TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9603, 18 December 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

It appears that up to a Civil Service short time ago admission Handwriting, to the New South Walo3 Civil Service was obtained by means of political patronage. With the passing, however, of the Public Service Act this system was abolished, and candidates for vacancies in Government departments will in future have to undergo a competitive examination. The lirst of these examinations takes place next month, and it is announced that great importance will be attached to really good handwriting. In a recent report to Parliament the Public Service Board stated that they would have to insist upon an improved style of handwriting iv the service, and they will make it compulsory for each candidate to secure at least 60 per cent, of the full number of marks for this subject. They declare their willingness to accept any of four styles of writing—Chambers's government hand, Castle's rapid hand, Vere Foster's bold writing, and Nelson's royal hand. Ability to write a clear, legible hand will not, of course, pass a candidate who fails in English,'composition, or arithmetic, but it will fairly ensure a man's success, other things being equal, over competitors whose handwriting fails to come up to the examiners' requirements. The need of some such step being taken is pretty manifest from the result of a late examination for temporary clerks, when only a small number of the candidates passed, the principal cause of failure being bad writing. A Sydney contemporary, referring to this subject, points out that the caligraphy of most high, officials and great personages is generally not such as to encourage imitative legibility by the strong force of example. There is, of course, no reason why this should be so. It is a fault which is mainly due to laziness, for any man of ordinary education, if he likes to take sufficient pains, can at least write legibly. The seeming • pride with which some people admit the fact that they writo atrociously is a peculiarly shameless form of self-conceit, but they apparently shelter themselves behind the many great people who have the same characteristic, as if by doing so some of the reflected lustre from these notabilities fell upon them. The famous Horace Greeley's writing was so shockingly bad that he is made to father a good many stones that probably belong to other people. "It is on record, however, that a warning against trespassing which he sent to a certain person was successfully used by that individual as a free pass on a railway of which Greeley was a Director. And it is reported "of a certain colonial editor that having-.' had occasion to write on some office business to one of hie staff, the latter was subsequently found pondering over the note, and on being asked what h? was doing he replied that he was trying",to make out whether "it meant the saok\ or a rise in screw." There was also an eminent colonial statesman whose .writing was of such a nature that the compositors were paid 50 per cent, extra for the labour involved in deciphering it. These were heroically bad writers, and fortunately there are not .many of them, but a good many people would confer a lasting favour upon their correspondents if they would revert to the comparative legibility of their copy-book days. A matter of considerable urn ■ Cable portance to commercial men is! . Codes, dealt with in a circular issued by the International Office of Telegraphic Administrations in Berne, Switzerland, addressed to Chambers of: Commerce, editors of codes, and. others. It deals with a regulation which was passed by the International, Conference held at Buda Pesth from 16th June to 22nd July last. This regulation defines code language, limits the length of code words to ten letters, according to the Morse alphabet, and empowers the office of origin to demand from the sender of a telegram the production of his code for the purpose of ascertaining whether the regulations have been duly observed. But, the most important feature is contained in the following paragraph :—•• From a date to be fixed by the next Conferenoe, all words employed in private telegrams drawn up in code language shall be taken from the augmented 'Official Vocabulary,' compiled by ~the International Office of Telegraphic Administrations." From this it will be seen that, sooner or later, thie vocabulary will be declared compulsory for the European and extra-European telegraphic services. The International Office is, therefore,, greatly enlarging the code, and, with a view to meeting the possessors of private codes already existing, will insert in the new edition, as far as circumstances permit, all the words of these codes, provided that they are legitimate words, not "make-ups," containing not less than five nor more than ten letters, and taken from the eight languages admitted, viz., English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Latin. To attain this object it is necessary that the international office should be in possession of codes at once, and they beg Cliambers of Commerce, editors of codes, and all persons desirous of assuring themselves that their codes will be valid after the final adoption of the " official vocabulary " to send, before the end of the current year, a copy addressed to " The International Office of Telegraphic Administrations, Berne, Switzerland." It should be understood that the sending of codes ought to be free of cost to the office, and that the words appearing therein may be used without infringing authorial righte.

An interesting feature of the A Pioneer distribution of.prizes at the of ' Otago Girls' High School on Education. Wednesday was the unveil' ing of a portrait of Miss Dalrymple, which has been presented to the eohool by a number of friends. Mies Dal*

rymple's claim to this honour lies in the fact that to her efforts, at a time when the higher education of girls was less thought of than is now. the cose, was °(|«e il, e founding of the Girls' High Schodt In a statement which was embodied in Miss Dalrymplc'a speech on Wednesday she gave a modest account of her struggles to get the school started. It is now some thirty-two ~ or thirty-three years since, in her own words, she became imbued with the idea that if the future mothers of Otago were to be saved the hopeless yearnings for the mental culture of their higher nature the want of which had been her own sorrow, the cry for providing against; this must emanate from the women. There and then she made up her mind that no energy on her part should be lacking to secure the desired means for this end. "My first appeal," said Miss Dalryniple] "was, however, to a man, for necessarily j without governmental aid not a step could be taken." She received kind encouragement from Major {afterwards Sir John) Richardson, Superintendent of Otngo, and early in 1865, ten or twelve copies of a memorial, which she had drawn up with much labour, to the Provincial Council praying for a grant to erect a school, were being circulated throughout Otago for the signatures of women, many of whom, it appears, were then too timid to sign a public document. Miss Dalrymple then lived at the Clutha, and for iivo years she used the post, oltiee for all it was 'worth to promote the object she had in view writing and sending out during that time some 700 to £,00 letters and papers. A meeting of ladies was held in Dunedin in 1865 to further the project, luit under circumstances detailed recently in this column it came to an untimely end, and the paper which Miss Dalrymplo was to have read remained unopened in her hand. However she was not discouraged. For several 3'ears the attack on the authorities continued, and the subject was kept before the Provincial Council, but with no success. In 1869 Mr Vogel, the Provincial Treasurer, put £1000 on the Estimates for a* girls' school, but the item did not pass. Up to this time Miss Dalrymple had failed to enlist the synjpathies of Mr Macandrcw (by that time Superintendent) in the scheme, but as the result of a "good long phat" with the great man, which Mrs Macandrow secured for her, things began to look brighter. As the result of another meeting of laiies in Dunedin, for which there was extraordj. nary difficulty in securing a chairwoman, another memorial to the Provincial Council was drawn up, to which aM the lists of signatures that had come in were attached. The Dunedin papettf took up the question, and supported the claim of the ladies, and finally, after the petition had been presented to the Council, a Commission of twelve was appointed to enquire into the matter. It recommended, in September, 1869, that a girls' seminary should be established as soon as possible, and in February, 1871, Miss Dalrymple's; unselfish and laborious efforts were crowned with success by the opening of the Girls' High School. Great interest, she said, was taken in her campaign by her friends in England, among whom was the late Miss Buss, for New; Zealand, or, at least, Dunedin, was then really in advance in the matter of women's education of the opinions entertained on the subject in England,