NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 297, 15 December 1936, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Basic Wage. The operation of llie lia.sk: wage was applied to tlie caretaker of the Xorthcote District High School at the meeting of the committee last night. In response to his application for increased remuneration, the weeklj payment for his services in future is to b< £3 1(5/ instead of .C 2 15/, an increase of one guinea. Running Water. "It is all yj'.T running water which surprises us Australians," said Mr. C. Hitngerford a Sydney accountant, who is a passenger oi the Maunganui on her first tourist cruist direct from Australia to the South Island. li was the mountain streams, waterfalls anc rivers of the Sounds country and Otago whiel impressed him most. "We see so little of il in Australia," lie said, adding with a smile "it makes our mouths water." Commercialising the Maori. That lie hated the way in which tourists commercialised the Maoris was the frank declaration made at Tuahiwi by Mr. Pitama, in his welcome to tourists from the Maunganui, who visited the pa. As a race, said Mr Pitama, the Maoris were poorer for this commercialisation. Their chiefs had honoured a! visitors to these shores by giving tliem mats and greenstone, until now there was nothing left. Tuahiwi Maoris, it was well known, had always been keen to give their services tc raise relief money, yet they had received nothing. On the other hand, thousands oi pounds' worth of mats and greenstone had been given away. <, Useful in Their Old Age. In an experiment to check erosion by the sea of clill" faces near the railway line in the vicinity of Woolcombe Terrace at New Plymouth, the liailway Department is completing arrangements to dump an old 40-ton locomotive on the beach beneath the bluff. The locomotive will be dumped before the Christmas holiday period, and several old boilers will be added later to aid the Department's measures, The sea has encroached so much on the cliff face that little more than a chain separates the face from the railway line, and the Department's action is the first substantial recognition of the seriousness of the position. A dismantled W class tank engine reached New Plymouth from Wellington recently, and is now waiting in the railway yards to the west of the town for its final disposal. Place of Politics. "The destiny of this country is in the keeping of the people, and one would not be true to it if one let political differences cause stagnation," said the Hon. K. Scniple, Minister of Public Works, at the turning of the first sod on the Hume- (Cobb River) Electric Power Company's hydro-electric scheme at Stoke. "In Parliament," he said, "no one is spared. I spare no one wlien I have the gloves on; I have a fair dirikum ding-dong go, but out of Parliament all are good friends. There is no man living or dead who has written the last word on political economy, and if there is one who thinks he has, the sooner he is dead the better. The world is a changing institution, with nothing constant; we evolve, and it is that evolving that has made civilisation possible. Tt is the man who is sneered at one day mid possibly hooted who has been appreciated the next day." Milk Council Election. Preparations arc already being made for the election of sectional representatives to the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council. Three representatives are elected by the Auckland City Council, but the other interests elect theirs by postal ballot. The eleven local authorities in the district are entitled to two delegates, each being allowed one vote for cacli thousand of population. Producers and vendors each have two representatives. Milk vendors and dairymen producing for sale in the district between 10 gallons and 50 gallons have one vote, and. in addition one extra vote for each 50 gallons over that quantity, with a maximum of five. A dairyman who is also a vendor is entitled to be included in one roll only. Claimants for enrolment must forward their applications to the secretary of the council not later than Friday next, and the election will be held in February. Social Education. The importance of social training in education was stressed by Miss K. R. Kdwards, headmistress of the Diocesan High School, ill her annual report. Progress did not mean merely intellectual or physical improvement, stated Miss Edwards, but the use the pupil made of these, as shown by her power of adapting herself to circumstances and her relations with her fellows. "Tiny children are subject to little attacks of hating and loving, :ilid it would be folly to take these attacks seriously," said Miss Edwards. "Older girls ought to be developing wisdom. They have to realise that their not liking another girl or their not liking a mistress is a trivial matter; what is important is that they should learn to appreciate, to understand and to work with a wide variety of types of persons. Their likes and dislikes are of very little importance except in so far as their indulgence is bad for their own personalities. When big jirl-s cannot be happy with others, or have not learned to take reproof or criticism without resentment, they are socially backward. Whatever may be wrontr with curriculum or methods, in whatever physical or mental ways x school may fail to educate a airl, rubbing jlioulders with the other children, learning to adapt herself to differing personalities and earning to discriminate between people is of ;he utmost value."

