OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 June 1924, Page 8

OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST.

SIR HARRY LAUDER, NEW ZEALAND A BONNY COUNTRY. PUBLIC SCHOOLBOY MIGRANTS. LONDON, May 6. There seems to be an innate news value in the migration of public school boys to New Zealand, as well as in the sheepfarmers’ scheme for the migration of sailors’ orphans. Both were receiving a great deal of publicity.. The Spectator has the following: ‘‘The public school boys—some from Dulwich and from Christ’s College at Horsham, the latter with its attached farm on which boys are trained—who lately went out to New Zealand have been received with acclaim on the stations to which they went on arrival. So pleased are the New Zealand farmers with these boys that they are asking for more—somewhat to the embarrassment of those responsible for their selection. For it was some time before New Zealand agriculturists were converted to the view, that it would be wise to look for promising young settlers in the direction of public schools.: Now, however, their cry is for morel” BRITISH TO THE BACKBONE. Sir Harry Lauder is interviewed by a representative of The Era-. The great Scots comedian says that he intends to start on his fourth tour of the globe in October. This is to be a- tour partly for pleasure. "I am going to see all the Maharajahs of India,” he says, “the bestknown of Chinese in China, and the despots of Manila. To these countries I have not been. Afterwards I am going down to New Zealand to catch big trout. New Zealand is a bonny country; it’s just like being at hame. Yv hen we were last there Lady Lauder and I dined with the Governor-General, Lord Jellicoe. I did not see my old friend, Mr Massey, the Premier of that country, as he was in England at the Empire Conference, but I hope to spend several days; with him when I go again to his glorious 1 country. However, I met hundreds of good friends, and I have pome hack with this impression: that if there is any domain under the British Flag that is British to the backbone, it is New Zealand.” HEALTH AND EDUCATION. To the current number of The World’s Children, Sir James Allen contributes a brief article on health and education in New Zealand. “It would be difficult, I think, to point to any country where greater prominence is given to the importance of education and child welfare than New Zealand,” the High Commissioner writes. “Their education system is t,l e pride of all New Zealanders; and side by side with it has advanced, particularly in more recent years, that equally important branch of modern science,, the promotion of which in New Zealand' has come to be regarded as a State ob-ligation-infant welfare. This spirit has grown with the cammunitv and, as the years have passed, the State has become, by legislation, more and more vigilant in seeing that every child shall have a fair start in life, that poverty shall not deter its chances nor deny the physically or mentally weak proper medical advice and attention.’i FISHING IN THE SOUTH ISLAND. A very comprehensive statement .regarding the fishing streams of the South Island appeared in the special summer number of the Southland Daily News. The Fishing Gazette considers that- the possibilities of sport in the South are not perhaps as widely known as those of the North Island, or as they rightly deserve to be, and for this reason the journal has this week reproduced the article in question. This gives very useful information regarding the angling in the Southland rivers and the cold lakes of the south, as well as some useful hints concerning the best flies and tackles to use. SHOWER. BATHS.: Mr A. L. Johnson, chairman and managing director of a firm of hardware merchants in Manchester, who has recently toured the Dominion, has been giving his impressions of the countries he visited to The HardwareTrades Journal. A most remarkable point in the hardware trade in Australia and New Zealand, he said, was the demand for shower-baths. People almost lived in shower-baths. The result of this had been the evolution of wonderful geysers, made and used locally. A number of them it was possible to heat up with a lighted newspaper pushed" underneath, the yield of hot water resulting giving a good shower. The makers obtained their knowledge and experience from sheer necessity. Such geysers were made out of imported sheets, and tubes by local plumbers,, and there were many different kinds. Another curious fact was that all the guttering and down spouts were made from sheet iron. Cast iron ivas prohibitive on aceminl of freight. Plumbers, in consequence, were extremely skilful. Laboursaving devices in the home were also prominent, owing to the problem of securing domestic service. For the same reason almost all houses outside the towns are of the single storey type. AN ADVOCATE OF NEW ZEALAND WOODS. In an article on New Zealand timber, Mrs J. M, Coulter tells readers of The Empire Mail of its ires and possibilities. For numerous reasons "the timber industry has in the past been handicapped, but now, with the prospect of a revival in New Zealand industries of all kinds, and m view of th-e tremendous consumption of timber for war purposes, she thinks that the claims of the Dominion timber should not be overlooked. Less expensive than kauri, she suggests the profitable use in furniture construction and joinery work of rimu, yellow-silver pine,"silver beech, taraire, rata, pukatea, black maire, kokekoke, and New Zealand honeysuckle. All can supply attractive material, and some of them exquisitely grained panels. Those who have seen the interior of a modern, artistic New Zealand house, with its fine permanentfittings, will readily realise the possibilities of the industry in good hands. Mrs Coulter realises that the industry cannot spring up like a- mushroom. “It must be the fruit of the Forestry Department’s care in replacing the ravages of time and civilisation amongst native trees and in planting other varieties likely to bring in ; quick returns. Of these the Douglas fir and several varieties of pine have proved the most successful. But, seeing that possible markets are opening up on all sides, and that the demand is increasing with the requirements of modern civilisation,* the New -Zealand timber industry should have a prosperous future before it.” FAMOUS OLD SCHOOL. With the imminent passing of Hope street Undenominational School at Liverpool, owing to local developments (says The Yorkshire Herald), mi interesting link with many notabilities will he severed. The school was started about 1790, and it is recorded that in 1791 the headmaster was paid £2O a

year. In 1792 a building was erected in Manesty Lane, where instruction was given “to children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and to girls in sewing and knitting.” It was laid down in regard to religious instruction that no catechism or hook should he used that taught “any points of doctrine other than those general truths upon which all sects of Christians are agreed.” This would, of course, exclude the Bible itself. The school was removed to its present site in 1851. Among old scholars are many, prominent personalities, including Sir Hall Caine, Mr W. E: Tirebuc-k, writer of boys’ books; Mr Robert Leighton, author and journalist; Mr Reginald Hall, publisher; Mr Overend. war artist; Colonel Trimble, a member of the New Zealand Government; Mr R, Kelly, F.R.C.S., the Rodney street surgeon; Mr A. Townsend, a Liverpool architect; and Mr R. Preston. a Liverpool artist. Among the headmasters have been Mr R, George, father of Mr Lloyd George, and *Mr George Gill, subsequently founder of Gill’s Publishing House.—Wellington 1 ost correspondent. “