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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 1 April 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS. THE PIONEER WOMEN. We glory a good deal in our men veterans. We gather thein together and feed them and cheer them on their way and tell them what fine old chaps they are. Quite right, too. We think a great deal of the old gentleman who has been wounded, we recount his adventures and make a hero of .him, give him a medal, show him oil' in public, write his history and eulogise him in post mortem homilities. Quite right, again. The veteran i men are only one-half of the folk who "bore the heat and burden of the day," and we are .sometimes too apt to underestimate the incalculable heroism of the pioneer women. The average man would much rather undergo the excitement, the exhilaration and the danger of a light, than stay at home and mind the children during a period of uncertainty and unrest. Immensely the most important work in early colonisation is the care of the children, and although the veteran mothers are not banquetted, eulogised and -exhibited (if these things count) they are as much entitled to such recognition as their gallant husbands. The stories that can be told by the mothers of Taranaki are as moving and heroic as any that can be told by the survivors of Waireka or the heroes of Te Ngutu. The men fought and the women foraged, suffered for their children and endured hardships equal in all respects to those endured by their husbands. One comfort. The woman who had grit enough to undertake pioneering in the "early day" was naturally unselfish. She retains the superb characteristics of all j good women. li she is not dragged forth to form a spectacle for the populace she doesn't want to be. She is content I that she has done her duty, just as her husband did, strong in the feeling that she equally with him contributed her share to present-day prosperity and peace. We do not remember on any occasion the gallant gentlemen at a "banquet rising to drink to the health of "the mothers." and, perhaps, if those gallant gentlemen searched their memories they might discover some little stories about women's sacrifice that would make even braver narratives than any that could be told of men's adventures by field and flood. It is harder to stay at home and fight than to seek the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth.

PHYSICAL EXERCISES. . Teachers under the Wellington Education Board have been asked to give their opinion on the proposed substitution of free gymnastics for the alleged physical training now employed among junior cadets. Whatever their opinion on the old system of "muscle building" may be, no one who gives the matter any serious thought will deny the utter absurdity of old methods of physical instruction. To illustrate . "Deep-breathing" of the type used in some physical training schools is unnatural, and therefore wrong. There js no better argument against it. If it is necessary to teach a normal child howto breathe, the system should he extended to cows and horses, We have seen seventy young men in a gymnasium just la rue enough to hold them at pace intervals, indulging in this palpably absurd exercise. They were all breathing foul air. for as the instructor pointed out. "if the windows were opened the men might catch cold." Every one of those men would have been more healtihlv employed walking about in a natural way in the fresh air. The test of a man's physieal condition is the physical work he can perform, his endurance, the soundness of his vital organs, and the suppleness of his muscles, The heavy-weight lifter with huge masses of muscles that are no good to him is not better fitted for the battle .of life than he who has I taken natural exercise without undue ex- . tension of his chest, and absurd cvolu- ) t.ions never intended to be performed by | human beings. It would be as sensible in I order to prepare a racehorse for (lit- ! "cup" (o tie "dumb-bells" to his feet and

teach him to "deep breathe" in his stable. as it is to treat the human body as a just-discovered machine, useful for experiment. A while ago a very bright young man was champion gymnast <>f the physical school to which he belonged. In "deep-breathing" he could blow out his chest further than anybody in the room. He could lift enormous weights. His biceps and triceps were abnormal, .-e was a remarkable example of the power of a system to produce useless results. lie went away from home on a holiday and during the holiday rode a bicycle." He whs apparently much more powerful than any of the companions lie rode with, for they had not been trained. He fell off his bicycle and died. Ilis muscle-building exercises and his abnormal breathing exercises caused his death. Why don't our champion axemen and the average shovelweilders go in for physical development, and why don't the champion developers win all the physical work prizes? When a Jersey heifer which has been trained in "deep-breathing" becomes champion cow of New Zealand mid when the racehorse that has been trained with Indian clubs wins the Melbourne Cup, we will bo glad to advocate dumb-bells and "deepbreathing" for children. Free, unfettered, natural outdoor exercise—sun, air and instinctive movement are the onlv methods worth having, all the Sandow's on earth and medical cranks notwithstanding.