It not infrequently happens that the individuals who do the biggest or best things are the most modest, spending their lives unknown to the world at large and often dying in obscurity, their achievements not being advertised until worked up by investigators. in later generations. Similarly with some societies. How many ' centenaries" of anything at all are allowed to go by without great celebrations? Yet who has heard of any great doings to mark the fact that, 100 years ago, Parliament, on the initiative of Mr. Richard Martin, mp. for Galway. passed an Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals within the British Realm?' Through all these years, in their quie® way, the inspectors of the Royal Society for the Prevention ut (Craelty to Animals have been helping the servants of -man who cannot speak for themselves, securing punishment for drunken brutes who ill use broken down horses, admonition for small boys who stone ducks in the park, and advising in a way. that must be obeyed those who, through ignorance, perpetrate cruelties they have not intended. An offshoot of the society works as modestly in Shanghai anid as effectively as the difficult conditions here permit. It mpy be well to impress the fact! that our local society really does achieve a lot and could and would: do more if the general public gave} more help—not necessarily in money, but in information. For instance, two boys were accustomed} to urging their ponies with unnecessary violence: a gentleman who often saw them, but could not trace} their parents, informed the society. Two days later the boys got from! their fathers what the ponies hadj been getting from them and the practice thereafter ceased. The work of our society is necessarily somewhat confined, as paid whole time inspectors cannot be maintained, but there are ways of attending to all complaints received and nothing is left uninvestigated, which can be wel understood of a committee of ten' which includes five Stewards of the Race Club and a veterinary surgeon, without saying anything for the others.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.