Value of Exams. While she expressed approval of tli< abolition of the proficiency examination, Miss E. R. Edwards, headmistress of the Diocesan High School, declared, in the annual repoH which she delivered at the school to-day, that in her opinion an examination near the end of the secondary school career had a value thai outweighed its disadvantages, and she would be sorry to see the university entrance examination interfered with. It" gave a valuable stimulus, she considered, to those girls whr lacked driving power themselves, and foi whom necessity did not provide a spur. Cricket in Strange Light. Under the strange light of the eclipse cricket was started on the Domain yesterday. As the phenomenon reached totality," the light appeared a dull bluish in colour, as thouglj under the influence of a huge lantern slide The effect lasted about 30 minutes, after which the normal light of the sun appeared to strike ! down stronger than ever. It was probably the first time any of the players had performed 1 under eclipse conditions, and for spectators and the teams engaged the unique experience will servo as a reminder of the first birthday holiday of King George VI. Unusual Fire Gall-. The second of two unusual calls for fire brigade assistance in Wellington last week was received shortly after 7 p.m. oil Saturelay, when two engines went at top speed to premises in Pirie Street, where a copper ol boiling fat had caught alight. The only damage that was done was to the lid of the copper, which was thrown outside and extinguished with a bucket of water. The other call, received earlier in the week in a different part of the city, concerned a roast of beef left overlong in an oven. On tluit occasion the only damage was to the roast, which was a total loss, and, being uninsured, could not even be left to the underwriters. Spirit of the Season. For the past few months the meetings of the Papakura Town Board have been noted for rather heated discussions, but last evening the Christmas spirit prevailed, and, with the exception of a minor brush, the meeting ran very smoothly to the end. Mr. 11. E. McEntee then wished the members of the council staff good wishes of the season, and lug. felicitations were reciprocated. Mr. McEntee said that while they had not agreed on many things during the year, it was now Christmas time and the commencement of a new reign, and, in that spirit, he wished them all a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year. Physical Education. Important changes in the methods adopted for the physical education of girls, knowledge of which was only slowly filtering through to Xew Zealand, were outlined by the headmistress of the Diocesan High School in her annual report, delivered to-day. It was found that an exaggerated tension of the whole muscular system was resulting in clumsy lingular movements, allowing no freedom for natural breathing, Miss Edwards stated. There was unnecessary expenditure of muscular and nervous energy, and this was bad for the body, making it harder to get perfect execution of movement. To counteract this, free gymnastic work involving more isolated movements had been introduced. Where movements of a class had all to be exactly simultaneous, as in the old method, movements for each child were not always perfectly executed. The aim was for life, vigour ind beauty of movement in each individual, not for a spectacular effect in a big group. To help muscle isolation, control movements ind rhythm had been introduced. Rhythm lad to be used with care, as every movement iiad its own rhythm, and this should not be spoiled to fit in with music written for some ither purpose. Whatever was used, whether the voice, tapping, clappings or music, the •hythm must fit the movement—not the novement the rhythm.

Another Chinese Puzzle. When the head of the house drew a hearty sigh of relief as lie or she completed the filling in of the last census it was with the fervent wish that it would lie another ten years before any such instrument of torture was again thrust upon the long-sufferin:* public. Such a thought was under-rating the powers of ingenuity possessed by officialdom, for the return that will shortly i>e required under the housing survey regulations will cause any census paper ever printed to hide its head in shame on the score of simplicity. According to a communication received by' the Otahuhu Borough Council and discussed at its meeting last night, there will be many a brainstorm before the returns are collected by that most appropriate day, the first of April. Householders will be required to .furnish not only the number of occupants in each house, lint also much other information, such as the size of every room, the degree of ventilation of every rooiy, material constructed of, size of back yard, front yard, garden, etc.. and many other things too numerous to mention. Realising the difficulty that many people will have in filling in this form, the person responsible has endeavoured to make the task easier by using easily understood terms, so we find our back' yard designated by the title of "area in goal." Of course, the idea may be to turn our thoughts to the happier times ahead of April 1, when a more momentous question than that of housing reform will l«c decided, that of our superiority over the Springboks. ■Realising the work that tlm del'vcv and collection of these returns will entail, on" Otahuhu civic father inquired what would b" the result if any local body failed to make a return. His enthusiasm for staging a rebellion received a severe setback on learning that til'? nenaltv for failure to make a return w-as .£IOO, while the householder is also liable to a penalty for failing to do his part. -