DOLLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 59, 10 March 1923, Page 17

DOLLS.

THEIR EDUCATIONAL VALUE

AVOID MONSTROSITIES. (By QUACK.) One of the most valuable "discoveries" of the last thirty years is the method of making the education of young children attractive. Play and work have become surprisingly convertible terms, and although all modern educational schemes are overburdened by superfluous ideas originated by faddists and cranks, there is no doubt that "The schoolboy, creeping like snail, unwillingly to school," is now so seldom seen that 1 think he no longer exists. The strongest influence of child life is the quality of imitation. What the child sees and hears forms the basis of its earliest reasoning, and not only so, but directs and controls its actions before reasoning is developed. I am sure that it is the imitation of adults which produces lying and deceit in young children. There is so much pretence—in.tentional deception—in home and nursery life, that a child, naturally trusting, quickly learns that the words and actions of adults do not invariably prove reliable. If the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children (by heredity), the sins of the fathers and mothers during the impressionable period of infancy and childhood are no less responsible tor subsequent evil and misery. A lie told to a trusting child is doubly a lie, and should be underlined in red in the books of the Recording Angel. From earliest years impressions of childhood should be those of truth and beauty. Evil and ugly sounds and sights; the early contact with dirt, dieorder and sin; and "the crackling laughter of fools;*' all contribute to the formation (at least) of a habit of toleration in place of a beneficial and natural fear and disgust. To be familiar with an evil is the firet step to its adoption as a personal possession or practice. England,- as a nation, is always in search of the comely and the practical; France, of the beautiful and efficient; America, of the novel, startling and profitable. It is from France the happiest, most fortunate children get their dolls. To America we owo the atrocities known as "gollywogs" or "golliwogs," and all the other hideous, deformed, and frightful productions put into this country as "toys." To debase tho minds and distort the ideas of keenly sensitive and keenly observant children is eurely a vile means of obtaining money.

A doll, properly understood, is not a toy of mere momentary value. It is an educational agent of enduring influence. It offers an gbject of affection and care to the mind only now awaking to emotions, and not only should it be a thing of beauty, b"ut should be used by parents to train the little girl who will one day (probably) be a mother. The devotion and affection exhibited by little girls towards their dolls is not, and never should have been, a subject of ridicule. The direction of the gentle love and attention, the vivid imagination which endows tho doll with life and' ehafaetci";should be the duty of all those who have any love for children, or any thoughts for the welfare of their descendants.

The most ignorant and careless mothers I have ever known have been those who were not encouraged to play with dolls, and the child' I have 6een acting the thoughtful and industrious mother to a doll, I have lived to see devoted (almost too devoted ih the case I have in mind at this moment) to her children. The girl who is coaxed, perBuaded, or permitted to play with boys, to the exclusion of amusement more particularly suited to her sex, is almost fated to be a failure as a homeniaker. Even a email boy with a weakness for dolls is not necessarily namby-pamby, or a milksop, and I am quite sure that the most charming and attractive children come from the homes where the boys are always Teady to chare their sisters' amusements, than where the girls are doll ; avoiding, boy-chasing, nest-robbing, sexless little females, with a preponderance of male attributes.

A mother who loves her girl-child, and who is sufficiently intelligent to look forward to the day when that girl-child may be he -self a mother, will not only see that tho child possesses an attractive doll of useful size, but will help the owner thereof to "pretend" all the pretty useful and instructive cares the presence of the doll suggests. I have seen many hundreds of sick babies whose sickness was entirely due to the ignorance of the mothers. Ignorance of the small and simple matters and of treatment in slight stomach and chest disorders. Such knowledge as is required in the management of children does not drop upon the young mother out of the air, but .the lasting remembrance of what her mother told her to do when they "played my doll Betsy had bronchitis," when "mother sometimes pretended to be the doctor, and other times the nurse." even if a little vague and misty in after years, will assist a young mother in her tasks, and lessen the feeling of hopeless, helpless ignorance which leads many a woman to the edge of hysteria in times of domestic stress.

The doll's house is a lasting joy. The little housekeeper never tirea of cleaning, dusting, cooking (did you ever know the delights of a "real" stove with a nightlight to boil the kettle, and make the miniature irons hot?) and re-arrang-ing furniture? The cutting out and making of dresses and underclothes; tlie shopping trips (with brothers having "shops" at the other end of the room}; the engaging of servants (who do not refuse to wear caps), and indeed the whole routine of a busy housekeeper's employment, all'train and fit the little woman, if kindly and thoughtfully directed and encouraged, for the place she should be taught to look for.yard to.

Even if the "girl who played with doll.*" becomes a rough, knobby, athletic creature, with a stride like a man, and a kiss like a kick; with a liking, perhaps, for cigarettes and stimulants, and a contempt for perambulator-pushing women, there may come a day when the sight of one of her old dolls, unearthed from the corner of a forgotten trunk, will bring tears into her eyes, softness into her heart, and one of those revulsions of feeling which show tbe hollowness of "pleasure," and the happiness which is to be attained by following humbly and in the hopes, the beaten road of normal womanhood. Banish all inhuman-looking creatures, and all night-mare-provoking animals from the nursery. Save your money for the purchase of the most baby-like doll you can procure, and let no shopman persuade you to defile your home with indecent grotesques, or destroy your daughters liking for the beauty and the delicacy of a v'well-bred daU," "

