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No. VIII

"The People."

'Tis weary watching wave by wave,
And yet the tide heaves onward;
We climb like corals, grave by grave,
That pave a pathway sunward.
We're driven back, for our next fray
A newer strength to borrow;
And where the vanguard camps to-day
The rear shall rest to-morrow.

—Gerald Massey.

"Where there are the best people there is the best country." What is the aim of humanity if it is not to have good women and good men—why all the pother about institutions and reforms? What impression then do the people of Europe make on a visitor? It is only by comparison that one can arrive at any conclusion. How stand present-day Europeans with, say, Europeans in New Zealand! I did not see much difference, save in the manufacturing towns and in the slums of the large cities, between the two. In the city slums you see physical degradation apparent on many countenances, but in the country districts the people seemed physically as strong as with us. Perhaps the weak drift to the towns, and perhaps a more rigorous climate kills off many physically unfit. The most robust lot of school children I saw was at a small country school in my native islands, and that may be accounted for by the climate eliminating the unfit. What is to become of the submerged tenth, as they have been called? That is a problem. They die early, and that no doubt helps to maintain the race. Physical strength must ever be the basis of a race, and bad air, scrimp food, unhealthy dwellings, drug habits, shorten life page 50 and cause a yearly sacrifice of infant life. But for the daily migration to the cities of people physically strong, the dwellers in cities, as at present constituted, would become a helpless race. You might as well expect a mob of "culls" to produce good sheep, as people subjected to the evils that are common in slums to produce good men and women. There would be some normal, but there would be many abnormal. If, as it is said, insanity has increased, and cancer is more common than a century ago, we need not be surprised. We are not constituted like the "one-horse shay" of which Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote. Something must give way in the strain and struggle for life, and the nervous organisation, or our cell tissue, will become affected. Men and women do not collapse as the "one-horse shay" collapsed. It suddenly fell into a heap of dust, and no one part failed before the other. When you have a death-rate up to 35 per thousand, as there is in many congested districts in cities, as against the New Zealand death rate of 10 per thousand, you can tell what is happening. Degeneration exists in such congested areas. The report of "The Interdepartmental Committee on Natural Physical Degeneration," appointed in 1903 by the late Duke of Devonshire, and which reported in 1904, tells us of this degeneration, though it is said it was not so bad as it had been represented. In 1900-3, 32 per cent, of the recruits for the army in London were rejected, and in Manchester the percentage was higher. Most of the medical witnesses stated that alcohol was a great factor in this degeneration, and the facts given proved this statement. In France, in 1830, with a consumption of 2.2 litres of spirits, containing 50 per cent, of alcohol, per head, the rejection of recruits was 21 per cent. In 1893 the consumption had gone up to 10 litres, and the percentage of rejection to 32 per cent In Sweden again, where the consumption of spirits was 46 litres per head in 1830, and in 1890 six litres, the percentage of rejections of conscripts fell from 34.45 to 20.4.

But much is being done to grapple with this problem of life, and open spaces, better drainage, more attention to sanitation generally are improving the race. The page 51 one thing that is not a passion amongst the people is the abolition of the drug curse. True, the leading doctors in France and Britain point out the evil that alcohol and other drugs are doing, but the mass are supine. There is not the enthusiasm for temperance that exists in the Australasian colonies and in the United States. Quite lately one of the greatest physiologists in the world, the learned Professor Metchinkoff—of the Pasteur Institute—who was received with applause by the savants assembled at the Darwin celebration in Cambridge, published this statement: "During the past 10 years I have abstained from all alcoholic beverages, having verified their bad effect on my physical constitution:" and he is not alone in this opinion, in France. The principal of the Medical School at Rouen, said: "I habitually drink water because I have found that my digestion, my sleep, my work, are much better than were I to use any alcohol." The principal sums up his opinion thus: "(1) All distilled alcoholic liquors are harmful; (2) all fermented liquors are much less hurtful, but they are never useful. It is prejudice arising from habit that makes us think that wine, cider, and beer are nourishing." This is the testimony of the majority of the medical experts.

Recent experiments conducted on dogs in one of the universities of the United States—the Clark University—show that the effect of alcohol is felt in the young of the alcoholised dogs.

But the British people are not without hope. They are attacking the social evils. They are getting rid of some slums. Temperance societies are active, all kinds of educational reform associations are struggling to raise humanity, and some forward movement has been made. Let us read an eighteenth century novel, and compare life in the city and country districts, as depicted in the novel with what it is to-day, and it will be seen that an advance has been made. If we read also the account of some of the criminal trials of the eighteenth century, we would see that London to-day, with its evils, is better than the London of over 150 years ago; and the country page 52 districts have also improved. The schoolmaster has been abroad. In one country district, in 1727, a poor woman was burned to death in a barrel of tar because she was said to be what is called "a witch;" and belief in witchcraft, in fairies, and evil spirits continued until the nineteenth century, and perhaps continues yet amongst those far removed from the civilisation of the age. Such has been the credulity of the race. An educated people gets rid of its primitive beliefs, and slowly education is being diffused.

