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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 164, 5 August 1909, Page 2

THE DETERIORATION OP THE ]>KJTJSI[ HACK. Mr. l-'rancis (ialton writes to the Lou don Times saving tliaL "A specious infei nice was drawn in a speech by Lor< Jlnlsbury :it the luncheon given i' Lieutenant Shackle-ton :by the Roya Societies Cluli. lie an id (1 quote fr'on your report) that, 'in view of what Jlr sliackicton had gone through, it win impossible to believe in the snpposei deterioration of the British nice.' Bui exceptional performances do not contra diet (he supposition in question. It i> not that deterioration is so general I hat men of remarkably line physique have ceased to exist—for they do. thank Cod-but thai the bulk of the community is deteriorating, which it is, judging from the results of enquiries i-nlo the teeth, hearing, eyesight, ami malformation* Of children in Board sellout*, a'.id from the apparently continuous increase of insanity and feeblemindedness. Again, the popularity of athletic sports proves little, fur it Is eue tiling to acclaim siitei-ssfnl athletes, which any nioli of weaklings can do. as at a cricket mutch; it is quite another thing to be an atlilele oneself."

everywhere by liorses wed lij

tion! Yet no tine suggests any inter' t'erence with tliu breeding of the human I race. It is only Royal marriages that have to be publicly approved. 'Hie birthrate of the fitter is diminishing year hy year, and we calmly sit by and watch the consequent degeneration of our race with idle hand 6. We take the human rubbish that emerges, and give it compulsory education, Housing Acts, inspection of all sorts, and at all seasons, at the expense of the fitter classes, mid imagine that hotter results will ensue than if we left the whole business alone. Arc we right? Or are the horse-breeders right i" Still another aspect of this question I is put forward by Dr. C. \V. Salceby mi the Pall .Mall Razetle. 'There is';iot enough imagination," he says, "in the | world of practice to respond to the demonstrated contrasts between what the (lermaus are now doing with their children (of wliom they add to their population several hundreds of thousands more every year than we do) and what wc do with them; there is only i the perennial exhibition of irreligio'n over the question of religion in the schools, and of avarice and dishonor in the matter of payment therefor: these latter points comprising what we call the 'education question.' In a country about to fight for its life, by the quality of the life it tan produce'owl nourish, education as a public question is simply a matter of providing children for use as brickbats by partisans in the name of the Supreme Lover of children. Education is the 'provision of an environment.' A child is being educated whether at school or at home, whether by the books of man or in the book of Nature, whether by its schoolmaster or its mother. School (literally the place of leisure—i.e., freedom for natural selfdevelopment) is only one of the .kinds ' of environment wc may provide for a child. The patriotism and imperialism i which know (lie real factors of national l existence are always, rare, and always at a disadvantage compared wi'tii the other kind of Imperialism which boaets about the past or about externals, as if Nature, 'intent on life to I come,' cared about the past, or ever gave a verdict on that reckoning, or as if Nature could be taken in by boasts and bunting—the Imperialism which has helped to destroy every Empire in history. There is for us just one chance: it is that, ere the blow falls, wc learn to regard the land of our fathers as the land of our children, and direct all our efforts accordingly."