NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

From a discussion at yesterday’s meeting of the Wellington Education Board it would appear that unemployment in the teaching profession during 1933 is likely to be as acute, if not slightly more so, than last year. The Wellington district will start with a surplus of 103 teachers, and from this figure it is estimated that about 1000 teachers throughout New Zealand will be unemployed on February 1 I his position had to be expected, as the effect of the training college reductions will not be in operation until 1934. In normal practice i* is necessary to have a surplus of teachers at the beginning of each rear to make good the wastage which occurs in the ensuing months through retirements, marriages, and deaths. At tlie end of the last school vear only eleven teachers, it is stated, were actually unemployed in the Wellington district. In the light of this experience it is reasonable to assume that, with the training college reductions, the problem will have disappeared by February, 1934.

Evidence of the reality of the war scare in the bar East is shown in the fact that the Mandates Commission of the League of Nation"-' has had to investigate and report upon allegations that the Japanese were constructing submarine bases in certain Pacific islands of strategic importance, held under a mandate forbidding fortifications. _ It appear l -' that these allegations had no foundation in fact, but the incident serve l -' to illustrate the amazing and dangerous pervasiveness of war rumours when tensions develop. When a crisis between nations approaches the point of ignition the silliest rumour may cause an explosion. The Far Eastern danger zone no doubt is sizzling with all sorts of sensational stories.' The elder generation in New Zealand will no doubt remember the Russian war scare of many years ago, and the hysterical state of the public mind on that occasion. Which all goes to show’ the great difficulty of controlling national feeling when it is roused to a certain pitch. That is <not the least danger that threatens the peace of the Far East.