Random Reflections.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12806, 2 June 1914, Page 5

Random Reflections.

From time to time other nations jeer at Britain s slowness, and vaunt their own adaptability and superiority. But it remains a 'well known tact that if one requires a reliable article that will endure the test of time the British-made cannot be beaten. Ihe Yankees are probably the most inventive of men, and the readiest to adopt the novel, but it would seem that the very inventive genius they possess impels them to produce substitutes or adulterations—and after all this is only ingenuity perverted. The chief idea of the German seems to be cheapness, and here again inventive skill works in the wrong groove.

But though Britain may be slower she is sure. Her people work with dogged determination, and in most cases the aim is perfection. Not long ago Germans and Frenchmen were boasting of the progress they had made in the art of aviation, and even among Britishers were found many who complained that other nations were excelling the British in this special field of work. But the British War Office was not idle. It was learning from the experiments and the failures of others. Like "Brer Rabbit" the authorities "lay low," and in course of time produced the safest biplane yet constructed —a machine that will fly uncontrolled, and has proved to be perfectly safe under all danger tests. It is satisfactory to note that the British War Office prefers the safe and useful to the spectacular, and that it intends to keep secret the construction of this conqueror of the air.

It is rather curious how the clerical mind usually fails to grasp all the points of a case, and consequently forms seme rather illogical opinions. When the cleric is also an enthusiast on some special subject the weakness becomes still more apparent. For instance, the other day Canon Garland, who at present seems to think only of the Bible in Schools, complained that heathe.i teaching finds place in the schools while Christian teaching is excluded. It did not appear to strike the reverend gentleman that there is a vast difference between the two tilings—a difference that robs his complaint of any force. He might as well have complained that Euclid is taught in the schools while dogma is excluded. The reason why reference to heathen mythology is permissible and why no objection can be made to the teaching of mathematics is that upon these subjects all men are agreed. They are not agreed when dogmas are the subject and this is why these should not be recognised as part of a State system of education. They may be true, but all the taxpayers do not believe them to be true, and all taxpayers should not be called upon to pay foi" what they either may not believe in or of which they may disapprove. Moreover, it is a very unfortunate fact that while men will never dispute about heathen mythology or the demonstrations of Euclid there is nothing that arouses such bitter argument or such hostile feeling as a dispute over some variation of religious belief. Even the Mahommedan has his troubles in this respect, for on certain festivals opposing sects hack and maltreat each other in their endeavours to give force to their arguments. When the churches have formed complete union, and men no longer quarrel over sectarian differences, the State may justly teach religion in the schools, but until then the secular State should not pay for anything but secular teaching. THE KOAMEK.