CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 199, 11 January 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

PROSECUTING ITSELF. In Christchurch the City Council, in tne public interest, runs periodical organ recitals with the city organ in the large Canterbury Hall. A week or two ago complaints of overcrowding were made, and the city inspector of nuisances, who i.< evidently a man of parts, stood not upon the order of his going, but promptly issued a summons against "the Mayor, councillors and citizens of Christchurch," for a breach of the borough by-laws. The case was heard on i'uesday, and after some discussion the Magistrate dismissed the ease as being "collusive," suggesting that some specific information should be laid against one of the persons who had overcrowded the aisles of the theatre.

A BRIGHT CUSTOMER. A pleasing custom was that of Ortio E. McManniga',, the informer in the American dynamite case, who testified the other day that as he travelled over the United States, 'blowing up buildings here and there, he always sent home to his family a souvenir spoon from each town where he destroyed property. The man was responsible for many deaths, and the property losses caused by his acts ran into many millions. He seems to have been one of the most coldblooded and desperate characters recently disclosed to the world. There will be universal regret that justice has found it necessary to give him a certain degree of immunity in payment for his testimony.

"ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE." "English as she is spoke" remains one of the standing mysteries of the modern linguist, but even the proverbial Baboo would find it hard to beat these two examples:— A Dannevirke legal firm is reported to have received the following letter from an anxious native: "Having the greatest opportunity of writing to you. Why I am writing to you to ask if my land is settled or not. Let me know at once as soon as possible. For I am longing to hear what is going to be happened."—One of the Siamese papers recently published the following advertisement of the merits of its wares:—"The news of English we tell the latest. Writ in perfectly style and most earliest. Do a murder get commit, we hoar and tell of it. Do a mighty chief die. we publish it, and in borders of sombre. Staff lias one been college, and writ like, the Kipling and the Dickens. We circulate every town and extortionate not for advertisements. Buy it. By it."

THE ENCOUIUGTNG GLANCE. A correspondent, not without some degree of reason, suggests that the precocity of modern youth, referred to at the Science Congress, is due to the fact that the children of to-day are horn grown-up. They do not play the same games or with the same toys as their grandparents did in their youth. Nobody ever Bees the hoys at leap-frog nowadays, or "T spy." or "sacks on the mill," or "prisoner's base." and the girls never indulge in "kiss in the Ting," or "hunt the slipper." or "there came through Dukes a-courting." Where, indeed, we may ask, are the games of yester year? Children no longer play them, and even the building of sand castles has become a laborious weariness when the charms of a parade of Devon street or the Esplanade conflict. Similarly with the toys. Tops and marbles are obsolete relies of a bye-gond age, and even grown-up women openly flaunt "Teddy-bears" nnd "Gazeekas" on the street, while that abomination the "TTug-me-tight Kiddie" has talcen the place of the once respectable doll that used at least to assume sleep by closing its eyes when it was put to "bye-lo." The age. in fact, is degenerating into ugliness. anfl \igliness is a crime in everything ex-

cept a man. What we want is to gel; our children a little nearer back to nature. What they want is rag dolls and "glassies" and buttons and oranges and bricks to play with, instead of cigarettes and flirtations, and walking sticks, and theatre tickets, and creme simon and hair nets. Keep them primitive as long as possible, for, goodness knows, they grow old fast enough!

THE NEW COM MISSIONKMS. The Public Service Commissioners have been busily engaged with the preliminary details of their duties. A question that is giving rise In specula!ion in Hie public service at Hie present, time is that of classification. It is open lo the Commissioners either to adopt the provisional classifieal ion prepared under the Ward Atlniinisir.ili-.n. to adopt this classification in Mime modified form, or to prepare a new classification. The Chief 'Commissioner says that c.ivii servants will before Aery long be made acquainted with, the intentions of the (Commissioners regarding classification and other things. Some doubt appears to exist as to whether the Commissioners have time to have a new classification prepared before April I. when they are to take over 'control of the public service. In any ease, it is universally recognised that .Mr. Robertson, Mr. R. Triggs and Mr. S. ]). Thomson will have an enormous amount of work in hand during the next few months. One of the first duties of the Commissioners, it is understood, will li • lo prepare a report, for presentation to Parliament, upon the present state of the public service.

