RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 95, 25 April 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

RANDOM SHOTS

,25 * «a

Soma write, a neighbour-s name to lash, Some write—vain thought! for needful cash. Some write to please the country clash, And raise a div. Forme, an aim I never fash— I write for fun.

The discussion of our education system «b the meeting of the Board on Friday week last was an interesting one. Most o* the members have a fair practical acquaintance with the working of the system and with its results. Yet their opinions wer° very divergent. Messrs Luke, Lennox and Moab are very old members of the Board, and have had a long connection with school committoes. They defended the Bystom as it stands from the aspersions cas fc on it, while admitting that somo changes mighb bo made for its improvement. Mr Cooper, who has also had a pretty long connection with tho Board, had nothing but evil to say of the system, tho teachers, and tho children. Mr Udy had little to say in condemnation or praise, bub would like tho child roil and teachers to have less to do. Mr Muir, a now member of tho Board, thought there should be somo change in the 'syllabus, but was nob very clear what it should be. Mr Grant, an old teacher, had little blame for the system, and Mr Motion didn't say anything, but voted for some change in the syllabus. Now, the only opinion common to all these gentlemen is that some changes might be made with bonoflb to the system. What the exact changes are to be, nobody knows. Once before, when the Board was Reked for ssme practical suggestions as to changes that might be made in the syllabus, nob a member had a suggostion to make.

The truth is that the members of the Board are not in the position of exports capable of judging exactly what subjects and how much of each shall be taught to children. Experts themselves differ widely in their opinions. Ono will say that history should not be taught to children under tha Sixth Standard. Another will tell you that history lessons are the most valuable in the school course as a means of convoying moral lessons. One condemns geography, another praises it. Grammar has its opponents and its d.efeuders. In fact, opinions differ very much as to whether enough or too little is taught. Ask parents, and some will grumble that their children have not enough work to do in the evenings, while some cry out that tho lives of tho children are being worried out of them by lessons. Then wo hear an annual outcry about holidays being too numerous. Yet with all the outcry about holidays and an over-crowded syllabus year by year wo find eteady success id the standard examinations. And not alone in the standrad examinations, for the general reports of the inspectors speak favourably of the work done. I know a perfectly disinterested educational oxpert, himself belonging to another colony, who states that the system here is much better than in any othsr colony. Then it Is sufficient answer to the charge that the system causes overwork of the children affecting their health, to ask anyone to enter a school and look at tho generally healthy happy look of the children. Individual cases of overwork do occur, but individual excoptions only prove the general rule.

That there might bo improvement will foe admitted by all. No system ia perfect. Bub unbil there is some concensus of opinion as to what form tho improvement) shall take, it is the heighb of folly for men to start tampering with it. The system in its maia features must nover bo dostroyed. It musb remain free to all, it must be compulsory, and ib musb be secular. The syllabus might be altered, bub, aa I have said before, alterations must be made with caution, and slowly. They musb nob be made on the hasty motion of a Board of Education. The members of the Board are no doubb excellent members, buc they are not experts in education. Thoy are well suited to administer the Act, to distribute the money voted under it, to kesp the staff o£ beachers up to bhe mark—not to map oub a course of instruction. Ib is very doubtful if bwo members from the Auckland Board could go into a school and give an accurate estimate of the teaching capacity of any teacher in the school.

it is very ea3y to make objections to th c system. It is not easy to point out th e remedy. It is easy too to make objection 8 that are worthless, and here ib ie ea3y to reply to tho objections. I shall take Mr Cooper's speech at the meeting of tho Board, and ask my readers to look at a few of the statements in ib. Mr Cooper could see absolutely nothing good in the system. Surely on consideration he will withdraw that statement. I shall nob pin him to it, and even ab the expense of consistency he should retract it. Nobody will like to believe that ib is bis deliberate opinion. He thinks the children are not well grounded in some subjects ; and as reason for hia opinion he quotes a lob of amusingly foolish answers to questions. Such answers can be gob in any school, under any system. But Mr Cooper has logic enough to know that a few silly answers picked at random by somebody wanting to be funny should never form the basis of a conclusion on the general question. I have known children of twelve years of age, ay, older, who would nob be able bo tell, if asked bluntly, what) two and two make. Bub I do not therefore conclude that the pupils in our schools are not well groundod in arithmebic. Nor, if I found a dozen teachers incapable of teaching aribhmebic, would I say that aribhmetic was nob well taught and should not be taught ab all.

Mr Cooper said that the children had no Intelligent knowledge after leaving school of the subjects in learning which they had spent moat of their time. The children in our schools spend moat of their time in learning reading, writing and arithmetic ; and I defy anyone to say that most of the boys who hare passed through our Sixth Standard are not posses-ied of the ability to read as well as Mr Cooper, bo write better than the Secretary of the Board of Education' (who will doubtless pardon the allusion), and to engage intelligently in any ordinary arithmetical calculation. Mr Cooper says he thinks the children are being taught those subjects which are of no use to them. Are reading, writing, and arithmetic of no use? Are composition, science, and drawinp of no use? Even history and geography and singing, and exercises in drill have great value. The absurdity of Mr Cooper's statement does not need me to call attention to it. There is no necessity to take every other objection of Mr Cooper s and expose its fallacy.

