Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1924. OLD AGE POSTPONED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2703, 4 March 1924, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1924. OLD AGE POSTPONED.

LONGER, lives nre not a burden to the nation, the British Ministry of Health recently declared in reply to a .suggestion by the president of tlie Institute of Sanitary Engineers, that the span of life has been extended far enough. A man is not ton old at 50; indeed, at 00, he is “n great asset to the nation.” There is no denying that the term during which men and women can do useful work has been much extended in the last hundred years, a London paper observes. Macauley told Peel that no man ever led the House of Commons after he was 00. in the years that followed there were leaders more than 00, more than 70, more than 80 years old. Tt can hardly be 'mere chance wlich gave us in succession the Premierships of Palmerton, Russell, Disraeli, Gladstone. Not only in politics is this extension of vigour seen. Lord Roberts fought his most famous campaign nearly half a century after lie entered the Army. The most conspicuous commanders in the Great War were well beyond ' the half-century mark when it began. In science many of the original minds of the last century have done work of the first order late in life. Our leaders of industry and commerce carry their activities to three score and ten and beyond. But it; may be answered that these are the elect, these are the exceptional minds and bodies which prove no rule. Why, then, should the great men of former centuries have come to an end of their vital force much earlier in their careersf Why were there no octogenarian Premiers in the eighteenth century, no septuagenarians leading the House of Commons'? To glance over the records is to see that the ordinary folk, too, were apt to die as early as Pitt or live as miserably as Chatham. No one who lias read much in public and private history doubts that middle age and old age are now far healthier than ever before. Even the ease of muscle and quickness of eye which bring men into Hie front rank at games are now preserved till middle life.