W.E.A. NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 19063, 5 October 1925, Page 2

W.E.A. NOTES

[Contributed bv the local branch of the W.E.A.] The final gathering of W.K.A. students for the session will take the form of a social, which is to bo liohl on Saturday evening next, Jn the cut* worth Social Hall at 7.45. It is Imped there will bo a good muster of representatives of each of the ten town classes, and from Green Island. Tickets at half a crown each may bo obtained from anv class secretary.

For tho slimmer session a class in the natural history of Dunedin will again bo held. As in previous sessions, there will he a lecturo at tlie University on the Thursday evening at 7.45, to'bo followed bv a field excursion with the class tutor on the Saturday afternoon. These will bo hold fortnightly. Tho association has been m again securing the services of Mr Win. Martin, B.Sc.' (president of tho Dunedin Field Club and vice-president of the Otago Institute of Science’), as tutor for the coining session. He will give his opening lecture on Thursday evening next at the University, taking lor his subject ‘ The Story of Our Native Plants.’ outlining, with the aid of lantern slides, their origin and history. The excursion on the Saturday will ho up the Opoho slope, leaving the Dundas street bridge over the Leith at 2.15. The topics of subsequent lectures and the places to be visited will be chosen by the class on Thursday evening. Ferns and mosses, insect life, spiders, rock pools, the storv of a coastline or of a river, trees and shrubs, etc., are some of the topics suggested. Tho revised list of authors to bo studied next year by Miss King’s literature class lias now been issued by tho class committee. It comprises Maeterlinck. Turgeniov, George Eliot, Johan Bdjer, Richard Jeffreys, Rupert Brooke, James Stephens, and 0. W. Bussell (A.EA. Intending members should cut this out to guide their preparatory reading during the vacation. Tho class library will contain works of and on these as soon as they ean ho obtained. All W.E.A. boxes, seventeen of which have been in use this year, are now being called in. ■ W.E.A. members having outstanding bonks, or wishing to make use of tho W.E.A. library, may visit it in the office at the University any Thursday evening from 7 to 9 *

■The North End class concluded ils session with a social last 1 Imrsdsty evening. Practically everyone present contributed to the programme. Two competitions wore both won by Miss Galloway. Votes of thanks were passed to class chairman, secretary, fire lighter, librarian, and delegate for faithful services rendered, and appreciation of the tutor’s efforts placed on recori. After a discussion on the subject for nest year’s study, a vote placed ‘ The Contribution of Various Nations to Civilisation’ first, with ‘Psychology in Literature ’ second. Supper concluded an enjoyable evening. At tho concluding meeting of the Hoslyn class the occasion was taken to make a presentation to Mr and Airs I. Sutherland, two class members who were recently married. The class chairman, Mr J.‘ Sinclair, voiced the good wishes of the class. A discussion on next year’s topic of study did not reach a definite end. Some aspect ot literaure or public health were two suggestions made. It is unlikely that a summer school will he held in Canterbury this year. The Wellington movement, however, is holding one at Levin (Woraron Ennui during tho Christmas and New Year holidays. Southern .students who can make the trip will he _ warmly welcomed. The general topic will be ‘ Inter na t ion aIP el atio ns, ’ OXFORD SUMMER SCHOOL.

Tito summer school conducted by the British Association at Oxford (says the ‘ Manchester Guardian ’ has been busier than ever, as there was a large descent of Scotsmen, which is an innovation. Scotland is apparently so satisfied with the (raining which it gives its hoys and girls that It pays less attention than England to adult education, and spends less money on it. Consequently the Rent in search of a summer school has begun to corao south, and the play of tho keen minds from the north was much appreciated. Another thing that would be appreciated is a recognition by the Scottish education authorities that grants in aid of summer School work as given in England arc useful aids to progress. The W.E.A. students are engaged on a survey of the history of our own times, and they have evening mootings ns well as the ordinary lectures and classes. A journalist spoke on newspapers and democracy on Sunday night, and many leading authorities on the politics and economics of tho twentieth century are of the parly. Among those are Professor Laski and Mr G. 1). H. Cole, who is shortly returning to Oxford to take ud a readership _in industrial' affairs that carries with it a fellowship at University College. One ot the useful features of these summer schools is tho informal discussion that that goes on at nights after the formal meeting is over. Miners fresh from several of the coalfields wore emphasising this week the revival of trade union solidarity and the intense feeling caused by the late crisis. Men from South Wales were sure that a very ugly situation would have arisen at once if the stoppage had taken place.