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Evening Star, Issue 23526, 15 March 1940, Page 4

‘ Freedom of Speech ’ is a very live topic these days. Those interested will discover by perusal of an article on page 6, tkfcen from an editorial in the ‘New Zealand Law Journal,’ that actually, in English law there is no specific recognition of the right of free speech as a privilege of the subject.

“ There are three kinds of boys leaving school,” said .Mr T. Conly at the meeting of the Vocational Guidance Association last night. There was the hoy who left school with an absolute whoop of joy, who left school because lie wanted to. The second was the boy who left because he bad to—forced out by economic stress. By far the larger class was the third, the boys who left because their parents thought that they had had enough schooling. Mr Conly related an experience he had had with a boy of the first class who was “ fed up ” with school. “So I got him a job in a boiler factory. But three months later my problem was to get him out. He enjoyed the experience thoroughly.”

Recently when a married couple left Port Chalmers to reside in Wellington they left their pet cats behind. As the pets numbered a dozen and no provision was made for their maintenance, the neighbours have had to endure a. plague of hungry cats. One abandoned “ tabby ” has added a litter of kittens to the ranks of the h ome tess strays. The summer and autumn of 1940 seem, destined to be recorded as providing the most variable of meteorological history, at least in the south, if not over the whole of the Dominion. On Wednesday, citizens shivered under a biting south-westerly. Temperatures that night gave promise more for sharp, frosty conditions yesterday rather than the sudden intense heat which prevailed. The thermometer rose steadily throughout the day, and by nightfall oppressive heat was being experienced, this not being relieved by a light northwesterly breeze which seemed to come direct from the heat belt in Victoria. Probablv the visitation was the tail end of the Victorian heat wave, and last night’s maximum temperature of 84.6 deg, registered after nightfall at the Gardens, must be one of the highest mid-March readings for many years, and was certainly in marked contrast to the maximum of 54deg the day previous. During the day areas in the immediate neighbourhood of the harbour were cooled by a moderate northeasterly breeze, but when the sun set that breeze died away, and the whole of the city came under the spell of heat which lasted until shortly before dawn this morning, when a south-east current of cooler air came in from the sea.

The huge batch of cases to be dealt with by the. Assessment Court this sitting (the largest yet known in Dunedin) disappeared with almost startling rapidity as one legal point after another was disposed of by the Bench. In his final statement, the judge, Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M;. said: ‘‘l have to thank the city solicitor (Mr A. N. Haggitt), the city valuer (Mr R. C. Evans) and his staff for the excellent classification and arrangement of the enormous amount of detail and for their compendious presentation of the different cases, which largely contributed to the expeditious disposal of the business of the court.”

“ On the average, size, weight, and intelligence are correlated—that is to say, that the bigger boy is the most intelligent,” said Mr H. Boyes at the meeting of the Dunedin Vocational Guidance Association last evening. Some symptoms of disbelief must have showed, for he repeated rather hastily: “ But only on the average.” “it has never struck me that the biggest fellow was the most intelligent.” commented the president, Mr d. L. Salmon d-j-hnt he smilingly ignored a request to stand up.

Raising something of particular interest to parents with several children —a question that has been fully discussed in past years—a member of the School Committees’ Association of Otago at the meeting last night advocated the purchasing of school text books and stationery by the Education Department and their distribution to school committees. It was stated that the adoption of this scheme would mean that books would cost a third less than if they were purchased under a system that gave one firm throughout the Dominion a monopoly. General agreement was expressed that a reform was desirable, and accordingly tho annual conference of school committees is to receive a remit advocating the supply to pupils of the books and stationery at cost price.

The decline in school roll numbers, which, it was stated, was becoming more apparent each year in Otago, was viewed with alarm at last night’s meeting of the School Committees’ Association of Otago. Figures that illustrated this decline were quoted by Mr D. C. Cameron, who said that 20 years ago there were 23,000 children in the Otago education district, and to-day there were 17,000. There were 150 fewer teachers at present, ho said, than 20 years ago. Some private schools might bo responsible for a decline, but not to that extent, commented Mr Cameron, who pointed out that tho remedy was a problem for the Government to investigate. Fifteen German merchant ships were voluntarily interned at Curacao at tho beginning'of February. Afraid to make a. dash for Germany, most of them had been there since the beginning of the war, said a Wellington man who returned from overseas recently. Some time ago a German oil tanker was captured when she attempted to run the British blockade from Curacao, he added. She had been lying idle in Curacaoah waters for several months, when, late one night, her dedks suddenly became the scene of feverish activity. Everything was made ready for her departure—lights were blacked but, gangways hauled up, winches set in motion—and shortly after midnight she slipped out of the harbour. Three hours later she was captured by a British cruiser. The masters of the German ships knew there was little hope of getting back to Germany now, so their ships lay rusting in the harbours of this little Dutch island. There under cloudless skies, their hulks mirrored in the crystal watere, they were safe. Some of them would still be there when peace was declared. Meanwhile, British ships came and went.

The morals of modern Nazis are not very different from those of the old Prussians, to judge by the_ following dictum or Bismarck;—Treaties remain binding only within certain limits and after they ’prove their fitness for survival under stress. No nation should sacrifice its life out of loyalty to a contract. . . . The instinct of self-pre-servation is a sacred instinct. Countries are expected to keep alliances only as long as they can afford to do so. since history often produces unexpected circumstances against which no written guarantees can prevail. Thus the sovereign who would crucify, his people on the altar of useless personal loyalty commits an unpardonable wrong.

