PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1927, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION.

SOCIAL SERVICE. ‘•ln the history of a nation, as in the life of individuals, moments periodically recur when circumstances impose the duty of stock-taking—moral, material, or intellectual. Such a moment has evidently arrived in the history of the English people. Several reasons combine to indicate that the task, always grim and sometimes painful, should he promptly- taken in hand. First, six years of trade depression culminated in a prolonged and disastrous conflict in the coal industry have produced a situation, financial and industrial, which none tan contemplate without grave anxiety. if not dismay. Secondly, an outline of proposals for a drastic alteration in the administration of poor relief has lately been circulated by the Alinistry of Health to various interested bodies, and it is understood that Parliament "ill at ail early date he invited to consider legislation designer! to give effect to those or similar proposals. Finally, despite the enactment of a long series ol remedial measures, the multiplication of ‘social services’—public and private—and the outpouring of public charity on an unprecedented scale, the problem of pauperism not only remains unsolved, hut appears to he more acute than at any previous period in our history, with the possible exception ol the years immediately following the close of the Napoleonic Wars.”—Sir .T. A. If. Mnrritt, in “The Edinburgh Review.”

THE INTELLECTUAL SNOB. It has been said by some earnest spirit: that wliat makes the snob is a mean admiration for mean things. Rut it will not. do. Rardolpli and Doli Tcar.-lieet are sad spectacles to the moralist, yet they are not snobs. The espence of snobbery is surely in (lie desire to he a superior person. This is borne out by the world’s history. Originally a cobbler, a person of no account the snob became anybody underbred, without gentility, and thus a person who pretended to wliat he had not. a natural superiority over his fellow creatures. Thackeray studied the animal in relation to social prestige. His snobs are snobbish about family, income precedence, and so forth. But these are only corps ol the noble army. The intellectual snob we have always with its the superior pjersuns who will not like what tiie natural men likes, and make it a point of honour to acclaim wliat boros the ordinary mind. The world is so made that the superior person has an excessive influent e in every department of life. The pretension to despise what everybody lias always enjoyed. “not only elevates man above the vulgar herd,” to adapt the lamihis sermon, “hut leads not inlivqiiontly to posit ions of considerable emolument.'’ When these snobs Item the eminence on which we have plated them assure us that the greatest masterpieces in the world are books which we cannot read or music which we cannot listen to, or pictures wnvn disturb our poise, the proof of toeir superior genius is complete :.nd final, and it is in no way obligatory upon us to adventure our soul- among these masterpieces again.—“ Daily Telegraph.’’

THE AUTISTIC TEAII’ER AAH'.NT. There arc certain long-haired and rather scedy-loking indivduals in every large town who become familiar objects of observation to the secondhand bookseller by their frequent- appearance at his stall and window. They seem to do nothing for a living, hut smoke cigaiett.es and prowl aimlessly about the places where hooks are Harmless as a rule and of an age anywhere between twenty uni fortylive, whenever t’ate bestows a little ready money on ilium, they may venture inside the shop, and ask timidly for old “Studios” and art magazines. for they arc burdened with an artistic temperament, which, supported by certain indefinable ideas pertaining tc the rights of man, elevates t’liem above tiie drudgery of physical labour. They form a part of our needy philosophical pepuiaiion that requires State direction. AYithuul it they merely drift. Sonic, who adhere to art. seem at middle age to lose courage, and resign themselves to the daily occupation of spreading their artistic creations on the pavement at the foot of a graceless unappreciative public. Some, with a stronger bias towards literature in their competitions, and perhaps propelled by good fortune, recruit the venerable corps of antiquarian booksellers, lay down their cigarettes, aiiTl compile a catalogue in every branch of literal imo at remarkably low prices.—lames Ren right in “The English Review.”

THE AMERICAN' METHOD. “I have Ijooii much impressed by j the difference between England and the United Suites. Take tlieir Foreign Office, if you please. Within that Department there are permanent officials who are experts upon every phase of England's relation with the rest of the world. They are recognised authorities Tn the several fields in which they are engaged. The young; man of first-rate ability enters that service, as we enter the professions here, and looks to it as a career. He knows that if lie be equal to it he may attain a high place in the foreign service. lie may hope one day to he Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Ho may aspire to the '•highest posts in diplomacy The Embassy at Washington, or Berlin, or Paris, is not beyond bis reach. How different in America, where the highest prizes in this department of government often go. not to flit. men traine dfor them and best fitted for them, hut as rewards for political servicel Both great parties in the I'nited States have been wont, no seldom. fo to exchange diplomatic posts for contributions to the campaign fund. Wherever we find the actual work of administration carried on by a corps of permanent officials. fhc country itself does not feel tile shock of passing from one administration to another, which is inevitable in the United States. A change of Ministry means a. change in policy, but the machinery of government remains the same.”—F. 0. bowden, in “The World To-day.”