NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The punitive. authority of the schoolmaster has formed the subject of legal action in New Zealand often enough to make a recent judgment by the Lord Chief Justice of. England worthy of record. A lady sued the headmaster of the Bedford Grammar School for expelling her boy. It was stated, for the plaintiff, that the headmaster was told that he must not be caned except in the, event of a' serious offence. The _ boy was found reading a prohibited book, and lied about it, and as he refused to bo caned ho was sent home; In giving judgment his Lordship said he accepted the position that the authority of the headmaster was the same as that of the parent, subject to express terms limiting such authority. If the headmaster went beyond the authority given to him by the parent he would be exceeding his' rights. Jri this case it was held that the authority given to the headmaster by the boy's mother had not been exceeded, and that therefore there could bo no claim against the master or the trustees of the schooLfor refusing to receive the boy back into the school. The Times considered the case important enough to warrant editorial comment, and most sensible people will agree with its/ views. "It is hard to see,!' says the Times, ■. "how this physical ,instrument of moral , correction can be altogether dispensed with in the discipline of schoolboys; Their'moral' sense for the most part is all in the rough; it conforms to an esoteric co.de of its own, and it needs shaping, polishing,, pointing; and directing into conformity, with a standard of conduct which it instinctively recognises but does riot always succeed in attaining. . .. The moral of it all is, perhaps, that parents, and especially mothers, should be less squeamish than they seem to be nowadays about "the necessary, punishments of a public school. We do not live in the days of Busby, nor even in the days of Keate, and perhaps it is as well that we do not. For this very reason the birch or cane in the hands of a modern schoolmaster is never an instrument of. torture, though if certain fond and foolish mothers were to have their way it would soon cease to be an effective and salutary agency of discipline." This is'such sound sense that it reminds us that the Socialists of this, country have unaccountably omitted, to date, to enter any protest against the cane as a tyrannical weapon subversive of huma'n dignity and freedom. ..-.-.

A cable message this morning mentions that the Central Unemployed Body of London is sending an organising officer to Australia and New Zealand to ascertain the attitude of the countries named towards immigration. We are not aware of the class of immigrants at the disposal of- tho Central Unemployed Body of London, but we should imagine that they are mainly- city folk—artisans or unskilled labourers. If this is so we doubt whether they will receive much encouragement just now either in New Zealand or in Australia. More population is badly needed in both countries, but immigrants from Britain, to be really welcome, must be of the right stamp.•" Farm workers and farmers with small capital will be received with open arms,

Owing to the natural richness and productiveness of the country, the advantageous state of the world's markets, and the abounding' flow of loan money, Socialistic experiments can be carried out in New Zealand without any large visible hardship or loss. The hardship and loss will come in time. In Britain, however —an old country in a state of what we may call full economic saturation—tho experiments that this young country can bear make their evil effects almost instantly apparent. One of the British , Acts of last year wat the Miners' Eight Hours Act, which enacted that "a-workman shall not be below ground in a mine for the purpose of his work and of going to and from his work for more than eight hours during any consecutive twenty-four hours." This Act was passed despite the yarning of the Departmental Committee, wnich considered the question in 1905, that "it is quite conceivable that a situation might be created by an enhanced price of coal, following the enactment of an eight hours law for miners,, in which the immediate economic interest of employers and men engaged in the production of coal might be opposed to the economic interest of the country at large." The troubles predicted by the opponents of the Bill have already come. Writing to the Times of February 7, Sir AVilliam Bull reports that certain mines have had to close down, -and that the cost of production in all industries where coal is used has been increased. Tho men aro thoroughly dissatisfied, for reasons thus set out by Sir William Bull:— (a) Their wage-earning capacity is restricted. (b) In Northumberland and Durham the necessary re-arrangement of working shifts has caused. great friction among masters and men alike, and nobody has benefited, save perhaps tho owners of the foreign coalfielcls. (c) The men on leaving the mine- at the end of their'shifts return to their homes, whore, in many instances, their presence is not in the least welcome. Tho mother, .doing the washing, or looking after the

children, often finds the husband distinctly in the way, and tells him so. The husband is therefore driven off to loaf in his club or in the streets, and, after a time, finds this dull, as ho has no extra money to spend in liquid or other pleasures. The real danger of substituting State. control for the automatic action of supply and demand is well stated by the Standard in words that are worth quotation for the benefit of those in this country who believe that everyone can be enriched by Act of Parliament: "There is action and reaction between all parts of the organism [of modern industry], and the interference with any of _ the natural processes cannot be limited to the parts directly affected. An artificial advantage bestowed upon one set of workmen will probably have to be paid for by several others. In order to give the miner his eight-hours day the unfortunate docker may have to do without any day's work at all."