PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 4

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's D.:ily Times.) " Little-Englander," rightly applied, is one of the few terms o.f reproach that give no pain. The patriot it belongs to usually wears it as a decoration. Mr Ueorge Bernard Shaw — novelist, dramatist, capitalist, socialist, anti-vivisectiomst, anti-Imperialist, and the kind of genius that could have written the plays of Shakespeare, " if he had had the mind," — has been demonstrating in' Hyde Park speeches against the visit of the Czar, and explaining in the London papers for what reasons that Ogre of the North should be -' damned to everlasting fame." Incidentally, he "laptes into the infamies of his owr country :—: — It is true that England behaves La ■ Ireland, in Egypt, and in India as the Czar behaves in Russia, But Ireland, Egypt, and India are conquered countries, held simply by force, as England would have to be held if conquered by Ireland, Egypt, or India. A Republic of Ireland is what Mr Shaw would have. And then — Egyptt and Ihe j Canal abandoned to the ±urks, India to anarchy and the Russians, the colonies to the -Germans and the Japs — Engiand J -would once more be little England, fleetless, army-less, with leisure for repentj anee, and in the Keir Hardie way of j salvation.

I don't pretend to explain this type of mind ; it is beyond explaining. But it may be paralleled. A hundred years ago, when we were at death-grips with Napoleon, there were British patriots, some of them in Parliament, who resented British victories, gave secret information to the enemy, and " hoped for the best." Waterloo was the final dashing of these hopes. It stirs the blood even now to read how the tidings came, — an officer with despatches from Wellington landing hurriedly, riding post, dashing into London with a red-coated serjeant on the box hallooing and waving flags, | captured French eagles sticking out of the coach windows, the streets roaring after him, and everything on wheels that could follow tailing on behind. Picture it, — ami on all the roads of England the mail coaches, flagged and garlanded, carrying the great news to the provinces. I But, "strange as it may sound," writes j De Qumcey, " there were Englishmen to I whom it was thought necessary by their families cautiously to break the shock of Waterloo, so violent was the grief anticipated at the final prostration of their idol." Dr Samuel Parr, the great Whig schoolmaster, went to bed for a week. There is a case even stranger — that of Sir William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular War, a gallant -soldier who fought under Wellington all through that desperate struggle and was several times wounded. Politically, Napier was a j Whig of the Dr Parr type ; and so. years | later, when Napoleon died at St. Helena, he took it a* a personal bereavement, cast himself down on his sofa, and wept , for three hours.

Dear " Civis," — Tbe following passage in the proceedings of the Charitable Aid Board last week seems to have escaped your notice • — Mr Wilkinson, while highly appreci" ating the services rendered by Dr Bat-cheior, did not oonsider it- right for professional gentlemen to sit on a beard with laymen. The gentleman referred | to had practically ruled the board while i he was on it The Chairman took exception to the suggestion that he had ever b«en ruled by «ny professional' gpntlenran The gentleman mentioned might ha\e ruled Air Wilkinson, who uerhans spoke for himself. i As the chairman's remarks are sane and '• good, it must be Mr Wilkinson that is | offeree! to my attention. And he is worthy of it. Mr Wilkinson " did not consider it right that professional geiitiemen should sit on a board with laymen." This is Dogbeuy over again. The most sensel«Fs and fit man to eit on a board I is the man who knows least about the business. Nor may the man who knows most about it sit * alongside him. Mr Wilkinson "did not consider it right," — prefers to be left in his native darknesb. i By this rue all persons who understand education should be removed from the management qf schools, college?, and ! universities; alirl the City Council, since it carries on half-a-dczen trades, should

be pftrged of all pSrsone having practical knowledge of the same, and abandoned to lawyers and amiable quidnuncs' who will dispute by the hour over the position of a horse- trough.,..

