The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1913. THE STRESS OF LIFE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 49, 27 February 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1913. THE STRESS OF LIFE.

The rather singular case of a London postman who twice quite lost Ids memory, and other similar breakdowns, have caused some newspaper discussion at Home, and the question is asked : Are our memories getting weaker as the complexity and stress of life become more formidable? The head of a big house told a “Standard” representative recently that ho was convinced tho city man had a much quicker working brain to-day than he had last century, but a very much weaker memory. A great number of remedies usually indicates tho prevalence of a disease, and when it is remembered what swarms of advertisements appear in tho magazines for memory and “concentration” schools, and' the numbers of “memory aids” and “memory savers” which are becoming part of every business man’s equipment, tho conclusion seems obvious. The big modern organiser props himself up on a system of mental supports, which carry tho stress of accumulated detail. Remove those supports and ho is hopelessly at sea. Tho man with a good natural memory, observed tho business man above referred to, is worth 50 per cent, more to-day than he was twenty years ago; in another 50 years a man with a good memory will lie hard to discover. It is said that tho most valuable faculty man possesses is his “unconscious memory” which, according to a. West End specialist, js the faculty which does instinctive things for one such as breathing, shutting tho eyes when danger threatens tho sight, and so forth. As man has progressed he constantly has to do new and unaccustomed things, and his unconscious memory has to go on increasing its repertoire accordingly. So long as tho changes proceeded slowly and naturally the unconscious memory could keep pace, but now, it is getting hopelessly belt behind. At any rate this is tho view this specialist takes. The conscious memory is, ho tells tts, burdened with a whole crowd of disturbing and confusing details, as yet undigested, so to speak, by the unconscious memory, and hence result its strain and sometimes its partial and total collapse. “!ho race wants a breathing-pause,” is tho verdict, “a breathing pause with

no more external changes of a drastic kind for, say, twenty years.” This may be all quite true and the advice may bo excellent, but it has no chance whatever of being followed. I CRUISE OF THE NEW ZEALAND.^ The Auckland “Star’s” London correspondent states that the provisional programme of the cruise of the new battle-cruiser New Zealand, the gift of the Dominion to the British Navy, will cover, between her departure from Plymouth, until she returns to England on October 15, after an absence of eight and a-half months, upwards of 10,000 miles. Outward bound, the New Zealand will visit St. Vincent, Ascension, St. Helena, Simon’s Bay and Hobart, and she will spend about three months in New Zealand waters, calling at all the chief ports. On leaving New Zealand the ship will cross to Vancouver, touching at the Fiji Islands and Honolulu, and reaching the British Columbian port on Juno 26. There she will remain until July 3. The battle-cruiser will subsequently make a 1000 mile run down to Panama, where three days will be spent, so as to afford officers and men an opportunity of seeing something of the new canal. Afterwards she will visit the following'ports:—Valparaiso (Chili), Monte Video (Uruguay), Bio de Janeiro (Brazil), Trinidad, Barbadoes, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Tiiicila, Dominica, St. John’s (Antigua), St. Kitt’s, Kingston (Jamaica). Bermuda. No British ship has made such an extended cruise as has been planned for this gift-ship from the Dominion. Among the officers ol the New Zealand, which is command i ed by Captain Lionel Halsay, are H. • E. Grace (a son of the famous crick 1 oter), and Prince George of Batten - berg, who is an Acting-Sub-Lieuten- . ant, and a nephew of the now Firsf Sea Lord, Prince Louis of Batten berg. Regarding the cruise, the naval correspondent of the London “Globe” says: —“The New Zealand visit will act as a tonic in stimulating the Colonists to pursue the policy upon which they have embarked of rallying round the Imperial flag in the hour of need, and making it clear beyond all reasonable doubt that the resources of Imperialism have by no means been exhausted by the recent outpourings of ships and men.”