A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2662, 3 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE.

Sir Julius Vogel's "Anno Domini, 2000 " has been, we are told, a "dead froat" at Home. A different fate is anticipated for another work whose obj>;ct is iilsd to depict the state of society a hundred years heuee. The author, un American, gives his book the title of "Looking Backward." It docs not /signify by what fable he prepares a Rip Van Winkle for a sleep of fix score years, nor how he awakes him. The interest of the book lies in what the resueciated ancient sees around him. Vogel's society of A. D. 2000, shows Conservatism triumphant. The American depicts the triumph of Democracy through co-operation. All lands are held and medal industries and professions followed, under a vast system of national co-operation. All men ere equal there are no paupers nor any extremely rich. The whole nation is an industrial army. Every man goes to school and collego till he i.s 21. Then he must work for three years at manual labour of souio kind, after which he is drafted into any trade or profession for which he has a natural aptitude. At the age of 10, or after 21 years of work, the state requires no further laborious service from any of its citizens, except in cases of omergency, when there is a sudden demand for labour, such special calls ceasing whou he reaches the age of 55. One day in the year is set apart as Muster Day, the day on which young , men are drafted into, ani old men are drafted out of, the industrial army, Higher education is as cheap as lower, all grades of teachers receiving , the same support, the higher education is compulBory like tho lower, education therefore cannot form the basis of class.distinctions as it now does. Jack is made in every sense as good as hie master. This great advance in ideas of what the state should insist upon the matter of education was made upon three main grounds; The right of every man to a complete education as necessary to his own enjoyment of life; the right of his fellow citizens to have him educated as necessary to their enjoyment of hie society ; aud tho right of the unborn to be guaranteed an intelligent and refined parentage. Tne author shows from the teachings of the twenty-first century, that in the nineteenth poverty with servitude is the lot of themass of mankind, from their attempt to solve the problem of maintenance from tho individual standpoint, and that no sooner does tho nation become the sole capitalist and employer, than plenty replaced poverty, serfdom dissarpeared with ostentation, and comfort for all ousted luxury for the few and hardship for tho many. This will be admitted to be a better dream of n " golden age " than Sir Julius Vogel's turning of the Molynoau could supply.