CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 281, 20 April 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE PEOPLE'S BOOKS. "Of the making of books there is no end," and the sphere of their usefulness is ever widening. A Libraries Conference has been sitting in Auckland, and from what may be gathered from the reports it seems likely that delegates think the scope of public libraries not sufficiently wide. There is but a small proportion of any public that reads for information and not for amusement, if the evidence of public librarians is to be taken (as it may be) as a basis of judgment. About nine-tenths of the books published nowadays are "novels," and in every public library in New Zealand tlits class of book is the most read. The great novel has as wide and useful a mission as any other class of book, for the man or woman with a message frequently incorporates it in a work of fiction. The general mass of the public read novels as a sort of anti-dotc to work. It is, for instance, something in the nature of a mental bath for a student who has been pouring over textbooks for a year or so in order to pass an examination to bury himself in impossible romances, and we believe that the majority of people devour the lighter I kind of "novel" which has no real purpose as an exhilarating pastime. The greatest thoughts from the minds of the world's greatest thinkers are to-day available to all classes, and if the chief business of public libraries is to issue works of the Corelli or Hall Caine type, this is no criterion of public taste and desire for mental improvement. The lover of written wonders has to be poor indeed if he cannot purchase for himself the books that he loves. This is an age of amazing cheapness as far as undying literature is concerned, and it has become the function of innumerable periodicals not only to cater to the people's desire to know what is happening at the moment, but to give to the people all that is finest in the way of information and thought. One thing British literature lacks. There is no periodical or bunch of periodicals which features translations of great articles and themes from foreign sources. It is impossible for people to keep abreast of the times without peering into the master minds of the Germans, the French oi the Russians, A wider exchange of international thought, for which the highway of literature is used, would have a better effect in creating international understanding than Parliaments or diplomats. It is the thought of the world that directs the world's enterprises, and iffl diffusion would be one of the greatest boons humanity could possess. i

SMALLPOX. Word comes that a seaborne passenger from India has arrived at Adelaide with smallpox. Consequently the health authorities of South Australia are, as is usual in these excellent days of prevention, taking what are believed to be the necessary precautions against the spread of a disease that has swept millions of beings into the grave. The most interesting point about any infectious disease is its wonderful vitality. The fact that only some individuals are susceptible and that, in the case of smallpox, inoculation with an allied disease (vaccine) is supposed to give temporary immunity. Although it is proved that the smallpox we know to-day was common anions the Abyssinians in 570 A.D., the resources of science have not entirely eliminated it, and it is safe to say that it is continually raging somewhere on the earth where communities by their uncleanly habits are susceptible' to its manifestation. As in the case of other diseases, the community living a natural, cleanly life and enjoying normal health cannot contract smallpox. The normal person might associate freely with smallpox patients and still be ininvunc. The alleped .preventive, vaccination, discovered by Dr. .renner. has never been useful except as a substitute for sanitation, healthful occupation, normal and natural living. It has never been proved, nor can it, that the introduction of a bovine disease into the human being gives immunity from smallpox, although it has beenshown that during visitations of the disease, some persons who had been vaccinated have not contracted it. ft is generally held that vaccination as a preventive of smallpox is impotent if the

patient were last vaccinated seven years ago. If the State, therefore, is concerned that smallpox is kept out of New Zealand by compulsory vaccination, it should not only insist that no person be allowed to have "conscientious scruples," but that every person be vaccinated every seven years. It is interesting to know that when smallpox invades a country for the first time it is most fatal. When New Zealand believed it had discovered one smallpox patient (eleven years ago) the population rushed to the surgeons to be punctured. One is entitled to believe that not vaccination, but the general standard of health of the community saved it from epidemic i smallpox, and that the same general health enabled the people who were infected with a cow disease to remain above ground in spite of it. THE PATHOS OF WEALTH. An American vagrant has been arrested in Paris. Having been arrested, he had to explain that he was a mere millionaire. There is something specially pathetic in the mental spectacle of a man who is able to obtain the applause of his I fellows and all that dollars can buy trying apparent poverty and vagrancy as a new sensation. One imagines him j sampling all the alleged delights of ex- . istence and falling back on poverty as 1 the only condition to give a fillip to |an aimless existence. One is hound to conclude that striving and not attainment is the more enjoyable occupation. One hears of the enormously wealthy 'duke (Portland, wasn't it?) who prefered to wander round his vast estates attired as a laborer and glorving in the novelty of fraternity with common clay. There was the Australian millionaire who delighted to tramp round his properties with his swag on his back. He had sampled the joys that is supposed to give and found them hollow. There is no more pathetic figure in modern times than that of the millionaire, who, having decided to "give un business," loses the inspiration of his life and—against jhis nature—scatters millions to obtain for the peonle the advantages that would have killed his instincts had he possessed them. Curiously, human beings do not value those things that are easily obtained. Advantages that are procured by strife, application and individuality arc greater prizes to the individual than the mere mechanical possession of advantages of environment or the decease of a wealthy relative. It is conceivable that the Paris police have squelched the happiness of a vagrant millionaire. Moderate wealth cannot buy the real essentials. The peasant who sups on black bread [ and an onion after toiling for fourteen hours is possiblv happier than the peer who after a desperate effort to kill time burs a five guinea meal at Dilminico's and hates the sight of it. Wealth does not buv wealth, happiness or more of the essentials than are necessary for the individual. Few men enjoy the possession of wealth as much as its accumulation. The millionaire doesn't want to eat more than one meal at a time or to wear a couple of suits of clothes. His means may he limitless, but his needs are exactly the same in reality as the needs of the laborer. He hasn't the physical power to enjoy labor, and so a poor chap tries the sensation of amateur pauperism. The pauper has ; no chance, of tryinj the sensation of being an amateur milionaire.