SCHOOL TEACHERS AND THE WAR.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16208, 10 May 1918, Page 8

SCHOOL TEACHERS AND THE WAR.

10 the editor ov "the press " Sir, —When the married men with children go to the front, tue children will only have mother to look to. Aiother 13 the youngsters' best friend, but children, like iambs, piay and stray, and it' not at times rouaced up, children will leave or take little notice of mother and become troublesome. It is bad and sad enough for father to be away from home; school teachers are trainers of tae voxing; tncy Know and can see how tiiose under tiieir care are doing, and will watch over our future rulers, etc., while father is absent. Surdy it can't be true what I hear that our leachers are to b» seat away, and the poor almost left to themselves to grow up ignorant, and to wear red ties aud beloag to the strikers' anion, and then when flocks of people come from England, as they will como, I they will push our own out of the market, causing bad feeling and curses on those who neglected to educate tbem, thereby causing another war. May the power 3 that be think again.— Yours, etc., LOOKING FORWARD. May Bth. CRANKS. XO THE EDITOR Off "THE FBESS." Sir, —In your article on the English factory girl meeting you express wonder that Christcnurch should have more than its right proportion of cranks. I have often considered the same problem, and have come to the conclusion that it arises from the fact that the city is perfectly fiat, and that the streets are so good that it requires no mental effort to direct one's steps. Dr. Truby King has a system at Seacliff to make probationary patients walk across rough-ploughed ground for six hours a day. It is necessary for the patient to watch cach step, and the fact of doing so requires a mental effort sufficient to keep his brain occupied.

I would suggest that -we adopt somewhat the same system on onr footpaths, so that every few yards there should be some hole dug or embankment raised, the avoidance of which would exercise our citizens' brains sufficiently to keep them off sedition conscicntious objection, and such-like diversions. An open cellar door or two would make the course more sporting, and if we did occasionally lose a citizen, the odds are he would never be missed. —Tours, etc., J •

May Bth