NEWS AND NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1938, Page 8

NEWS AND NOTES

VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST. Dwindling Sunday Schools. The heavy fall in the number of children attending English Sunday schools reported at the Baptist Union meetings (Baptists 16,000 fewer in the year, Congregationalists 23,000, Methodists 66,000, Anglicans 82,000), is a serious matter for the churches, but perhaps. not as serious as it looks, writes “Janus” in the “Spectator.” By no means all the lapsed thousands would have gone on to be church members, and by no means all of them will fail to become church members. The general attitude toward Sunday, and the family car in particular, has created heavy competition to the Sunday school, which can never hope to retain anything like the place it held in the life of the churches a generation ago. Whether it can even retain any place at all is a little uncertain. The supply of suitable teachers, moreover, gets more difficult rather than less. Passive Defence. One passage of Sir John Simon’s Budget speech which evoked unanimous approval, notes the “Spectator,” was. that in which he announced the secret purchase by the British Government of sufficient wheat, whale oil and sugai- to supply Britain during the first months of “an emergency.” The storage of food will achieve two objects, of which by far the most important is to protect the country from the danger of starvation during a war, the “emergency” the Government has in mind; it is a remarkable sign of the seriousness of the international situation that Great Britain, which does not often act in advance of events, should be forced to take such steps. The second purpose served is to relieve the enormous burden which must fall on the merchant navy oh the outbreak of war; the more oversea supplies can be supplemented from domestic stores, the more adequate British shipping will be to the difficult task it will have to face.

Too Much “Unto Caesar.”

In his presidential address to the annual assembly of the Baptist Union, the Rev F. J. H. Humphrey said: “It does not lie in our Christian faith to be hostile to national movements because they are unlike our own system and seem alien to the British temperament. Christian convictions must not embitter ihternational relationships or become the ally of political partisanship. We contend for an attitude to human life which is bound up with the idea of God and the universe, and man’s place and destiny within it. This is the ultimate basis of freedom, irrespective of the institutions through which it may find political embodiment. But it must be said that any organisation of human life that makes the State supreme and treats men as mere tools of the State, dr slaves of the economic machine, cannot be reconciled with the Christian faith.”

Dangers of Slimming. To slim vigorously without proper medical supervision is to court danger, said Sir Edward Spriggs, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, speaking on behalf of the British National Fitness Campaign. “Although the body can go for long periods without proper nutrition,” he said, “its resistance to disease is, among other ills, considerably reduced, and the mental ability is affected.” Starvation might give a feeling that the spirit was clearer, free of the body, and had escaped the desire for food, Sir Edmund continued. If such people did not die of starvation hospital treatment was usually necessary to bring them back to health. The casual taking of slimming drugs was also a dangerous practice. Slimmers could be a social nuisance. People who were unduly diet conscious were uncomfortable to live with.

6000 Miles to Hear Voice. Mrs Kidd travelled 6000 miles from Bombay to Folkestone to hear her daughter Maureen recite in the elocution cup competition at a Folkestone musical festival. At Marseilles she had left the liner, travelled overland to Calais and taken the cross-Channel boat to be there in time. She reached the Marine Gardens pavilion just in time to hear her daughter. Maureen was beaten by one point.

A New Safety Glass. One of the most interesting exhibitors at the British Industries Fair was a woman, Mrs Dulcie Vaughan, who recently perfected and patented a special hand-painted, non-shatter-able safety glass. The hand-painted designs decorating her glassware are actually within the thickness of the glass and sporting subjects such as horses, dogs and hunting scenes are her speciality. Mrs Vaughan has a studio in Chelsea, but at holiday times, with her children and some of the girl artists who work with her, she takes a caravan into the country. She does a good deal of special portrait work in oils, and has been honoured by commissions from several members of the Royal Family. Fireflies as Pets. Some pet lovers keep dogs, some keep cats, and some canaries,' but many Cubans find their keenest enjoyment in pet fireflies. Lightning insects in Cuba are so large and bright that they are sometimes imprisoned in wicker cages and used to illuminate cabins in rural districts. During the day, Cuban women and children often play with the insects, just as they would with other pets. Bathed and fed regularly, these fireflies live for several months.