Bub one statement made by Mr Cooper cannot be allowed to paes without comment I fc deserves the most severe con-

demnation, because its ie an unfounded charge against the children of the colony. Mr Cooper charges the boys wibh leaving school with the instincts of larrikins ; they have not gentlemanly instincts. And again, there is a lamentable increase in juvenile crime. Ifc should be quite unnecessary to remind Mr Cooper, a lawyer, that every year the proportion of colonial ■ born criminals ie decreasing, while every year the proportion _of colonial - born citizens is increasing. That statemenb should be sufficient answer. "During Inst Christines holidays :i number of boys may have been caught stealing, bub thab is no ground for condemning tho education system. Those boys may nob have been trained in our schools at all. They may have belonged to the class of unfortunate children that never go to school. Or they may have had careless and criminal parents. Ib is far more likely thab the parents, and not the teachers, were to blame. Consider for a moment thab the teacher has tho child twenty-five hours a week, while outsiders have him the other hundred and forty odd. What) can a teacher do, if all outside influences are against him ? Can boys be turned out of Bchool ab thirteen years of age ready - made genblemen, when their parenbs don't know and don't want to know bhab thoy shouldn't cab peas wibh a knife ? Your Eton boy or your Oxford University man may know all the requirements of fashion, and may bo very spick and span, bub tho son of John Jigga, labourer, may never know how to behave with "real" ladies and gentlemen. And John Jigga's son need nob be looked on with contempt because hej pours his tea into a saucer. He is probably as honest and manly a young follow as Master Adolphus Sangazure, of Eton. No one with tho instincts of a gentleman will look down on him for being a bit rough or horny in the hand.

A cruel joke was perpetrated recently on a Justice of tho Peace. He is rather goodnatured, and hearing that a widow had a massive piece of jewellery belonging to her late husband which she wished to soil, and could not, he wont to see it. Finding that the article in question was too expensive to bo disposed of readily without considerable loss, he decided to raffle it, and was successful. A fow days afterwards tho justice was horrified upon receving a summons for having committed a breach of tho Gaming and Lottorios Act. Ho ehowod it to his many friends, and frequently roiterated that it was rather rough on him, seeing that he was a Justice of the Peace. He had, apparently, not deemed it necessary to get a permit for an art union for such a small affair, and could nob understand how it was that the law had been put in motion. His friends, while expressing sympathy, like genuine Job's comforters, did not neglect to point oub the possibility of the heaviest penalty being inflicted, considering tho position ho held. It was not until the joke had lasted a fow days that the Justice's anxiety was relieved by his being informed thab the whole affair wae a joke.

The unpretentious manner with which Hip Excellency the Governor clothes himeelf when ho has l>l3 holiday toga on frequently leads to awkward situations, which he does not appear to mind in the least, but "• tho other fellow" ucually feels less comfortable when light breaks in upon his ignorance. I am told by a friend, who describes himself aa an eyo-wifcneas, that a singularly amusing epißode happened at a recent sporting assembly under the patronage of Lord Onalow. Two old men who had come in trom the country were complaining - that they wero unable to see tho events owing to the crowd, when one of the stewards took thorn in hand, and guiding them through the enclosure, set) thorn down in tho best situation on the ground. Soon these two spectators, becoming excited in the sport, found themselves one on either sido of a third spectator, and as luncheon time came round they were inexpressibly grieved that the stranger had not provided himself with the wherewithal to till in tho interval. Thereupon one of tho countrymen hauled oub of his pocket .1 bag of apples, and, addressing the stranger, said, " Here, old man, have an apple?" The stranger accepted tha proffered apple smilingly, expressed his thanks, peeled and ate it, whereupon the second countryman, not to be outdone in generosity, offered to share a large pork pie with the stranger. The stranger on this occasion politely replied that he had had his luncheon before he came on the ground. Just tfaen up came an official, and addrepsod the unknown as " Your Excellency," and the countrymen realising the greatness that had been fchruat upon them, were ready to take a very back seat for the rest of the show, but they still live to relate the story of "how they lunched with the Governor."

At the meeting of a prominenb local body some days ago a petition was presented by one gentleman. A brothermember thought the petition ought nob to have been presented ; and accused Q. of having introduced ib "by a side wind." Q. was very angry ab the insinuation ; and not up to indignantly repel his accuser's charge of " having introduced the petition sideways: He had come in quite straight. Q. is a ratiier stoub gentleman, and hia explanation was received with cheers.