The same Mr Wilkinson made an enlightened remark at a conference of the Charitable Aid Board and: the Council, — each "body- claiming the~rrzfit to control medical appointments at" the Maternity Home. The board is not going to have these unfortunate people [the patients at the Maternity Home] subjected to anything they would not h«.v« to put up with at St. Helens. When opening the St. Helens Mafenrity Hospital, Mr Seddcn, in the exercise of his papal authority, decreed- and declared that the institution should not be avail-" able for the teaching of^midwifery. .No medical student need apply. ]?or anytteng I see to the contrary, the same" catchpenny doctrine might have been extended to the Dunedin General Hospital. The prerogatives of his High Mightiness were identd- . cal in the two cases ; why did lie stay his hand? Anyhow, for this degree of forbearance it is for us to be humbly thankful Since, however, medical students might not learn mid-wifery at St. Helens Maternity Hospital, the Maternity Home was founded, expressly as an adjunct to tbe medical school. And now we are told that " those unfortunate : people " — its inmates — "are not to be Subjected to anything they would not have to put up with at St. Helens." Then where and how aie students of the medical school to learn midwifery? "Perhaps, Mr Wilkinson will say. Is he aware of any method tJiat may be substituted ' for' the method hitherto in use? Artificial limbs are not uncommon ; in some " laboratories . the process of digestion is shown by means of an artificial stomach. But, up to the. present, the essentials of midwifery in \ practice and in teaching have been a parturient woman and a baby. If Mr Wilkinson has anything up his sleeve, an artificial process not known to the faculty, let him produce it.. But if he hasn't — and I suspect he hasn't — let me recommend to him and his Board the modesty of silence in matters that don't belong to them. If, oy any chance, the citizen-s of Dunedin share his opinions, the medical school may straightway pack up and depart in quest of a more intelligent environment.

At some time in the dim and dusty past .the Cargill Monument stood in the Octagon ; whence, as an inscription upon it records, it was removed to its present unhappy site by order of the City Council. A more enlightened City Council, when we get one, will order it back again. I had never tbe pleasure of Captain CargilFs acquaintance ; but I take him to have been an -old -soldier, precise and prim; a disciplinarian, if not a martinet ; and the Early Otago tradition run^ that Church arid State alike cajne within his official purview. If. anything could disturb his honoured -shade in its present retirement, it is the degradation to which Dunedin, the city of bis own founding, has doomed him. The consecrated trysting place of degs, socialists, and street preachers, where always on Sunday evenings your ears are assailed by heretical ravings and the clamour of a mob, is the Cargill Monument. See, on the other hand, how the poet Burns sits musing at his ease within the Octagon enclosure, unapproachable by the profane, and tricked about with plots of flowers. The Burns-Chapman monument opposite, a fttudy in drain pipes, is similarly privileged. But Dr Stuart, an ecclesiastic, is set down absurdly amid the traffic of the wharves, and Queen Victoria where no one can find her. Reform is wanted. "The Macandrew bust should be taken indoors — to the Early Settlers' Hall, say — and all the rest to the Octagon. The place *of honour, now held by Burns, I would i|ive to the Queen. It should be — " Bobbie, make room for your betters." With aJ! our monumental effigies collected in one place there would be, perhaps, some suggestion of Mrs Jarley's Waxworks. But I would risk that. It was unkindly said Si Burns, when first we set up his graven image, that then as always hie back was to the church and his face to the public-house. Similarly it has been- said of Dr Stuart that he sits with his back to the Queen and his face to the sou'-west 'weather. Jesting of this poor sort being cheap and obvious, other examples are not far to seek. A statue to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the landed squire who took to the teetotal platform and made himself the bane of the brewers, has just been set up in London. Says one of the papers — " Quite appropriate, ifa it not? that the statue to Sir Wilfrid Lawson which is to be unveiled by the Prime Minister to-day should have it 6 back to the Hotel Cecil, and its face to the waters of the Thames." The writer then bethinks himself of something that had been said of Queen Anne, whose habits, it is insinuated, were much the opposite of teetotal. I am astonished. There is point in the protest — " No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope!" But Good Queen Anno ! — I had imagined her a pattern of the domestic virtues — docility, amiability, fertility. (Seventeen times a mother; a*nd yet, poor lady, childless at the last.) However. I go on to quote, though reluctant to believe. When the original of the Queen Anne statue on Ludgate Hill was placed in • position, the wits of the day noticed that it faced a much-frequented tavern, and had St. Paul's at its back. As one of them "wiote — Brandy Nan, Brandy !Xan, you're left m the lurch, Your face to the gin shop, your back to the church. Nowhere more than in humour, real or s-upposed, does the maxim hold that there ib nothing new under the sun. Things that might have been otherwise expressed. I have two or three examples. My father proposes to take out season

ticketsjfor my brother and me, io attend sdhool in Dunedin, and I would like " Civis' " opinion on the enclosed so that I can decide whether tp _persuade father to let me attend the local school at'Eavensbourne or iot. — Schoolboy. Extract from- official notice: — "Two children over three and not over twelve^ • years old may go as one paessnger; but one portion will J» punched if only onegoes." On this showing" the Railway Department is committed to punching one portion oV any small boy found travelling alone. Which portion — a detail of interest to the boy — is not specified. But it would be his head, no dou.bt, that bein» the portion easiest" got'^at- and to a" -$,^hoolboy the portion of least consequence. The Department wishes to be merciful, but must .ejicourage travel. -->

