CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 272, 23 April 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

BOY CIGAKETTE SMOKERS. There is an ancient saying, beloved of cynical mankind, in defence of his pet vice, that "God made man, then He made woman, and then lie felt sorry for man and made tobacco.." Be that as it may, there is this much truth in the venerable saw, that tobacco was made for man, and the wisdom which we have Biblical authority for expecting from the mouths of babes and sucklings was never meant to intermingle with tobacco smoke. All of which means that boys generally, and none the less in New Plymouth, aro addicted to cigarette smoking to an alarming degree. Somewhere in the mysteries of our legislature is a law intended to prohibit boys under the age of sixteen years from smoking. It is time that in the interests of the coming generation, this law, inadequate as it is, was actively enforced. One hardly meets a boy of fourteen years and upwards in the streets without the inevitable cigarette. Of a band of senior cadets just dismissed from parade the other day, fully half immediately lit cigarettes. The age for enrolling these boys is from fourteen years to eighteen years. The sight of a blotchy-faced youth attached by the lip to a cigarette is as ridiculous ns it is common, but it calls for a little more than a passing smile of amusement. Medical opinion is practically unanimous regarding evils of cigarette smoking, especially in the young and half-de-veloped. The law should be strictly enforced, even if tobacconists do sillier a j little. The sight of what, with Kipling, might be aptly described as "a disgusting exhibition of immature youths aping the idiosyneracies of their elders'' is one calculated to make an adult smoker throw away his pipe in sheer disgust. If the full extent' of the prevalence of the evil were realised stringent action would surely follow,

CAPTAIN SCOTT'S LAST WORDS. "In a room in the British Museum, among acres of cases filled with historical manuscripts, the last journals of Captain Scott are on view. The very quiet group of sightseers always includes a few sailors" (says the Manchester Guardian) "who stare with unmoved faces at the the open pages covered with neat pencil written script. The women in the crowd ÜBually say, 'What pretty writing!' or something of that kind, and there is almost a feminine, delicacy in the thin writing, always legible, and flowing easily within bounds. This passion for precision seems to have still governed the explorer's stiffening fingers .as ho wrote the last words of all. Does it or does it not show the disturbance of agony! Down to the last paragraph the writing, is uniform, close and neat, and then, isolated on the page, are these two lines:—

'"For God's sake Look after our people.' These words arc larger than the rest, but they are perfectly plain, the letters scrupulously formed, as if Captain Scott had nerved (himself to the effort to let there be no doubt about his dying message." What a witness! Fame. Science, Pain, Death —all overcome; and the heart turns,' passionate still, to the simple lover of home?

A CRAMPING SYSTEM. If Mr Hiley stands head and shoulders above any man in the locai service it is not because he is more reliable or more brainy, it is because we have slavishly copied the Britisii method 1 of destroying individual initiative by keeping our best men in slots and grooves. Notning has contributed to this more than the classification system which .e railway ser vice insisted on fastening upon itself Under this system many able men have been manacled, and mam- round pegs firmly driven into square holes. Still there are vigorous and able men in the service even now who, given an opportunity would, with their intimate local | knowledge, have produced results supcr--1 ior to those achieved by the imported | expert at a minimum of cost. The most ! striking features of the new regime are i an increase o* mileage cost without commensurate efficiency, followed by an in- ; timation that if better services are rc- , quired a large outlay will be necsssitat- | ed. The complaint of on* local managers ! has been all along that the railways have [ been "starved," and that nobody but a I miracle worker could produce more aatj isfactory results without increased cost. J Obviously Mr Hiley does not propose to work miracles. TJie most satisfactory way of dealing with the problem of experts is, not to import, them, but to give every encouragement to local talent not only to excel on the spot but to make i periodical visits abroad on voyages of I discovery.—Christchurch Sun.