PASSING REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 457, 17 April 1912, Page 3

PASSING REMARKS.

It appears that the end of the coal strike in England is in view. The Government have made strenuous efforts to end the strike, but have availed little. Certainly they bav2 suggested to the owners that a minimum wage shuuld be granted the men, but apparently they have not ex plained how the owners in their turn shall be safeguarded. Also it ia apparent that a small majority of the owners are prepared to accept the scheme, while the remaining forty per cent, are not.

To some a prize for heroism comes only after many brave actions, to some brave men not at all, while others are rewarded on absurdly slight grounds. For dashing to the telephone and calling for help when a fire broke out at his father's house the six-year-old son of the head gardener to the King at Sandringham has been presented with a gold watch. What would a lad with any brains do on such an occasion but call in tne most convenient way for Jielp? One wonders if they give prizes at Sandringham to children with ths pluck and presence of mind to wash their faces before Royalty passes, or to women who stamp on a kitchen cockroach. And fancy the fate of a gold watch in the hands of a six-year-old boy, even though he hold the exalted rank of son of the head gardener to the king. By the bye, a man who found £7O at Yarmouth the others day and restored it to the owner was rewarded with thanks and one shilling. I hope it was a good shilling.—Exchange. Frocks designed on post-impression-ist lines are the latest fads in Paris. Oh, woman, lovely woman, do you I, wonder, realise what this impressionism is? Mostly its devotees' pictures are "daubs of crude colours, very dauby and very crude. The figures remind one of badly battered chunks of putty, poor, low-class putty, and the backgrounds, when there are any, resemble an earthquake and a volcano in violent eruption. And thi° is what the fair ladies of Paris are desired by their fashion makers to imitate! There are examples of the mode ready hand, but probably the dress designers will not admit it. The woman of the slums comes as nea>* the postimp'esisonist fashion as any one can think of. Why not go there for ideas? Theatregoers must often be annoyed by people who will laugh in the wrong place. Those who cannot help shedding a furtive tear are as bad, and the energetic persons who break into applause before the proper time are a nuisance too. At a theatre in Constantinople the manager has taken steps to have at least one of the nuisances abated, for he has posted the following notice:—"Laughter is prohibited during this play, which is of a serious character." This does away with the possibility of any person not knowing that the piece is intended to be of a serious nature. Recollecting some of the alleged-to-bq-serious plays seen at theatres in this andother countries one can all the more appreciate the kind forethought of the manager at Constantinople.

The discovery of the secret of perpetual motion or how to manufacture diamonds has taxed the hrains of many a thousand experimenters, and neither problem has been solved. Now the scientists are busy trying to find a rubber substitute, for there would be many a fortune in that discovery. And occasionally we hear that such a substitute has been found. The latest report of the kind is from Russia, where, we are told, a young student has hit upon a method of compounding benzol and other things to. make a substance which has all the good properties of rubber, and which, and this is the important point, is very cheap. Such a discovery, if it has really been made, will revolutionise the rubber trade, but there have been so many unnecessary cries of "Wolf!" that rubber dealers will not lose heart on reading a mere report. To learn to swim is with some people a terrible ordeal. To others it seems to come almost as naturally as walking. Why should it not come naturally to all of us? No animals have to be given swimming lessons, they swim at the first attempt, and generally much better than human beings. We note that a professor of swimming at Kansas University has a svstem by which he guarantees to teach the art in fifteen minutes. It is not surprising that his claim has aroused attention throughout America, but these systems must be seen before being believed. It is not the first claim of the sort, and it might be justified in a few exceptional rases, j but we know one or two people who would not learn in fifteen months, unless they were thrown in and left to their own resources.

These "gee clever quick" dodges are generally disappointing. There is the book, for instance, which guarantees to teach piano playing in twelve lessons. We wonder how many neighbours have been driven mad by students of that book; the author has somehmg to answer for. And there are innumerable hooks which promise, to impart a knowledge of some foreign language, to the student which shall make him grammar and accent perfectin a month. And the, said student when he tries his accomplishment an a foreigner is amazed that he is not understood, and even inclined to blame the foreigner! We, are sure the author of the book would do so.

! Judging from the Army Estimates j issued recently the War Oliiee is at 1 last waking up to the importance in i England of aeroplane.-! in future wars. I At last they have recognised, though i it must bo a very grudging recogni- ' t'on, that England is far behind j rivals on the Continent in this mutter, j Lord Ilaldano observes "Sullicient experience has now been gained in military aviation to warrant advance on less tentative lines, and after careful consideration by the Committee of Imperial Defence it has been de-

cided to establish at once a joint army and navy school of aviation, at which officers of both services shall be taught to lly before proceeding to the separate army and navy establishments, at which they will be exercised in the move specialised requirements of their respective services. "Less tentative lines'' is a neat way of cloaking the sleepy, stunui tactics of the department up to the present but we. may hope that the aerial service will be encouraged and brought to a state of efficiency as soon as possible, and that there will be no more false economy.