The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1902. THE NATIONAL PHYSIQUE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 107, 9 May 1902, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1902. THE NATIONAL PHYSIQUE.

Expebiments and measurements prove very conclusively that, the aggregation of people io towns and large cities in the old world is having an injurious effect on the physique of tha people, and all sorts of proposals are being made to induce people to take to agricultural pursuits and arrest the exodus from the country to the towns. Here j in New Zealand the one industry that is proving successful in populating tjaa country districts is being assailed by a 'section of the Press which, indifferent to the real welfare of thq people, appears desirous of bringing about the very conditions which are pro Ting so injurious to GrGat Britain. Earl Grey i is very earnest in his condemnation of the over-crowding into towns, and contends that it is the cause of many evils. As a proof that the physical standard is deteriorating, he says that out of 11,000 men who volunteered from the Manchester district for service in South Africa, only 1200 came up to the recognised standard of what, a soldier ought to be. In calling at- ■ tention to tlw matter, Earl Greyi declares thus :—" If we wish to arrest the exodus from the country we must increase the demand for labour in the ! country, and the attractiveness of the country as a place of residence for working men, Means must be found which will enable us to secure for a workiDg man and his family the advantages of both town and country." Among causes which tend to impair the national physique are, he remarks: 1. The black smoke r<uisance which poisons God'a fresh air, and, like the wind when in the east, is good for neither man nor bsast. 2. The Trades Union regulations, which restrict thej efficiency of the bricklayer and other men engaged in the building trade, j and which, by so doing, increase the cost of buildiDg, and consequently heighten causing overcrowding, lower vilality, and drive people to drink, and through drink to ruin. 3. The unregulated development of our city growths, 4. Impediments in the way of cheap and rapid locomotion. 5. Insufficient attention to physical training in elementary schools. 6. But the principal cause which affects injuriously the national physique is perhaps the unprofitableness of agriculture. If we are earnest in our wish to bring the people back on to the land we must not hesitate, Earl Grey declares, to levy a 5s duty per quarter on imported corn