Manufactures are improving, and Britain need not be afraid of either German or American competition. There is in the towns a passion for practical or technical education. Efficiency is being sought after, and the future will show that the British race is not effete.

I have nothing but praise to give to all classes of people for their never-ending courtesy. In my opinion our own people are just as courteous as the people dwelling on the Continent of Europe. I have found them ever helpful to strangers. It is true some boys I met, even in London, did not seem to know things that I fancy a colonial boy would have known. The most intelligent boy I met was one in Glasgow. He was resourceful. I was looking for the office of the Scottish Permissive Bill and Temperance Association, and the directions I had got were not sufficient to enable me to find it, for I had neither the name nor the number of the street. 1 asked a little lad who was carrying a parcel if he could direct me, and he replied that he did not know, but he added, "I'll soon find out." Anyone who has read Elbert Hubbard's noted work, "The Message to Garcia," will appreciate his answer, as I did. After learning from me where I thought it was, he, after some inquiries and some searching, was able to show me the place. I was much struck with his keen intelligence and his kindness. I rarely met a London boy who could give me much information when I asked him about places in his neighbourhood, but then there were always the able and obliging policemen, so perhaps the boys' services were rarely required.

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The one thing that struck me most in France was that the people looked physically stronger than I expected. In Paris, as elsewhere, I always had my early morning walk before breakfast, and the physique of the clerks, shopmen, and shopwomen and others I met going to their work greatly impressed me. I also saw some of the French cavalry, and though they were not tall, they seemed well-built, sturdy men, and handled their horses well. Even in Southern France the people looked well. Of course, in the large towns, as in other large cities, there are degenerates, but on the whole the physical well-being of the people impressed me. In fact, it seemed to me the young French working people were stronger than the same class I met in London.

It may be asked how do other nationalities look? I met in Paris one evening, at the home of the learned editor of Les Documents du Progres, ladies and gentlemen of almost all the nationalities of Europe—Italians, Russians, Greeks, Roumanians, Austrians, Germans, Spaniards, etc.—and really there is not so much difference as I expected to see between them and a gathering of English people. Swedes and Russians were fair-haired and blue-eyed. There were many celebrated people. One French poetess recited beautifully one of her own poems, and there was present a Russian sculptor. They were all members of the Institut International pour la Diffusion des Experiences Sociales, and with them humanity loomed larger than nationality.

I saw members of the Duma that visited England. I met them at Trinity College, Cambridge, as they were under the care of Dr. Butler, the master, viewing the College. Most of them would have passed as Englishmen, but a few were darker, like the people of Southern Europe, but larger framed. They seemed much impressed with this visit to Cambridge, and with the freedom of Cambridge College life. At the Darwin celebrations and at the Geneva University celebrations I also met many of different nationalities, and if we are to see peace reign it will be through education and science, and page 54 the knowledge of each other, that such an era will come. There are many silent forces in all countries making for peace. We hear the cries of the military and naval advocates, but the voices of those who are strong for brotherhood are not so loud.

Of course there are social evils in Europe, and they are more intense than amongst ourselves. There are idle rich who think of nothing but their own amusement, and who can talk of nothing but of sport and amusements. That class is, I believe, small, and perhaps recent political movements may help them to realise that man lives not for himself alone. There is much misery, much crime, and much vice, much waste, and much thriftlessness. But when this side of the world is seen there is another side to be examined. There is more altruism than in past centuries, more humane associations, more noble men and women struggling to uplift their fellows. The forces of light are more numerous and stronger than the myrmidons of darkness, and this belief is inspiring millions with hope.

Lastly, I may say I come back to New Zealand an optimist. The millenium is ahead of us, though it may take centuries yet before the race reaches that blessed state. Gerald Massey's verses are true. The race is going forward and an enthusiasm for humanity is dawning, and our kin beyond the sea are playing an important part, for they are not effete, in the bringing to pass the long-looked-for day. Humanity sweeps onward.

And all the feature of the past
But make the future more serene.

But let us beware. Do not let us imagine that we are rid of racial evils. We do not yet know what the effect of our warmer climate may be on the physical, intellectual, or moral stamina of our race. We need care and watchfulness and incessant effort, not only to maintain the progress we have made, but to go forward, for other nations are not lagging behind.

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