Untitled

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17402, 13 March 1922, Page 6

The Elmwood school committee, it is understood, will be waited upon this evening by a deputation protesting against the recent expulsion of a pupil who had been guilty of petty thefts. A great deal of nonsense has been written ooncernine this matter by pur morning contemporary, and its soft-headed readera, who have failed to consider fully the fact that the headmaster of the school would not hare acted as he did without good rfeason. Mr Sinclair is an unusually accomplished headmaster, who has made Elmwood a fine school, and who intends to maintain its good repute. Juvenile dishonesty has become a serious problem—witness today's record of the cases at the Juvenile Court—and it calls for drastic measures. Most sensible people will agree that a headmaster of Mr Sinclair's standing is far more likely to know how to handle cases of dishonesty than the muddle-headed sentimentalists who have been attacking him. Whatever may b© the outcome of the deputation to the committee, which has unanimously supported the headmaster, the convmitee will, we trust, issue a full statement concerning the case. It can rely upon the support of all those who see, as we purselves see, in the agitation against the punishment of the guilty scholar, a symptom of that sentimental rebellion against sound principles which I is one of the evils of the time.-':' •

In a letter which we print to-day Mr D. E. Hansen, Director of the Technical College, writing apropos of. our leading article of Saturday on the teaching of English, testifies that the intending student who objects to even one hour's study of English weekly is "not uncommon." Thiß is very discouraging, hut it is cheering to know that the Publio Service Commissioner has derided that in future candidates for the Government examinations for short-hand-tvpista are to be examined in English. We can easily understand the satisfaction which such a decision must cause to Mr Hansen and all other enlightened teachers. It is the more pleasing in, that we do not usually look to State peportments for humane and enlightened ideas.

A very interesting sidelight on the Seafarers' Education Service, referred to in our leading oolumns on Saturday last, is supplied by the librarian of one of the ships possessing a library supplied by the Service. The name of the ship and hsr destination are not given, but it is mentioned that the voyage covered altogether four months, and from internal evidence one gathers that she was in the Australian or New Zealand service. She carried a complement of 166 all told, of 1 whom 124 mads use of the library, consisting of 250 books, and borrowed a total of 1043 volumes. The engine-room read the most assiduously and the chief engineer was the greatest reader on board, getting through 42 books in the four months,' while one of his subordinates ran him close with 38, ranging from ''Torn Jones" to "Mechanical Inventions of To-day,'' "Economics for the General Reader," and the "Odyssey.'.' One might expect that the story of the wanderings of Ulysses would appeal to a modern wanderer by sea whose imagination had not been killed by his incessant contact with machinery. The librarian gives particulars of tho books taken out by the captain, the cabin boy, the chef, a steward, a trimmer, and an A.B. The lightest reading waa, naturally, that of the boy, almost purely fiction. He began somewhat unexpectedly "with "Tess of the D'UrbervjJ!es," which, next to "Roderick Random," was the most popular book in the library. The captain began with Ball's "Story of a Heaven" and Scott Eliott's "prehistoric Man," and passed on to Jacobs, Kipling, Bullen, closing with John Foster Fleer's boob on Australia and Sorenson'a admirable "Life in the Australian Backblocks." The cook's list gives one the impression that he was a man who would read anything that was not rubbish —"Green Mantle," "Experiences of an Irish R.M.," Burnaby's "Ride to Khiva," Zangwill's "Children of the Ghetto," until towards the close of the voyage he tackled more solid stuff — Chesterton's "History of the United States," Wells' "Outline of History," Trevelyan's "Garibaldi and the Thousand," Duclaux's "Short History of France." It would take too long to go through all the lists. But they are profoundly interesting. One won- ; dera .why a man who chose English e&j saya, Waterton'a "Wanderings," "Peoples' and Problems of India," A. 6. Gardiner's essays, and the "History of Everyday Things," among numerous others, should be contest id remain a

coal-trimmer and .what sort of a man was the A.8., whose list consisted almost entirely of books of popular science P It is easier to understand the charm that books of travel had for another sailor. No stronger evidence as to the vain© of this Service to Seafarers is needed than is afforded by this report —■«

A discussion in the Wellington. City Council the other night supplied an instance of the persistence of the theory that a lofty room is necessarily more healthy than one with a low ceiling. The Public Works Department hr.s in hand, as an experiment, the erection of three pairs of semi-detached houses at Miramar, to be built on a system said to be widely in use in England. The framework of the houses is to be of steel encased in concrete with hollow walls. The houses are each to have five rooms and to be of two storeys, the total cost of each being about £BOO, which brings them within the means of wage-earners. The Department asked that the Council should, in the case of these experimental houses, waive the by-law requiring the height of each room to be not less than nine feet, and allow them to be eight feet. The Public' Health Committee had approved of the application, but had asked that if possible the height of the rooms should be raised to 8 feet 6 inches. This was at once objeoted to by several of the Labour members, on the ground, apparently, that it was an attempt to lower the standard of workers' dwellings. "Because the Imperial Government had allowed small 'dog-boxes' there was no reason," said one member, "why it should be done here, for there was plenty of room in this conutry." There may be, in the country, but there is certainly not in Wellington. In the end the Committee's report was adopted, as it should have been. The opposition to low-ceiled rooms rests on a fallacy. They are in fact as wholesome as many higher rooms. It is all a question of proper ventilation and with the employment of adequate means for allowing for the admission of fresh air and the escape of bad "used" air. A room with Bft or Bft 6in studs is as good to live in as one with 9ft or 10ft studs. There are dozens of houses in Christchurch to prove it.