FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 83, 4 October 1930, Page 17

FIFTY YEARS AGO

THE NORMAL SCHOOL

"Of all tho many outrageous pieces of extravagance perpetuated in this colony in ihe name of education, perhaps the most utcrly indefensible and preposterous is the Normal School recently erected and opened in this city," remarks an editorial in "Tho Post" on Ist October, 1880. "There was not the slightest necessity for going to this enormous expense. A Normal School ■was not really wanted by anybody. The institutions already existing in New Zealand for' the special training of teachers ■ are fully equal to the requirements of the colony for many years to come, if not far beyond them. It is monstrous to suppose that every ' city and town in this colony is to have [ a special, lo'eal institution of this kind maintained at the public expense. Indeed, one central training school would be ample for the whole colony, and thoro are already several of admitted efficiency which could do all the training needed for the next ten years,' or more. Yet now we have one built in Wellington at a cost of several thousand'pounds," with a master at £450 per annum, a mistress at £225, and all the other usual expenses attending the working of such an establishment. How thoroughly useless and unnecessary -a piece of profligate wastefulness this ' Normal School really is may be gathered from the result of the first examination as officially reported to the Education Board at its last meeting by the Normal master. He stated that no 'one'-of the candidates for admission really came up to fair passing standard throughout. That is to say, these candidates who offered themselves to be trained for teaching others proved sadly to need teaching themselves, efen in almost the rudiments.of education. According to strict rules, they ought to have been rejected at once and sent back to tho common schools to'be decently instructed before offering themselves to be trained for teaching, and to be actually paid for being so trained ■ —this last being one of tho palpable absurdities of our present system." RIMUTAKA BREAK-WINDS. , <<The 'Lyttelton Times' is deeply scandalised at the decision to erect breakwinds along the exposed portions of the Kimutaka Incline, and thinks it a piece of wicked and unjustifiable extravagance. "What are these Wellington people, it contemptuously wonders, that they should want to travel by railway regardless of weather? If one day is windy, why' can't they wait for another that isn't? Our Christchurch contemporary with amusing innocence asserts , dogmatically that it cannot possibly blow harder on the Rimutaka Incline than on the Canterbury Plains, and , ;fchinks that if Wellington is pampered jand indulged with these break-winds, similar structures ought to be erected along; the line- through the Canterbury Plains, a distance of some 150. miles or so. What a pity it is that wo in .Wellington cannot bring ourselves ,to See the force of this adinirablo reasoning, but obstinately persist in preferring to have our ono littlo railway made so safe that we can travel over it whenever business demands or inclination suggests!" THE NEW STATION. "Tho . extension of the railway* v lo 'Hhe new city station will have the effect of adding 3d to the first-class fares and 2d to second-class to nearly all the stations along the line. The reason is that fractions of a mile (over onesixteenth) arc reckoned' as a full' mile .' in charging fares and freights. The distance from the old station at Pipitea Point to the new station in Featherstbn street is'about half a mile. The mile posts along the line have already " been moved, so as to show the new mileage from the terminus. The effect of the extension on the various stations is as follows:—The distance of Kaiwarra is extended from 1$ to .1} miles, so that it • still remains officially as 2 miles;. Ngahauranga is increased from 2J to 3}, therefore is reckoned as 4 miles, instead of 3; Petone similarly becomes 7 instead of 6; and Lows er' Hutt (actual distance 8 $ miles instead of 7s) becomes 9 instead of 8, and other stations being treated in 4hc same way." HARD ON" THE LADIES. "The Post" prints tho following ifrom a correspondent, with the remark ithat ; it • seems -rather> severe on the Wellington ladies. "If women bind themselves together all the world over, with the end in view of ennobling themselves and those around them, how far preferable it would be to. the present fashion they have of visiting and back-biting: their neighbours. ,1 remember, in Wellington, when I lived there, I never saw gossip and slander carried on wholesale by any othor^women in any part of tho world where! have been as it is there by the female population, who would even take: the trouble to pay a visit to people they did not know, with tho sole purpose of telling some unpleasant story about an unfortunate creature, who was prettier and more noticed than themselves." MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. "During the third term of the Wellington College there were 103 pupils < —87 boys and 16 girls." "In referring to a list;; of nncollected fees for the Wellington College, -Mr. Powles to-day said that it was almost impossible to get any money in just now. He pointed out that two of the governors were in arrears two terms, and complained that while the others governors urged him to dun others, some of them would not . pay •up themselves." "The following is an abstract of the classification of the New Zealand exhibits at the Melbourne Exhibition: Art, 74; education, apparatus, processes,' and the liberal arts, 03; furni- • ture, 62; textiles, 32; raw manufactures, 77; machinery processes, mechanical, 44; industries, 63; alimentary, 134j horticulture, 31; mining, 21." "There was great demand for the •Evening Post' of Saturday, with which was presented a special supplement, containing a portrait of His Excellency Sir Arthur Gordon. Six thousand copies were : printed, and the supply was speedily exhausted." "His Excellency the Administrator of the Govornment has proclaimed it lawful to kill the imported birds known as sparrows and linnets throughout ths 'colony. It may be mentioned that the people of Canterbury have not waited for the proclamation, for they have been poisoning sparrows and linnets by thousands for many months past in. the most open manner. Sparrow poisoning clubs were even formed in many of the country districts, while boys were rewarded with 3d for every hundred eggs procured for destruction. At. tho Agricultural Show at Rangiora a short timo ago, a basket containing 15,000 sparrows' eggs comprised one of the most interesting-of the' exhibits." "The ladies of Wellington are specially invited to inspect the handsome and varied stock,'' runs an advertiwh inont. "This will be on view this evening and on Saturday evening, after which their husbands will, without a murmur, consent to furnish the draw-ing-room in a proper manner." Modern scales which, when one ■ article is weighed, will tell the weight of :|ay given nnmber of .tho same article tote fa vse in Sheffield.- • *■