NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 49, 21 November 1928, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

We in New Zealand, sails aback the ship of State wallowing in the trough of the bumpy waves, bewildered by winds that blow from several points of the compass almost simutaneously, must congratulate Australian citizens for their common-sense election verdict. It is indeed fortunate for her that fate or hard-headed shrewdness has not allowed the ship of State to drag her anchors at a moment such as this. With incessant waterside troubles calling for a series of strong doses of medicine; with Communistic comrades from Russia openly coquetting with their Labour brothers, with astounding charges of bribery and corruption to be investigated, and with a curious and perhaps embarrassing guerrilla warfare against a certain alien section of the community, an election stalemate might well have been most serious.

On the subject of the evacuation of the Rhineland, Dr. Stresemann, back into official harness as German Foreign Minister after his long illness, takes the view that this is not a Treaty question or a security question, but a moral question. The retention of foreign troops in the Rhineland, he declared in the Reichstag, was “a contradiction of the recent trend in international affairs.” British opinion will agree with this view, but the conversion of the French public mind will be less easy. The latter regards the evacuation of the Rhineland as having no organic connection with the general peace movement, whereas, in fact, it is part of the essential condition to peace—mutual trust. If the Germans cannot be trusted to carry out their obligations without the presence of armed foreign troops, then they should not be trusted at all. The occupation troops in the Rhineland cost their respective countries a great deal of money which could quite profitably be invested in more useful directions. British opinion has already reached that conclusion, but treaty obligations with France make it difficult to give effect to it.

Although from an adult’s point of view the average school picnic bristles with disadvantages, it is questionable whether the scholars themselves would appreciate the picnic money being spent on a reference library calculated to improve their minds. The average schoolboy, whilst able to appreciate the comforting sensation of a bun inside him is apt to turn a cold scholastic eye on a row of reference books, however capable of supplying potential nourishment to the young mind. Quite possibly the teachers themselves would appreciate the reference library because time and repetition may have damped the picnic thrill. As a matter of fact it is doubtful whether the library really would stimulate any desire for self-improvement, for most of us can remember similar assiduous but unsuccessful methods in our school days. Who has not got vivid memories of frantic efforts to “mug up” Paradise Lost or Marmion, not from sheer joy of reading, but in order to avoid getting floored in the coming exam. Who has not thrust Shakespeare aside on the last day of the last term with a sigh of relief that never again would it be necessary to interpret intelligently some of the more obscure passages little understood by our elders. By all means let the seeds of future reading he sown amongst our schoolboys and girls; but to dangle a row of library books before their noses in place of the terrible excitements of a picnic, even if it does go all wrong, is scarcely calculated to have the desired effect.

Giving her reason for not contesting a seat at the forthcoming British general election, Mrs. Philipson told the Berwick Conservative Executive that she had to choose between loyal service in the Blouse of Commons and the appeal of her young family, in years from seven to fourteen, “when they are most susceptible to home influences.” It is rather a fine picture this, of a woman considered by a political executive to be worthy of nomination turning resolutely from the glamour of Parliamentary life to the natural sphere of her sex. The modern family has many rivals, and has to fight many battles. ft is encouraging to hear sometimes that the children have had a victory.