Revieic of Reriewt, 1111106. 



History of the Month. 



429 



public utilities could only strike one note. But Mr. 

 Chapman's reply was a humane and statesmanlike 

 one. He quite recognised that public institutions 

 like these should not be used for the contamination 

 of the people of the States, and he expressed his 

 desire to further the aims of the deputation as far 

 as he possibly could. New Zealand has led the way 

 in this respect. Sir Joseph Ward has promised a 

 deputation that telephones shall be cut off houses 

 where betting is carried on, and has expressed the 

 opinion that telephones and racecourses should be 

 isolated, so that facilities for the spread of betting 

 news shall be cut off as far as possible. When to 

 this is added the prevention of the sale of tickets 

 for Tattersall's sweeps, something in the way of 

 tan;,'ible good may be expected. By the way, the 

 banking institutions are great offenders against 

 morality in this respect, seeing that they transmit 

 money to Tattersall's. The Deakin Government has 

 ver\ much to its credit in regard to social reform. 

 It prohibited the importation of opium. It took up 

 the question of medical institutions. It brought 

 Australia into line with other countries in connec- 

 ton with the white slave traffic, and to this splendid 

 list it intends to add all the restrictions that it pos- 

 sibl\ can with regard to gambling. Mr. Chapman 

 staled that an hour after the deputation had waited 

 upon him he would issue instructions that all future 

 telephone contracts will be made on the distinct un- 

 derstanding that the Postmaster-General has the 

 right to terminate the contract if in his opinion the 

 telephone is used for gambling, betting or immoral 

 purposes, and he did. That goes farther even than 

 the deputation asked, and in the hands of a man 

 det( rmined to put down the evil, as Mr. Chapman 

 evi<lently is, it will prove a powerful weapon against 

 wrong. The pity is that the House does not seem 

 disposed to make the path of young Australians 

 smoother by giving him legislative assistance to deal 

 with present breakers of moral law. 



Medical 



Inspection of 



Children. 



A verv interesting discussion, which 

 mav result in a verv necessary re 

 form being initiated, was lateK 

 carried on by the Wellington (N.Z.) 

 District Institute of Teachers concerning the medi- 

 cal inspection of school children. Dr. Mason, the 

 chief health officer, has recently been addressing 

 the Otago Institute of Teachers upon the subject. 

 Dr. Mason is a verv strong adxocate of the inspec- 

 tion of school children for constitutional defects. 

 It is verv satisfactory to note that the Institute 

 quite agreed with Dr. Mason's views. Dr. Mason 

 believes that from 15 per cent, to 20 per cent, of 

 children attending schools have something the mat- 

 ter with them, and his suggestion is that, with a 

 little close observation, the teachers could note 

 symptoms of weakness in nearly every case, and 

 that these children could then be medically ex- 

 amined. But what is w'anted is medical inspection 



The Right Rev. T. E Clouston, D D , of Sydney. 

 — Recently elected Modei'ator, Prcsbyleliali Cliurch of Australia. 



of every child in every school, and the Institute 

 seemed to favour this. There are thousands of 

 parents who have not the remotest idea of small de- 

 fects in their children's constitutions, and the 

 health of the w'hole community is affected thereby. 

 A little kindly advice when the child is young may 

 save years of suffering when it grows older, while 

 the benefit to the community of having healthy citi- 

 zens instead of weak and anaemic ones cannot l)e 

 expressed in words. 



National 

 Annuities. 



Sir Joseph Ward is to bi- congratu- 

 lated upon introducing the National 

 Annuity Scheme, which was pro- 

 pounded by the late Mr. Seddon. 

 We ha\e previouslv referred to the (]uestion, and 

 there is no need now to do more than congratulate 

 the Government upon its progressiveiu-ss in bringing 

 it forward. It will without doubt be one of the 

 finest incenti\es to thrift that any people has yet 

 adopted. One \ery attractive feature of the scheme 

 is that the subsidies proposed to be granted by 

 the Government increase as families increase, a 

 \ery tlistinct inducement to heads of families to in- 

 crease the population. The measure will prove to 

 be one of the best old age pension schemes yet de- 

 vised. It is entitled "An Act to Encourage the 

 Making of Provision Tor Old Age," and the exact 

 form it takes is that of subsidies from the consoli- 

 dated fund to supplement the provision made either 

 by individuals for ihr pnrchase of annuities from 



