Notes and Comments.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 1169, 27 April 1910, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

The Chief Inspector of the Wanganui education district had better "be very, very careful, or he will bo tbo subject of an enquiry on the part of the League of Children Who Believe in Holidays. In a report which Mr Braik has just furnished to the Education Board ho writes: "The schools have again settled down to work ; but there is another holiday just at hand. I cannot help thinking that the granting of the full week and a day at Easter is against the best interests ol tho schools. A holiday so extended may suit a certain number of parents, but it interferes with progress to a very serious extent. It is not granted to secondary schools, and it is not granted in other parts of the Dominion." Poor Mr iiraik, he must have forgotten that he was once a youngster, and that it is a greater crime to rob a school child of his holiday than to rob the dead of its bier.

TiiEiiE two unusually interesting features in a strange- will that was proved last month in England. First, the lady who made it and secondly tho provisions of the will. She was the Countess de Noailles, a name which recalls tho history of Franco for hundreds of years, and she has left the bulk of her estate, which is in England, to the founding of a home for girl orphans." ■ tha.fr-m-Hiy'"brought up in the home will help the Church in .England in all that makes for righteousness." The curious feature of the will is insistence upon good health in preference to educational attainments, for tho Noailles of old put culture before other things, 'i'lio Countess Anna says that book-learning is to be a secondary consideration. All competitive examinations are forbidden, no study-wiil be allowed before breakfast or "alter U p.m., no child under ten years of age. shall learn any arithmetic except tho multiplication'table, and no child with curvature of the spine shall be allowed to write more than five minutes a day. Punishment by way of loss of recreation is forbidden, and the girls- : are to bo read aloud to whilst at needlework. And all these provisions are capped by a provision which stipulates that "every candidate shall first be examined by the medical officer of the orphanage and shall be certified to be free from constitutional defect, and then by two fully qualified phernologiste separately and independently, and no girl shall be admitted to tho orphanage who is found deficient in conscientiousness and firmness and upon this point the reports !of the. phrenologists shall be held to furnish conclusive evidence." After that phrenology should have a fresh lease of life.

In reading the newspapers of the Old World during the past three months no phase of its news has been mon> striking than the frequency of duels. There seems to have been quito an epidemic of the duel in all parts oi Europe. This is either due to the strong military spirit that again permoates the life over there or it indicates a return to that old-time autocratic sentiment that placed the individual higher than the community. And the settlement of disputes today by the duello is not confined to military men, although they predominate. Journalists and members oi the legal profession seem to be as eager to wield the sword as the pen. This year there have been numerous duels in France, Germany, Russia, 'Austria, and even Italy. In the early part of last month one of those mim"erous scenes that periodically mark the session of the Italian ' Parliament embroiled old General Feeia (!) Cossato and Deputy Chiesa so seriously that only a duel could end the argument. The. challenge was taken -up next evening in a field near Colonna, fifteen miles from Rome. Oi course, there were spectators, in the 21st bout the- deputy was scratched over the right temple and in the 24th bout the General got a scratch on the left cheek. Honours thus being even, tho seconds called a truce. The deputy was willing to ''make it up," but when he approached the veteran with outstretched hand, tbo General turned his back and put his hand m his pocket. The rest of the narrative is typically Italian: "On seeing this Signor Chiesa wished to start the light again, but he was pa-evented by his seconds. Then Admiral Gualterio, one of General lt'ecia's seconds, intervened, and shortly afterwards, convinced of tho good intentions of his adversary, the General gave- Signor Chiesa first one and then both hands, aftei which they embraced heartily, amid the rousing cheers of the spectators."