A QUESTION OE MORALS. The Teachers' Conference concluded its sitting 'at New P'.ymouth by carrying a motion by a large majority hostile to the introduction of the Bible into the public schools. What was a little remarkable was the ignorance of the person who undertook the moving of the motion in question. Being a woman, her ignorance is perhaps less astonishing (ungallantly remarks the Waimate Witness). Her principal argument was the moral perfection of the Japanese character, the result, apparently, of some system,in whieh, as a matter of course, religious teaching forms no part. It does not, of course, fo'dow that because the Japanese are a pagan people they are immoral. But the fact remain's that they are, from every standpoint, the most objectionable people morally in the world. Sexualy they are corrupt to an extent that is hardly believable. Among the masses of the Japanese people the moral standard in the family is as low as it is amongst the Hottentots or Australian blackMlows. Commercial morality has never had an abiding place in the country, and lying and deception have hecn cultivated to the point of a fine art. As a people, the Japanese are the last people in the world who shou'.d be mentioned in connection with national morals.

NEW ZEALAND'S INDUSTRIES. The advance sheets for the 1912 Year Book give details of the manufactories and works in 'the Dominion as ascertained by the last census, and they supply some interesting reading when compared with the previous census returns (writes the Palmerston Standard). During the five years the number of establishments has increased by 216, but the returns show that there were 125 less hands employed in 1911 than in 190(1 A still more remarkab'.e feature of this phase of the figures is that while the number of male workers decreased by 2677 the females actually increased by 2,534. These figures need not necessarily cause any alarm, for in spite of the decrease of hands employed the' wages paid show a considerable increase—in 190;-) they totalled £4,457,019, and in 1910 £5,572,270, the increase being at the rate of 25 per cent. The average amount of wages paid to male hands had risen from £BB 10s lid in 1905 to £lls 2s 3d in 1910, while for females the rise was from £4l 17.s Scl to £SO 12s 2d. These are, of course, the wages for persons of ali ages. A further analysis of the figures shows that while the number of hands has decreased the number of factories has increased from 4186 to 4402, and the value of production has risen from £23,444,235 to £31,729,002. This growth in the output, taken together with the reduction of the number of hands employed, suggests that there has been a large increase in the use of labor-saving appliances, thus showing that factories are gradually becoming more up-to-date.

THE £IOO CAR." Largo numbers of people have been waiting for the " £IOO motor car." Evidently the wait is not going to be in vain, for a cycle-car 'has been evolved that will fil" the need. Most people when buying a ear of any sort think chiefly of the question of '"upkeep." How many miles to the gallon will the car go? How many miles to the gallon of lubricating oil? What will be the tyre consumption? All these points are of extreme importance to the man who has to observe economy in his motoring. The fact that the cyc'.e-car can be run so cheaply—many, indeed, only cost a fraction over Id per mile—is a point in its favor, which will have a farreaching result. This quality, together with the low initial cost, comfort and speed, ease of storage, and general handinesa, will obtain an increasing market for the cycle-car. Says one writer: "This cycle-ear and its rivals are destined to work the same revolution among poor people as that wrought of 'ate by expensive motors in the. lives of the rich. For hundreds and thousands of people the new cycle-cars mean a new life of adventure and pleasure." The fact, that there are new designs of cycle-cars coming out every week, and that there are already some seventy Amos engaged in the manufacture of cycle-cars of all types, shows what keen competition exists. Some thirty-five different makes have recently been seen, for example, at Olympia. and one' day last month a procession of twenty-five cycle-cars of varied design paraded the streets of London.