Over 80 patients have been admitted to the Bryant Home, Raglan, since the home was opened for convalescent soldiers shortly after the outbreak of the last war. It was first intended that the homo should be used solely for soldiers, but about a month later it was decided to include members of the Navy and Air Force. At present there are 23 patients in the home, among them being Sergeant S. J. Trimble, C.G.M., of the Royal Marines, who was wounded on H.M.S. Achilles during the battle of the River Plate. Arrangements are also being made for an airman to be admitted to the home shortly.

When Mr S. Phair, of Te Hoe, which is about 70 miles south from Auckland, celebrated his seventieth birthday recently it was also made the occasion for a collection in aid of the National Patriotic Fund Board. He explained this in a letter which the office of the National Patriotic Fund Board in Wellington received from him this week. “ I have pleasure, wrote Mr Phair, “ in enclosing cheque for £3 9s 3d, being the amount collected at a social evening given to me to celebrate my seventieth birthday on March 2, plus 6d exchange.” Mr Phair is hon. secretary of the Te Hoe R.S.A. and hon, secretary of the Te Hoe branch of the New Zealand Labour Party. The Veterans’ Association recently sent a letter to General Smuts, the South African Prime Minister, thanking him for his action in the Empire crisis, and recalling that though the members of the association were in the opposing camp 40 years ago, they felt that he and his Ministers, now that the two races were united, were acting in the beat interests of the country in their allegiance to the Imperial ideals. To this letter the association has received the following acknowledgment, dated November 30, from the Prime Minister’s private secretary at Pretoria Dear Sir, 1 am directed by the Right Hon. the Prime Minister to acknowledge your letter of October 25, which is very much appreciated.” Terence Rattigan, who wrote ‘ French Without Tears,’ is part author of a satire on Nazism, thinly disguised as Ruritarianism, called ‘ Follow My Leader,’ now running at the Apollo Theatre in London. The piece is a farce —perhaps a little too farcical for those who have to combat Nazism—but it has its funny moments. The play was finished before September, 1938, but was banned by the censor. Now that we are at war it has been deemed safe to let people see it. Francis L. Sullivan plays the Goeringesquo character. Walter Hudd, who was Mr Shaw’s idea of Hitler in ‘ Geneva,’ is the other “ strong man ” of the State. They set up a puppet dictator—a plumber by profession. The week just ended has been one of the most favourable from a health point of view for some time, only one case of a notifiable disease being reported by the medical officer of health, Ur T. M'Kibbin. This Was a case of pulmonary tuberculosis, reported from Otago. No eases were notified from the Southland district. “ There are many areas in Dunedin of which we are all ashamed, and -these, creating an unhealthy atmosphere, are partly responsible for some of the backward children in the community,” said Mr G. M. Luke, head master of the George Street School, in the course of an address last night to the School Committees’ Association of Otago on the subject of sub-normal children. Mr Luke, who has taken a particular interest in the modern educational treatment of this typo of school pupil through the agency of special classes, said that another cause of sub-nor-mality was malnutrition, and commented that the Education Department might well consider providing one hot meal a day for c hildren who were undernourished, Apart from the benefit that would accrue to the children themselves. their parents would probably be so ashamed at these pupils receiving free meals that they would see that they went properly fed.

The following tenders have been passed! by the Public Works Department, according to the ‘ Gazette ’:— Waikaremoana lower development, erection of power house. W. M. Angus, £37,915; Nelson College (new building), Fred. Williamson Ltd., £42.553.

An investigation call to Richardson street was answered by the City Fire Brigade at 7.31 last night.

An announcement in last night’s ‘ Gazette ’ by the Minister of Supply (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) says that no sales of tough rubber-sheathed cable and cab-tyre sheathed cable may be made without the authority of the Minister or an agent appointed by him. The purpose of this notice is to ensure the provision of adequate supplies of these commodities for urgent defence purposes.—Press Association.' “ I would just like to make this comment on the general inference that the scientist is necessarily an impractical theorist,” said Professor C. P. M‘Meekan, of Canterbury Agricultural College, in speaking to members of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association last evening. “ I have had to. listen to more hare-brained and theoretical schemes advanced by practical farmers than I have ever had inflicted on me by the scientist.”

During the course of an address to members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce last night Dr J. D. Salmond stressed a number of similarities in the lives of the average person in Soviet Russia and in British democratic lands to show that at heart people were just the same. Quite the best instance was the practice of naming children according to the psychology of the moment. During the war, he said, Russian parents (as in the manner of parents throughout British countries) named their children after statesmen and army leaders, even making use of the names of British statesmen. Under Communism the bestowal of nanies had taken a' new trend, one more appropriate to the regime, so it was not unusual to come across youngsters bearing such names as Insurrection, Revolution, Atom, Electricity, Helium, and so on.

The drawing of “My Lucky Day” Art Union is to tako place at the Masonic Hall, The Terrace, Wellington, this evening, commencing at 5 o’clock. The Dunedin Burns Club will lipid their monthly concert in the Town Hall Conceit Chamber on Wednesday next. \ Attention is drawn to the rendering of Bach’s ‘ St. Luke Passion ’ at Moray Place Congregational Church on Sunday evening.