TEACHER’S VISIT

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 157, 4 June 1929, Page 8

TEACHER’S VISIT

IMPRESSIONS OF NEW ZEALAND. Mr F. Nickson, B.Sc., who spent a year in New Zealand under the scheme for the exchange of teachers, had some interesting remarks to make to a representative of the Wallasey Chronicle on his return to England. When Mr Nickson first came to New Zealand he was for a month at a. school in Nelson, being then transferred to the Technical School in AVellington, his particular subject being mathomatics. Mr Nickson was impressed with New Zealand for its beauty, its educational facilities, and for its loyalty to England. ENGLISH AMBASSADORS. “An Englishman visiting there,” he said, “is received as an ambassador. I was warmly received and welcomed everywhere. 1 met quite a number of Wallasey people out there, and one I met in the Rotorua district, Mr Griffiths, was an old pupil of mine at Riverside.”

Mr Nickson had wonderful things to tell of the Rotorua district, which must be a unique place (says the Wallasey Chronicle). Describing it as a weak part of the earth’s crust, which extends from White Island across the North Island to three volcanoes, he spoke of geysers, or hot water springs, spurting from the ground at regular intervals, so regular indeed that Mr Nickson had the experience of looking down the hole in the ground and seeing the water begin to boil at the bottom and then be able to run away before it spouted up. FISHERMAN’S STORY.

Perhaps the quaintest tale of all—a real fisherman’s story—but nevertheless true, was of catching trout in one part of a stream and with the fish still on the line drawing it into another part, under which was a hot spring, where it was boiled and brought out ready cooked! Mr Nickson was struck by the loyalty of tho ‘New Zealand people and their appreciation of things British. “New Zealanders,” he said, “prefer a British made article even if they have to pay a little mhro for it. English cars, for instance, are coming on the roads in greater numbers and I know of the case of a man of 70, who walked three miles to change a lock made in the United States for one made in Britain.” Under New Zealand educational facilities, Mr Nickson pointed out, every child has a clear road to the university. All the children are examined at 11 years of age (he said) and if they pass a prqficiency test are transferred to a technical or secondary school and then to the University. “The children in the schools,” he also said, “are better fed and clothed than in England. Provision is also made for the education of children in the hack blocks, who are educated by correspondence from the education olfices.” NO COLOUR QUESTION. In New Zealand, explained Mr Nickson, there is no colour question as in the States, where on the return journey he visited schools, including those for negro children only, with negro teachers in North and South Carolina. “The Maoris, the native race of New Zealand,” said Mr Nickson, are an intelligent lot.” I had a native guide in the Rotorua district, who explained to me the chemical constituents of the various waters. There are even Maori members in the Parliament and in the Parliament House they have one room constructed after the style of the whare, or native meeting house, complete with the grotesque carvings, one door 1 ' and one window and sacred pole in a central position. In this room the native members discuss matters affecting their own people before discussion in the House. “By the way,” added Mr Nickson, “I saw in the Parliament House at Wellington the original oil painting of a bird’s eye view of Merseyside, with Wallasey in the foreground, which was presented by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board to the Government. I could even pick out the streets I knew in Wallasey.” Mr Nickson had much appreciation for the New Zealand Government’s efforts to preserve the native fauna and mentioned that Kapiti Island, about four miles from the coast, had been set aside as a national reserve and bird sanctuary. All imported animals had been removed and the island was allowed to revert to it 9 original conditions with the result that when the bush returned, the bird life, including the kiwi, finding its natural food provided was also preserved and attracted. SPORTS ATTRACTIONS. limphasising the attractions of New Zealand as a holiday resort for sportsmen and others, Mr Nickson mentioned the charm of Marlborough Sound, where the conformation of the coast is similar to the Norway fiords. “On one occasion,” he said, “I took a trip in these fiords for 60 miles and yet when I landed I could walk to where I started from in 20 minutes.”

With a view to preventing the lighting of fires, which might possibly be left smoulerding and set fire to the bush the Government had erected numerous special fire places for the use of picnic parties. “Apart from yachting, fishing and “New Zealand, which has an ideal swimming,” continued Mr Nickson, climate, is an attractive place for sportsmen for deer-salking and boar shooting. The pigs left by Captain Cook .have multiplied and their descendants have gone back to the wild state.”