have it.— Condon “Sunday Times.” THE .MOVEMENT OK THE CENTFEY “The long disorders and confusions

following the world-struggle may yet he judged, in the calmness of historic perspective, as a sequel almost normal by comparison with the violence of the convulsion. The war recedes. The generation whose young vitality defies the lessening shadow is coming nearer every day to its time of prevailing control in human affairs. . . As passions blinded by recent conflict and subsequent exasperation die out, those torees demanding the reign of law between nations as between persons will become stronger still . . . The present League of Nations is not the sufficient effort, hut the general movement against war is only beginning. It is the movement of the century. That America's aid by some path will yet march with this spirit or lead it, we have seen, in this retrospect and prospect, considered reason to believe.”—

.Mr .f. 1.. Garvin, in “The Observer IMPERIAL CONFERENCE ON RELIGION.

“The only way to arrive at a true appreciation of any religion is to hear it personally expounded by one who believes in it. The absence of -111011 opportunity lias hitherto prevented people who 'have not travelled from acquiring anything but a knowledge

of the mere skeleton of the numerous religious of the Empire. Countless books have 'been -written on the religions of the various races within the Empire, hut most of these have been written hy scholar- who, being Christians themselves, have presented their .subjects from the purely academic standpoint. A knowledge of the religions of the Empire is of more than academic interest, and in consc<iticucc it is valuable to learn something of these religions from the lips of those who profess them. This is the (inject of the First Conference on the Living .Religions within the Empire.” Sir E. Denison Hose, in the “Hor-

ning Host.’’ THE I’RESS ON THE J’ULI’JT. “There is no doubt a wide-spread n 111 1 perhaps increasing abstention Horn religious observances, but tliis by itsell is no proof that men arc_indifler-c-nt to religion, it may prove that the churches do not attract and hold people l , and that their methods of iu;.truction or forms of wor.-iiip fail to evoke interest, hut it does not necessarily prove that people are indifferent to religion. If the truth were recognised, their apparent unconcern might he traced to their diflieulty in finding anything adequate to their needs in what is tillered to them. Tormat statements of Christi -n doctrine seem to have little relation to their experience, the mode of lilt! insisted on appears to give disproportionate emphasis to quite -unimportant matters, while lilt- ideals presented to them seem vague or unreal." —London “Tin.es.”

NO .JFCIGUNU WITH FATE. "Hr Nc-vil Haskelyne, famous sou ol a great magician and himself a celebrated practise-!- of his art, lias eli oil. There could lie no juggling with this last grim visitor, no sleiglit-of-liauel with Tune. He who had beguiled so many leisure hours for others and bewitched so many minds lor a spell from the cares of existence to the trembling world of make-believe, has passed now behind a c urtain more opaque and permanent than the drop-scene of his hall of magic. The great nmgici.'ln A'lio spent a large- part of his life on this pour planet in holiest laking of the .supernatural may now learn, perhaps, the secrets lie l could then only pretend to have divined." "Daily Express.”