NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 41, 17 August 1942, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Home Guardsmen Buried. A fortunate escape from serious injury was e'xperienctd by ( two Homo Guardsmen when their unit was excavating a cliff face- at ■ N-gakuru, near .ttotorua. on Jsnttivriciy lor the purpose of forming-a rifle range." The face of I the, hillside -,Mvd been steeply cut to & depth oi about. I2it. when it suddenly. gave way find bltried ( the two. Home : y-uardshien up ,ta their shoulders. It took sortie time for the men t'd be dug' out by ■■ other members, of the unit. Apart from they were little the ■worse-"for their; experience. Prisoner on Parole. Inhere were unusual features in a, recent appeal, beipre the Armed Forces Appeal Board in .Christchurclv when Empire' Rubber Mills applied ■'for', ex*-. emption from.service of.Keith Le Crfen, a marine engineer and a prisoner of > war on parole. Le Cren had applied: for '•■enrolment in the second division of the .General Reserve Under the National Service Emergency Corps, He had become a prisoner of war when the steamer Holmwood was sunk by enemy action early last year. Before belli g released from the raider he Signed an agreement not to Undertake military action against Germany. The. War Cabinet had advised Le Gren that men placed in his position would not be.sent oversea^ and Would be allowed to serve. Only in non-combatant duties, and, if drawn for overseas service* may be fquired to perform full-time fiOftcombatant service with the home defence units. ...-'. A Peculiar Privilege, j Oommeht oh a strange feature of the Ne\v Zealand law of appeal was made i by Mr..- Justice Pail- iil the Auckland Supreme Court When giving judgment On the appeal from the decision of a. Magistrate iri a negligent driving ease. The appeal was taken by way of a rehearing: "In- this case," his Honour said, "t have to approach the matter as though it had not already been feefore the Magistrate and the evidence heard by Him. This procedure by &ri appeal from conviction under the Justices Of the Peace Act is a phenomenon With extraordinary results. It means that every person in New Zealand Who is charged with an offence, under the justices of the Peace Act has been given the privilege oi virtually • disregarding the finding against him of a Very competent and careful Court, and asking that the matter be tried again as tho.ugh.it had never been determined before., That is unusual in the history of jurisprudence, but it does so happen that ;that is the New Zealand* ahd New Zeaknde^ are fdrtunate in that way." Essential >Vo)rkeis k In a tireulat letter received by, the Waikato Hosttitai BoMd, the gireetorGeneral of Health . Dr. M. ft Watt has directed attention to the tact that employees in certain essehtml work have been leaving their employment without regard to the regulations, giv ! Watt instructed the board's executive to deal with such eases firmly. Every effort must be made, he Said, to trace such defaulting ■ employees, and -any person employing them should also be, dealt With firmly under the regulations. The Director'Greneral pointed out that the principal defaulters so:■ far as the hospitals.were concerned were dbmestics, but the regulations applied to all employees engaged oil essential work. District mah-pdwer dfnceTS, he said, hid b«en ducted toy the National Sferviee Bepartment as to the, course to be,.taken.. ;' . . .■.'.'• ■• : . ; "Jthfe Social Sciences. . ■■• The need for more attention being paid to the Study of the social Sciences in scli66ls and universities was stressed by Dr. C. E. Beeby, Defector of Education, in an interview., *?KnoWj iedge of the social sciences is essential td a democracy because if democracy te to survive men must Understand H6W to live together?' Dr. Beeby Said* "The new order, which we hot>e to see after the war", will demand a.kndwledge of these sciences, and I llbfie that even before the War ends more attention will be paid to them in the high schools. There is, of course, the difficulty of the {shortage of teachers, and 'another difficulty is that the sub* ieeta taught in the high schools depend largely on the requirements 6f the University entrance ejcainination. For examplej candidates for this examination must have at least one fbreign l&ttlUage. lit N6W Zealahd French is the foreign language most cominohly taught in the'high schools, but after the war a knowledge of one of the social sciences might be ti more value than a knowledge of French."