CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 87, 21 July 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

THE POULTRY SHOW. The utility of any show lies in the fact that it creates endeavor. A snow in which, year after year, the same ex-1 hibitors gather in the prizes, has noj useful effect, and in the excellent de-i monstration at the Drill Hall yesterday the features calling for the highest praise were the number and variety of the entries, the general excellence of the exhibits, and the capable method of | showing them. The Taranaki Poultry, 1 Pigeon and Canary Society has, alter a good deal of experience, evolved a' display that is highly representative of domestic birds, and happily aucfs to the display an assortment of exhibits typifying the work of the school and the home. In regard to the exhibition of freak fowls, it is only to be mentioned that they do not contribute to the prosperity of any community. In time it will be understood that experiments to produce caricatures of nature are unedifying and useless. No one tries to make potatoes grow like cabbages. There is, however, evidence that in Taranaki the utility bird- is being carefully bred and adequately tended, and when ianciers give over producing degenerates oI the knock-kneed varieties, with combs tiiat induce brain disease, the poultry world will 1 benefit. The interest of the children has been splendidly catered for in this show, the committee evidently being fully alive to the point that it the youngsters are gathered in, the parents necessarily fol.ow. A particularly appealing exhibit is the one illustrating the handiwork of school children. By emulation the child of superior talent outstrips his competitors, and the competitor who is outstripped learns the lesson that defeat is meant only to spur to further endeavor. It is encouraging to notice that the, utilitarian and artistic side of child nature is carefully fostered. It is impossible to dissociate the artistic element from the commonest necessities of life. No article ot daily use is made without artistic preparation and design, and in this branch technical schools are doing fine work, and are well

advised to take every opportunity of exhibition to spur emulative effort. The interest of the youth'of New Plymouth, who turned out in large numbers, despite the aggressive weather of yester-' day, was inspiring to adults. It is onlyT a matter of a few.years before these children will succeed us, and the development of art and industry is by way of making, them more than our equals in ability to run the race of life. In our view, it is a nobler thing to inspire a youngster with devotion to a youthful hobby by showing him what other children can do than in awarding a prize to a wierd monstrosity that nas been bred to a shape believed by some men to be beautiful. The committee must be commended for having made arrangements leading to the best and most extensive show of its series, and one so well worthy of patronage. It is hoped that the exhibition wili to-day attract a large number of adults, wlio should i certainly be interested in seeing a dis-, play which reflects the patience, the skill, and the advancement of the adults! and children of the province. ,

" THE EIGHT OF THE LINE." Britons do not forget, but tliev are slow in remembering. After ten years it has been remembered that the British artillery in the South African war performed feats of prodigious skill and valor. A monument was unveiled in St. Paul's Cathedral yesterday :by the Duke of Connaught in memory of the gunners. People who have merely seen field artillery in action at manoeuvres are unable to really appreciate the difference between peace manoeuvres and action in the face of the enemy. In no campaign undertaken by the British was the artillery more valuable, more heroic, better trained, or so imbued with the idea of duty and discipline as in the South African war. Searching for a hidden enemv, with guns that most frequently had to be taken within rifle-fire range, these gunners typified in their own arm of the service all that is best in the whole of it. Heroism was a mater of daily occurrence, but the men with the motto "Übique" -did not know they were heroes —they merely called it duty. Field guns were captured in 'South Africa, but never deserted. In one of the most disastrous engagements a battery was hemmed in. Every horse was shot. With perfect calmness, drivers and gunners did their work. Immediately a man was shot, a comrade jumped to his place, without panic, without fear, with the whole glorious traditions of the Service to help him to live and tight as long as he could, and to die when he could fi«lit no longer. That battery was shot out, down to one man. With a bullet through his jaw, he stood to his gun, until he was taken prisoner. It was no haphazard system of training that made a battery like that. On many a wicked day troop's heard the rumble of the field guns as the sweetest sound ever heard. The Army knew that as long as a driver could sit on his horse, or a gunner work one arm, there would he calm, disciplined, efficient work. When the call went forth for artillery reserves, every old gunner who could waddle rushed for the Colors, and lie did not care whether tlie horses were trained to the gun or trained to

the 'bus. The sixteen-pounders drew him like a magnet attracts a needle. One of the most pathetic artillery incidents in connection with that war may be told | about a battery that had finished its war-service. It entrained from Pretoria to Capetown. It was going Home, uacic to civil life, to peace, to wives and kiddies, mothers and sweethearts. The enemy had blown up a great bridge, the engineers had made a rough and ready deviation. The engine-driver knew nothing of the fact that the deviation was. undermined, and the inevitable happened. The men who were not killed by the overturning of the train were shot by the enemy, who were lying in wait. A huge grave is to be seen quite close to tiie places where the home-going battery were wiped out. And so it is good to remember these men, and to know that what the British artillery did well in Africa, they can do better nowadays with superior weapons and higher skill. The chief power still is, the men, their hearts, their training, their discipline, and their implacable determination to see the job through to the last gun-horse, the last round and the last comrade. Recollections such as these are useful if they suggest to the easy-going citizen soldier, and the citizen who scoffs at soldiering, that it may be necessary for the guns to go into action in New Zealand some day. The citizen is not particularly attached to the artillery at the moment, but he might yet regard with affection men of such a battery as were shot out—one man excepted—on March 31, 1&00.