CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 302, 16 May 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE THING THAT MATTERS. The- figures that have lately been published showing the financial soundness of New Zealand are gratifying. The average ..citizen, however, does not concern himself with figures showing in hulk the prosperity of the people S3 a nation, H 6 is necessarily guided !;v his own Success, his own chances, and his own pocket. The best evidence of national progress is in the increase of people, the intention of these people to permanently re. side in New Zealand, and the success of their individual operations. It. does not do the country anv good to croak about its disabilities, but the expression of reasons for leaving it are useful in pointing out what may be weaknesses in administration. Last week there left by the Malieno from Auckland 17.5 stem-age passengers, of whom only 35 had return tickets. The point for New Zealand is that the average man is in no sense guided by loyalty to his country. He is guided bv selfish considerations. If this were not so there could be no oversea dominions of the Crown. Asked liis reason for leaving, one farmer said: "Why am I going away? Because, being a competent farmer and with little capital, I am tired of working for another man without reasonable hope of obtaining land of my own. Why don't they open up the land? Surely there is enough to go round without that gambling system of balloting. A man may wait for years for a chance of working his own section, and then find himself just as far from his desire as when he started. Most of the available land is ridiculously dear, and other land wnich might be turned to good account cannot be got hold of. Where is the encouragement to us men who are striving to be our own bosses? I can tell you this: If the Government want to keep us in New Zealand they had better open up the thousands of acres of land lying idle, or they will find the best and most competent amongst the farming community will leave in search of more alluring prospects elsewhere." It is 110 good hurling wonderful figures at that man or any other of the men who are lured away by "prospects." The State has got to hurl cheap land at them.

"TO THE PURE." Much has been written of late years about the advantages of "the simple lite," "a return to nature," and all that sort nf thing, but up to now no business man goes to his office in the garb of a kaftir. and if the professional people of New Plymouth were to go to work barefooted to-morrow there would be a "scandal." Bare feet are indecent, and it is a moot point whether their manufacture should not be stopped. No self-respecting gentleman would appear in the theatre with the upper half of his anatomy next to the world, but no self-respecting gentleman would think of prohibiting the nicest woman from doing exactly as she pleased in this regard. We have arranged these matters very mathematically. And so when that poor misguided man of whom the Sydney cablegram spoke paraded George Street in a bathing suit, he was, of course, carefully collected bv the police anil adequately clothed. He must have been mad. Anv person is mad who does not observe the conventions. Tf in some remote age it had been ruled to be indecent to display the human hand, gloves would have been as necessary as trousers. A legs are not indecent on a running track, but thev are decidedly bad form in the streets of a town. A bathing, costume on the beach shocks no one. hut it would make even the hardest policeman blush if worn at a concert. Nobody knows why. nor will they ever know. While good taste can only be displayed in what man has made, and indecency only expressed in the Creator's handiwork, we shall go on turning up our holy eyes in horror at the unclothed small boy and being shocked at things that are not; at all shocking, except to bent minds. Modem civilised human nature finds more pleasure in being shocked than In most other amusements. We retail scandals, not because we are sorrv for the sinners, but because we relish the scandal. The sins that are most heinous are the sins vo do not commit ourselves; the costume that is indecent is the costume that would not become us. Either the clothes individualise the man, or the man the clothes; but the average estimate of a man is arrived at bv his outer garb. Attire the earth's worst scallywag in judge's robes and stick him on the bench, and

tiie earth would accept him for what he seemed to be. Merely because all of us are incurably conventional we hope that people won't wear bathing trunks in tha theatres.