To hear that sweet “mummy and daddy,” inevitably the first words framed by these adorable lispers, is to listen to the most melodious music. But when we think of the many darlings--not the happy ones of our beautiful Australia, but the unhappy little beings of the densely populated cities of the older world--beaten, starved, neglected, born of women to whom the real meaning of the sacred name of mother is unknown, it provides us with food for reflection. When Australia attains a population of many more millions it will--unless, with advancing science, conditions of poverty are ameliorated--be the same thing here. “The poor will be with us always,” but we hope not the unkindness of ignorance. Think of it! These children teeming with potentialities for good or evil and it behoves us to think of it, though it pain us. We, in Australia (with the exception of those who have travelled in Europe), know nothing of the grinding poverty of parts of this planet designed by the Creator to furnish us with abundance of all that is necessary for our subsistence. But I am digressing. There is no doubt that formerly children were brought up too strictly. But nowadays it is the reverse. The children of to-day are frequently asked what they would like; not told what they may have. A child should be treated very gently, yet firmly. And above all things never promise a child a certain thing and then break that promise. If we could only realise the after-effects of a broken promise! Children lose their beautiful faith for ever. They have marvellous memories, and often they become our inquisitors. These little entities have their rights, and we should endeavour to answer, and not evade their questions. We must never crush the sap of knowledge in their little minds. Then, how often has the troubled look on a child’s face stopped a hasty word--and the child proved the unconscious peacemaker? Have any of you ever gazed with tear-dimmed eyes upon a little waxen figure, robed in its last fairy whiteness, noted its angelic expression, its beautiful immobility, and not felt the sublime majesty of death! How near the infinite it has brought us! How kind we would be if we could feel that pulse beating with life once again! If Australia is to grow into a great nation we must advance with the times, and train those tenderest of plants, “the souls of little children,” and inculcate in them the heroic spirit of that older Greece in this reincarnated new Greece of southern seas. First, must we teach the marching army of intelligent women how to love so that--“a little child shall lead them.” MUSIC. ITS MAGNETIC CHARM. AUSTRALIA A MUSICAL COUNTRY.