Pastor Birch is going to Woolloomoolloo, and I wieh him good luck and a peaceable congregabion. Baptists—our Baptists at any rate —seem to be terrrible people for getting into hot water as well as cold, but it is to be hoped that with their new expounder of the law and the prophets they will settle down, and once more become a quiet non - belligerent flock, and do as they are bold, like good children. Mr Birch commands my sincere respect as a devout and brue man, although perhaps he was rather too autocratic and inclined to "rule the roast" rather more than his elders liked. But now that he is farewelling his friends here, tho Tabs, should bury the hatcheb and resume their old state of comfort and peace with all men.

That inquest into the circumstances attending the fire on the now noted ship Leading Wind was about as farcical a proceeding ac any I have yet heard of. To hold a grave and formal inquiry into such a serious occurrence long months after the occurrence, and when the event had been almost forgotten, was a piece of neglect and stupidity for which some one is to blame. Of course some of the most important witnesses, being seafaring men, had disappeared, and those that did appear to give evidence were examined in a most superficial and cursory manner. Several of the intelligent witnesses evidently eased their by no means active consciences by declaring the fire intheflax to be a caseof spontaneous combustion, while-others again emphatically denied bhatflax would ever "spontaneous combust" as far as they knew. For my part, though I am neither a flaxmiller nor a fire insurance company, and therefore don't know much about the thing, I don't think the flax " combusted " of itself, and I believe careless smoking to be a much more likely cause. By the way, a little slip of the tongue which the coroner, Dr. Philson, made at the Leading Wind inquiry on Monday, caused come fun. After the inquiry had commenced, and theauthority for the inquest had been received, the worthy medico convulsed the Court by solemnly eaying to the jury, "Now we will go and view the body !" Pure force of habit no doubt, doctor.

Not long ago two drapers lived in a certain town, and loved each other as rival drapers are wont to do. Each strove to outdo the other in the way of drawing the public. At last one introduced that old successful dodge of putting a quantity of peas in a jar "and offering a prize to tho person who should guess moab nearly the number of peas in tho jar. The bait took splendidly, and as one of the conditions for competitors was that they should buy a certain quantity of goods to entitle them to a guess, the draper did a very goad trade. Hie rival was very angry, and at length came to tho conclusion bhab this means of attracting custom was immoral in its encouragement of gambling. Ho went to tho clergyman of his denomination, and so worked on tho clerical feelings that a sermon was preached nexb Sunday in winch the immoral tradesman waa severely donounced —not by name at all, but ib was as plain aa a pikestaff who waa meant. Now, mark tho result, and watch how virtue herself was undone. Many of the good people who heard that sermon had nob visited the scene of tho immoral bait. Bub now their curiosity was so aroused by the sermon that nexb week there was a largo increase in the number of applicants for a guess. And this increase was almost; wholly due to oiJ'orbsin tho cause of morality put forth by the rival. Now ho ie angrier than ever. * * * *** * * * The quality of beer has baken an amount of deciding at tho R.M. Court this week. Day after day exports have attended to give evidence on the matter, and ib waa strangely contradictory. One witness would declare that the liquor was little less than the wine of tho gods, and perhaps the next) would say that one glass mado him sick. In fact, one witness got so energetic that ho leaned over tho box and went through the pantomime of vomiting, in order to impress the Court ■wifcfa -fclie nauseatinff character of fclie beer. Thus tho thing went on, and yeb neither party struck the idea of supplying free drinks to the bench, bar, and pross. Surely amongst those three professions a reliable connoisseur might) be found, and, if nofc, perhaps the Clerk of the Court might settle tho point.

It is amusing to licton to the affirmations of witnessos when giving ovidercco. One case during tho present week was peculiarly prolific of affirmation. When tho plaintiff was in the box ho said, " If I was to drop this minuto," in ordor to increase tho solemnity of tho oath. This was repeated goveral times during the course of hie examination. Then the defendant—who wasuwoman —stopped into the wit,ncß«-box. She was not going to bo outdone by the plaintiff, so she used tho expression " If I was on my dying bod," co frequently that at last the K.M. intimated that it need not bo repeated, as it was not calculated to mnke him believe her any the more.

' Not unfroquently, when a witness goos in to prove an alibi, the strength of the swearing may be calculated by tho resounding kiss that is given to tho Bible. Somotimoa tho smack is vigorous enough to make the auditors burst into laughtor, whicli in of course promptly quelled by astern glance from the eagle eye of tho orderly. Then occasionally the Scriptures receive tho puro kiss of childhood, and a pair of truthful eyes aro turned to the Bench in a manner that musb carry conviction. Ono peculiarity about the oath as administered in the Auckland courts in, that the proceedings are stayed until female witnesses have ro moved their gloves. " Zamiol " has often wondered whether that ia necessary, or if it is simply a species of rod tape—the outcome of ollicialieHi.