CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 109, 16 August 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. To-day the heart o| every iiritisn soldier is sad at the funeral knell tnat tells that Florence Nightingale is dead. It is not given to a nation to possess many such women as that devoted nurse, who during 'her long life thought nothing of self and all for the suffering. Florence Nightingale was honoured of monarchs, admired of statesmen, and the adored of soldiers. Animated by tue suitfle thought of doing good for humanity, she organised and controlled the first corps of nurses who ever gave their invaluable work to the sufferers of an army. "The Lady of the Lamp" was not only reverenced by the veterans of the Crimea and their successors, both Russian, French and British, but by every man who wears a uniform and every woman who has followed her noble profession. Florence Nightingale was as surely the pioneer of nursing as dawn is the pioneer of day, and because of a great thought and ability and self sacrifice to put it into operation, Florence Nightingale is one of the immortals. It is almost inconceivable that a gentleWoman, with no precedent as a guide, should be able to proceed to the grim Crimea, and there, by mere force ol personal devotion, do more for the Army than the blundering fools at the War Office 'knew how to do. The Crimean war was a disgrace to British management,' but the work of Florence Nightingale made Britain's brutality less palpable, and invested her with a crown of glory. It is unnecessary to sorrow for tlie great lady, for she lays down her self-imposed burden, knowing that she did the duty that was to her hand. If one servant of the soldier, of the people, of the world, deserves the superlative 'Well done!" that servant is Florence JfSghtingale. And dhe now takes the rest she has ever denied herself.

LUCKY BK.ITONS! The Hon. McKenzie cheered some people up last week by mentioning that New Zealand fruit did very well on the London market, and that there was a future for our fine fruits there. The average town person in 'New Zealand finds it impossible to believe that New Zealand is either a fruit or a vegetable-growing country, and if he were permitted to gaze at some New Zealand fruit in a London shop window he would probably be surprised. Fruit is never cheap to the New Zealander, so that the average person with a small wage is not a daily fruit-eater, like the Australian townsman, the Italian peasant, or the ten-shillings-a-week man on the Continent, New Zealand cannot be surpassed in the world for its temperate fruits, and why they should be such a luxury is one of the great mysteries. One hears, for instance, that the apple crop has been very good, and one understands what that

means when the Chinese asks anything from fourpence to sixpence a pound for apples. The town person during a trip into the country may see the ground covered with neglected plums. He will 'buy plums in town for lourpence a pound. At present in prolific Taranaki the townsman pays sixpence or eightpence . for a cauliflower. Almost one would think that common vegetables were precious orchids or titbits to be kept for the millionaire's table. Potatoes are at the moment dearer than bread. And so in this county, -which can send splendid produce to feed the people of the Old Land, one buys Californian and Tasmanian apples, and , potatoes, peaches and grapes from Australia, because for somei unaccountable reason the local supply is generally short and the prices invariably long. New Zealanders might be expected to diet largely on fruit and vegetables, and in place of the "hard tack," they might drink the much more harmless and wholesome New Zealand 1 wine, if the price,'like that of fruit, ■were not prohibitive. It is nice to hear that our cousins at Home are getting our best fruit, and; it is hoped that they may buy it more cheaply than we do. Any New Zealanders who pay sixpence a pound for windfall apples would be interested in the 'best, varieties of New Zealand apples at Covent Garden at fourpence.