ITEMS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 199, 20 May 1931, Page 11

ITEMS IN BRIEF

About People and Events i

TRANSPORT FOR SCHOLARS

The establishment of lines of conveyance in several districts in lieu of opening new schools is being considered by the Wellington Education Board, in conjunction with the Education Department. During 1930, £4990 was spent in conveying or boarding children. Boarding allowances were granted to 125 children, and 459 were provided with transport by contact. In one or two instances arrangements may be made for the closing of small schools in favour of conveyance of pupils to a centre.

Schoolboy Howler. An amusing schoolboy howler was quoted by Bishop West-Watson in. a speech in Christchurch last week. “A Christian man is allowed to marry only one wife—this is known as monotony.” Knocked Down by Scooter.

When knocked'down by a child on a scooter at 2.45 p.m. yesterday, Mrs. L. Hodgman, of 13 Gordon Street, Newtown, broke one of her thighs. She was attended by Dr. T. N. Usher and taken afterward to the Lewisham Hospital. .

Education Board Finance. The annual report of the Wellington Education Board shows an expenditure of £359,139 for 1930. Amounts raised by school committees for which subsidies were claimed totalled £lBB9 as compared with £2498 in 1929.

Wellington Land Board. Three nominations have been received for one vacancy on the Wellington Land Board. Those nominated are Charles Harris Burnett, of Wanganui: Frederick Handley, of Maxwell; and James Bell Smith, of Wanganui. An election will be necessary, and this will take place on July 9. ' ' ■■

Nothing For Boys To Do. “I wish the boys had not before them the prospect of going out into life without work worthy of their great talents,” said Bishop Campbell West-Watson- at the Christchurch Boys’ High School jubilee dinner. “Lads are going out into life,” he said, "with nothing to do.”’." Chinese Could Not Do It.

“Kissing, as seen on the films, sends a cold shiver through the body of a Chinaman with the normal education along traditional lines,” said Dr. T.-Z. Koo, when talking of Chinese life-apd philosophy the other evening. “According to the teachings of Confucius, friends could be very intimate, but as for kissing in public we certainly could not do it, not even if we were lovers.” ’

A Quick Response. At one stage in the concert in the Town Hall last evening, Mr. Joseph Hislop appeared to be in doubt as to what he would sing as an encore, when a voice from the gallery said, by way of suggestion, “I Heard You Singing.” Qiiick as lightning the tenor glanced up .qii.d said, “I’m glad you did.”

Learn More in Playing Field. ' “My own experience of thirty-five years of teaching, in spite of my own bias, leads me to believe that large numbers of our boys derive far more educational benefit from their activities in the cadet corps and the playground than they do jn school, for these often seem to bear remotely ou their daily life,” said Mr. G. J. Lancaster, headmaster of the Christchurch Boys’ High School, speaking atj the school’s jubilee dinner.

The Four Georges. “The three Georges” was an interjection at the Christchurch Boys’ High School jubilee dinner, when it was suddenly noticed that the chairman, the Hon. G. J. Smith, and the two principal guests, the Prime Minister,- Rt. Hon. G. IV. Forbes, and the headmaster, Mr. G. J. Lancaster, were all Georges. “What’s in a name?” called another guest. The Prime Minister was equal to the occasion. “I would, remind you,” he said, “that his Majesty the King is also a George.”

Reading for Children. The Wellington Municipal Library is proving of great assistance to schoolchildren through an arrangement with the: Education Board and books were supplied to 35 schools last year. . A total of 126,444 works of fiction were issued and general works numbered 12,073, and history and travel 15,508. Lesser numbers dealing with religion, sociology. science, arts, biography, literature and philosophy were issued to pupils.

An Ideal for Schoolboys. “Without referring to anything political, I can say that the schoolboy of today can have no better ideal on which to base his character than the present Prime Minister, Mr. Forbes,” said .Mr. A. T. Donnelly at the jubilee dinner of the Christchurch Boys’ High School. “His sincerity, courage, forthrightness and integrity have won him the admiration of all people, however much they may differ from hint in matters of policy. ’

New Zealand’s Provincialism. . “New Zealand has two hundred national poets and one national soup,’’ said Mr. A. E. Currie, speaking at the jubilee dinner of the Christchurch Boys’ High School on Saturday evening. New Zealanders were naturally modest and were too inclined toward provincialism as opposed to nationalism. They were content to have their standards fixed outside the country. Plays aud books had their locales fixed outside of Now Zealand, and even the New Zealand flag had been missing from the Cenotaph in Wellington when the Anzac Day service had been held there.

Buddha’s Footstep. ' ; “I saw there the footstep of Buddha. ’ said Mr. R. Campbell Begg, in speaking of Northern Ceylon before the Wellington Rotary Club yesterday. “It must have been an outsize in feet, for it made a cleft in the mountain-side about 25 feet in-length, when he levitated from India to Ceylon—levitation being when they willed themselves to travel. If was thereabouts, too, that someone found a tooth of Buddha's. Whether he simply cast it or had it pulled out was not rtry clear. It was bigger than an elephant's tooth, some three or four feet long:”

Fate of Voting Papers. ' Many people wonder what becomes'of all the ballot papers after an election. In the case of a civic election, such as the one recently decided, it is the duty of the returning officer, as soon as practicable after the re-count, to make up into one packet all the packets of voting' papers. seal it, endorse it with a destitution of the contents, and hand it;over to the clerk of the nearest Magistrates Court. That official has to retain “the packet for a period of six months, permitting no one to open or examihe' it (except on the order of some court, of competent jurisdiction) and thereafter effectually destroy it. In Wellington the voting papers are destroyed in the, furnaces of the destructor, where any possible record of “who voted for whom , goes np in smoke. *>»'—