The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, March 21, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1223, 21 March 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, March 21, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Thk attendance at the local State school is increasing at such a rate that accommodation is taxed to its almost and application will have to be made to the Board for an extension of the present building if the health of the children and efficient teaching is to obtain. We do not believe the present building was erected to accommodate more than 350 children, while the present average attendance already exceeds this number. We visited the school one day recently and saw 95 to 100 children in atten dance in one class room, which should not accommodate more than 60. The spacious quadrangle is daily utilised by different classes, but this does not alter the cramped condition of the rooms. The infants particularly require more room in order to give the teachers wider scope to do justice to their work. The committee should lose no lime in urging the Board to attend to this matter. In the past the school has shown a clean sheet from a health point of. view and if this excellent condition is to be maintained increased accommodation must be provided. The committee, with the assistance of a generous public, has levelled the play grounds and provided the youngsters with a variety of athletic games, while the gardens are delightful. It only now remains for the Board to provide plenty of breathing space inside the building to make our school one of the best primary institutions, from every point ot view, in the Dominion. We may mention that the roll number is now 403 with an average attendance of over 361.

Uni.hss the Borough Council rescinds its resolution restricting the area of the borough for rating purposes on the proposed water and drainage loan, we fear the proposal will be thrown out. The Town Clerk was recently instructed to make enquiries of other local authorities as to whether similar loan proposals were restricted to a certain portion of their borough or struck over the whole area, and out o( eleven boroughs communicated with only one (Woodville) has a special rating area. Very few centres of population throughout the Dominion are so handicapped in respect to a source of gravitation supply as Foxton. The nearest suitable stream to tap is distant about twelve miles, while numbers ol other centres have the precious fluid flowing at their back doors. Under the circumstances it is manifestly unfair that the Council should expect a restricted area to bear the whole burden of the loan. The restricted or congested area will be called upon in any case to payl an extra rate and possibly charges other than the interest payment and why let the other properties off ? It may be unfortunate that certain people should possess large areas of laud within the borough, which may not be required for building purposes for generations to come, but that is no reason why they should be exempt from a fair share of responsibility in matters concerning the health and well-being of the community. The borough, as a whole, must assist in such schemes as water and drainage, because the whole shares directly and indirectly in the benefits to be conferred. We have pointed out on more than one occasion that an amendment is required in the Municipal Corporations Act making it mandatory on municipalities with a population of one thousand and over to instal water and drainage without the necessity for submitting a proposal to a poll of ratepayers, and that the Government should render special assistance to boroughs removed long distances from a source of supply.

Commenting on the Hou. Mr Fraser’s hope to deputations in the South that river protection works will be subsidised, and that local institutions may be endowed, our Palmerston morning contemporary asks: ‘‘ls there any reason why the North should be excluded or neglected ? Foxtou Harbour Board has been left without any endowmer.l or means of raising revenue. Why not first provide for Foxton before financing the Southerners ? If it is alleged that there is no Crown land in the vicinity of Foxton that could be set aside as endowment, why localise it? Why not give endowment in the South to it? Wanganui got an endowment at Pohangina, which is altogether out of its district. Better still, why not hand over the wharf to

Fuxton Harbour Board, without farther demur or delay?” Why not, indeed !

Spkakxng at a luncheon given by the Toronto Empire Club, Mr Taft, former President of the United States, said that his experience in the Philippines forced him to study the British colonial system and the marvellous accomplishment of the Imperial Government in spreading civilisation all over the world and promoting the happiness of 400,000,000 people, But for English enterprise, English courage, English sense of responsibility in governing other races, human civilisation would have been greatly retarded. “When I think of what England has done in India for the happiness of those people ; how she found those many millions tom by internecine strife, disrupted with constant wars, unable to continue agriculture or the arts of peace, with interior roads, tyranny, and oppression; and when I think what the Government of Great Britain is now doing for these alien races, the debt the world owes England ought to be acknowledged in no grudging manner.” He emphasised, also, the marvellous development ot Egypt under Lend Cromer, Lord Milner, and Lord Kitchener. ‘‘To-day the impartial historian must look at the British Empire from the standpoint of benevolent, useful, elevating government. It must be regarded from the point of view of benefit to the human race. No one can encircle the globe, no one live in the Orient, no one go into the tropics, without seeing the Standard of England floating over the soil of her Empire and without having it brought home to him what a factor in the progress of mankind she has been.”

The future people of New Zealand should be of splendid physique and of perfect health, for the present generation is doing its best to ensure these conditions for its descendants. Medical inspection of school children, physical instruction, military exercises and sanitary conditions carefully watched over by an active Public Health Department go a long way iu providing for this result. In addition we have now in operation the sale of Foods and Drugs Act, which provides very heavy penalties against anyone selling any article of food which is not free from adulteration, and which is not exactly what it purports to be. All food stuffs put upiu packages, tins, etc., have to be correctly labelled. If such packages, or tins, or boxes, contain goods which are not pure, but imitation of pure goods, they must be so marked iu bold type. The object of the Act is to secure that the people shall be supplied with absolutely pure food when making purchases with that object. A fine of £SO is provided for selling a falsely described article of food, and up to tor a second offence, while if the first offence is considered wilful, the fine may be up to ,£2OO or three mouths’ imprisonment. The public therefore, in addition to other advantages enjoyed in our grand little Dominion, are now guaranteed pure food, and with the climatic and industrial conditions so favourable, the New Zealanders of the future should form the finest, healthiest and wisest race on earth ! At any rate there is a possible realisation of a most desirable ideal.