The next case is* that- of a bishop who -in addressing "his clergy referred with humility to something he had said or done in his "rasher days." It was the printer that thought t this might hay« been otherwise expressed. Accordingly, next morning, his lordship was delighted to read that he had recalled his, " mashei days." Why not? A bishop must hava begun as a curate, I 'suppose; and,- as a curate, he may have" "kissed her under the summer stars," as the poet saiti. Which phrase, again;- after the ingenious printer had revised it, is said to have appeared as " kicked her under the cellar stairs." The next example, and '"last, ia Dr Irwin Hunter, who for a month past has been descanting on the enormity ol -.allowing a senior medical man.xjto influenc* medical appointments, bigreesing to tha Maternity Home dispute, jDr Irwin Hunter hopes, that the Charitable AJq Board may "learn , something from the following • btory " :—: — When the Cornell University of Ithaca, New York, decided to *dd » Chair of Psycho-phyfeics- to the University curriculum the senate met vad one m«m"ber said, "We know nothing "of psychephysics," and another said, "Who does?" "and another, "Wundt. of.Hamburg," and tiufr -all said- "Send to Wundt - and tell him to, send in* «f good man." They did so. ana Wundt sent them Titohener, and Titcbener has made* the Cornell University famous. This striking, apologue may with advantage be otherwise expressed by tha change of a word or two. Said one member of the Board, "We know nothing of gynsecology," and another said, "Who does?" and another, " Dr Batchelor does," and they all said, -Send for Dr Bttchelor and let him. pick us a good man." They did so, etc., etc; (as above). Whence it appears that Dr Irwin Hunte? has neatly hoist himself with, his own petard. His letter ends, with the statement '"'that the source of all cSsh is fodd " ; but he has since written accusing the printer. The words should have been, he says, "the smell of all casu is good."- But this is a detail ; and^ speaking for myself, I prefer the versior of the printer. r Civis

The vital statistics of Durtfedin district lot August are as follow : -^Births 137, deaths 61, and marriages 40. For August of last yeaT the figures were— Births 136, deaths 81, and - marriages 38. The number of births registered last month is tho hig-hesJ eince I£9l, except in August, 190* and 1906, \Vhen t-he figures, ran up to 138 and 140 respectively. The deaths for August sine© I£9l have fluctuated between 80 and U. The lowest number of marriages recorded! since August, 1891, U 18 in 1897, while in 1900 a maximum of 5* waa reached. Ifc so happens that 1900 was leap y«ar, but it does not follow that that fact had anything to do with the increase. On being questioned on August 31 regarding +he complaint of the Farmers' tin ion Advocate that there ia delay in establishing 1 a Ohair of Veterinary Science in connection with the University of Otago, Mr J. Allen, vice-chancellor, said there wae really no delay on the part of the Otago University authorities. Plans of a suitable building were prepared come time ago and were submitted to the Government. Mr Reakee, Chief Veterinarian, had suggested a number of alterations, not only for the better working of the schoplj but also in the direction of a modification of th« plane in order to bring the building wifchin the £3000 which the Government' is prepared to provide for it. The plane are now being redrawn in accordance with Mr. Reakes's suggestions. "As a. matCcof fact," seid Mr Allen, " we are hampered for want of means. The Government won't allow us to do the thing properly." Mr Allen knows of three students who are prepared to attend the school. One ol these is going in for hds preliminary, medical examination at the next sitting, and expects to pass. If he cannot get a veterinary course in Dunedin, he intends to go to Melbourne for it. Two other veterinary students are at present reading for the medical examination. " These three young men," b>aid Mr Allen, " are, from the same town, and I have no doubt there arc others who would take advantage of the teaching in a proper school." Captain Steele, of the mission .steamer John Williams, which returned to Sydney on itugust 21 from the Islands, states thab one unsatisfactory feature regarding th« northern Cook Islands is the steady increase, of leprosy, there being at the present time about 30 known caess. So serious is the; condition of affaire that in one island, Penrhyn, the percentage of lepers is one in 15 of the whole population. The&e figures, Captain Steele states, were supplied to him .bj one of the resident doctors in the group, and may therefore be accepted, as reliable. The Government is taking steps to cope with the cmi.