was the weather that the second-class 4sass.en_e.r_i - had. -to. be battened down, and during the height of it an A.B. named John iteywood, fell overboard, the ship then logging eleven knots, but in spite of the heavy sea that was running, a boat was lowered and in less than an hour the man was safe on board again. On this trip the Piako did not cross the equator until the 40th day i out from port, and the Cape was passed on December 4. Running down her easting the ship got a nice slant ot tavourable weather, logging 310, 304, 301, ana 296 on four days; but after passing Tasmania she ran into a succession of easterly gales and heavy seas, and did not make Port Chalmers until January 14, 1882—101 days out. Very tempestuous weather was experienced by the Piako on her next voyage out, but still shj reached Port Chalmers in 85 days, or 79 days from land to land. In the year 1878 the Piako did the run Home from Port Chalmers in 71 days. In the year 1878 the Piako made a good run from Port Chalmers to London in 71 days. She carried a westerly wind right to the Horn, and covered the distance in the good time of eighteen days, during which not a sail was taken in. SHIP ON FIRE. During the Piako's voyage from Plymouth to Lyttelton in 1878, the shin j narrowly escaped being burned at sea. In addition to a valuable cargo of 1,050 tons she was bringing out 288 immigrants. At 10.45 a.m. on November 11th—exactly a month after leaving port—the ship having made a good run, I and then being in lat. 70 south, long. | 32 west (under 200 mile, from Pernam- i buco) the chief officer, Mr. Holbecke, rushed into the skipper's cabin, where I Captain Boyd was entering up his log . book, and reported that smoke was issuing from the lower fore-hatch. Within six minutes of the alarm flames were seen about 20 feet abaft the foremost tier of cargo, and Mr. Hazelwood. the second mate, quickly had a hose playing on i the spot. Within two minutes, however, the dense smoke drove the men on deck, I and the captain immediately had the hatches clapped on, and wet blankets were spread over everything. Captain Boyd and a party of volunteers trien ; tried to get below by way of the married people's quarters, but they were driven back almost stifled by the acrid j fumes. i Seeing the peril of the ship, Captain Bovd headed for Pernambuco. and or- , dered all the boats out. Some stores j were put in. but I he men were soon driven from the after storeroom, so! rapidly had the fire spread, and in a very short, while the coamings of the hatches were so hot that (hey could not : |\>c touched.

ANOTHER FIRE EXPERTENGB. f, The ship waa again on fix* during the] passage from I/>ndon to Lyße-ton,' 1879-80. On this occasion the Plak# left London on October 23, 1879. Sheencountered a cyclone In the Bay ol Biscay, but no eerioue damage resulted, and all went well nntil October 25th, I when fire hroke out and passengers and crew had a trying experience. Tha "Lyttelton Times," reporting the arrival of the ship, says:—"An event that caused consternation amongst tha paa* sengera and crew occurred at 7.50 a.nu on Christmas morning, when a case ot rockets in the storeroom aft, in the 'tween decks, exploded, and a largo quantity of smoke issued from the after •hatch. The fire hoses were at once got down the tween decks and the fire eventually subdued without any eerioua damage. As may be imagined the occurrence created considerable alarm until it was discovered all was safe," Mr. H. Freeman, residing in Moun* tain' Rood, Auckland, was a passenger by the Piako on this occasion, and referring to the fire writes:—"When the alarm was given most of the passengers were still in their bunks. We were then about 1200 miles from the nearest land, St. Paul's Island, in the Indian Ocean. The fire occurred after a rough. ; night, during which the ship had been rolling heavily. About 7.45 on Christmas morning there was an explosion below and we thought that somo of the ship's • rockets had been loosened and ignited by knocking against one another, j I remember well the boatswain calling I out, 'All hands on deck, ship on lire.' i The pumps .were quickly manned, and tha I fire which was discovered amongst th 3 i stores was soon subdued, but v,-e passed a very anxious time until all was reported safe." CAPTATN BOYD'S CAREER. The Captain Boyd mentioned abo-.-s must not be confused with another CapI tain Boyd who, in the early 'sixties, traded from Liverpool to Port Chalmers ' and later ran the coastal steamer City jot Dltnedin up the coast. This vessel was loet on a 'passage from Dunedin to .Lyttelton. Captain '\V. B. Boyd, of tha Piako, came to Auckland as chief offi- ; cer of The Loch Awe when she made j the iv.ord passage of 7G days. He commanded tiie Rangitikei on one voyaga I and had the Hurunui and other ships. I Later he was appointed agent in Dune.iin for the Xew Zealand Shipping Com- , pany and after many years' service left i tor England and died there on April 9th, 1899. j THE PIANO'S NEW ZEALAND RUNS. ; The record of the passages made to I New Zealand ports by the Piako is a 3 I follows: —

Sailed. Arrived. Captain. Port to Port. Day*. Left. London i August 53 July 06 July 2 .May 6 May 17 April 2' December 14, 1883 November ?, isss October C, 1887 Augu.-t 0, 1888 August 20, 1839 July l~, 1S91 Flndlay Sutherland Sutherland Sutherland Sutherland Sutherland 113 89 95 94 101 96 TO LYTTELTON. London j tPlymouth j Plymouth February 5 October 11, tSTS October 23, liT9 May \Z, 1S77 March 5, 1879 January 16, 1830 Fox 89 Boyd _ 145 Boyd "*" * 8S (Land to Land 73; + Fix weeks at Pernarnbuco repairing damage hy Sire. TO PORT CHALMERS. Plymouth London i No.vember 20, 1878 I September 25, 1S81 AUgUSt 17 | -May is | FfiDruary 5, 1879 January i, 1882 November il, 1882 August 30, 1890 Boyd 76(Land to Land ~, Boyd 101 Boyd s<= (Land i" l..i:vi ; Suni'Tiand 103 (To be Continued Next Saturday.)