NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9860, 1 July 1895, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

In the Parliamentary paper containing the reports of inspectors' of schools recently presented to both Houses of the General Assembly there is to be found a wonderful diversity of both style and matter. For instance, the report of the inspectors for Southland (Messrs. Hendry and Braikj almost approaches to the dignity of a philo sophical essay. Here is their description of the ideal teacher, which, we doubt not, a good many of the teachers in the Auckland schools will recognise as ;i very faithful sketch of themselves "Apart, from his ability to teach, the ideal teacher is a man of many and diverge gifts. He is resourceful and endowed with an ample measure of tact, able to control and able to' organise, an example for imitatioft arn~infl«ance for good in, his district; in a,word, his parts must be summed up in an individu- - ality that cannot fail so to mould the character of his pupils that they will pass from his hands clad in moral armour and

furnished with intellectual weapons worthy of the dignity of citizenship so soon to bi conferred upon them. Every day in each school the ideal is more or !*ss unfolded ; here almost realised, there almost destroyed." Messrs. Hendry and Braik v see in the proiienes3 .of those in v charge of educational matters "through excessive definition to specialise certain subjects by detaching them from their general bearing, almost to the extent of pernicious isolation," an evil which if nob guarded against will " gnaw at the root of I true educational progress. " They say that "the grand truth that knowledge is one and indivisible may be obscured, and unwary teachers led to regard every subject as independent of, if not antagonistic to, every other, and to the remaining portion of the educational whole." How every part of a whole can have relation to " the remaining portion" of the whole, or what is " th« remaining portion" of a whole which is independent of the whole we .are not told. However, Messrs. Hendry and Braik do inform us that they would not be understood to imply that education should " lagin the march of civilisation." On the coir trary, "it must be sensible to all the influences making for individual, social, and national welfare," but it must foster them only "by letting some of the old material go," and by bringing into stronger relief " the immutable principles on which al. true development rests." Some people, ij seems, judging the product of our schools " by the standard of their own solid experience, presage disorder for society and disaster for the State." It is, however, reassuring to learn that Messrs. Hendry, and Braik have seen nothing to convince tihem that such a state of things will " eventuate."

The Auckland and Parnell 'Endowment* Bill is a sample of the arbitrary manner in which the Government treat local bodies. About seven .years ago the Government) offered to lease the Hokianga endowments from the Auckland and Parpell Councils at Is 3d per acre par annum. After the first year's rent had been paid a new Government came into power and repudiated the transaction. The present Government, after repeated applications, paid the arrears of rent, but thereafter sought to rid themselves of the matter by intimating that Auckland and ParneU would have to take over the endowments with any liability attached thereto. Ib is stated that the Government have leased, without any title, some farms in perpetuity at 6d per acre, and others at 7d and 8d per acre, while having agreed to pay 1$ 3d per acre.' They 1 now seek by a Bill to compel Auckland and Parnell to take back theae lands with thf, engagements they (the Government) ha.V ■

g=~ '. 1 ■ - . " 1 1 entered into with thitlers, » d the first Intimation the local £ . int rested receive of this inteabiot; n<J oe in the press of the first read hof tha Jill, while it is passed to its secondiadinj; >efora tho boroughs of Auckland alParw 1 are even supplied with a copy. Si;, j \ " The unemployed queaii ij England- - tho world wide problem ••boroviling work for (he workless, to use t.wc»s of our Governor's Speechhas to I distinct breach between theindepeuntlai jur party and the more rigid and sotifi body of State Socialists represente6y Jr. Hyndman and the Social Democfjc Fi {oration. The latter body, says the tooimJournal, do not in the least degh aqopt Mr. Bardie's economic views i ti unemployed. Mr. Kyndman ii till S.D.F. candidate for Burnley, andlhelas just been telling the electors thalthotaember for South West Ham has mile jtnself a "laughing-stock" for the VhJ[ world before the Select Committee In t| unemployed. Mr. Hardio's answlrs fte ridiculed as absurd, and his plans I 'e dismissed as not consistent wa State Socialism. All this is interestii!, but it suggests the difficulty of Shining the pure milk of the word with tactical j politics. Mr. Hyndman and MfHardie repudiate opportunist politics, at'.leclare themselves to be revolutionary feialists. But when they approach even I fringe of immediate remedies they rat agree. Surely that is a lesson for bot f them. The programme of the Ii aendent Labour Party includes eight d tic proposals for land and agricultural i rm, and under an industrial heading are eluded, a maximum eight hours' day and * lition of child labour under fifteen. It lso proposed that there shall bo State i sions for every person at fifty-five years, ige, and adequate provision for all wi *3 and orphans and sick and disabled w cers, the means for both to come from a : on unearned incomes, and there is to I remunerative work for the unemployet Other points of the programme are free lucation up to and including the Univeri ies, free lasals lor children, munic ilisation of the liquor traffic, and a direct c nulative tax upon incomes exceeding £30C

Earl Cadogan, who has been Ipointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, with! seat) in the Cabinet, was born at Durham V 1840. He succeeded to the title on the lath of his father, the fourth earl, in IS73,having been for a few months previously ilp. for Bath. He was appointed Parliaifentary Under-Secretary for War in May, I®, and Under-Secretary of State for the Glomes in March, IS7B, in succession to [r. J. Lowther, who had been advanced ,o the post of Chief Secretary for Irelanj. He went one of office with the CoLerva-/ tiva party in April, 1880. In] Lor/ Salisbury's second administration,! 18$/, he was appointed Lord Privy j Seil, without i seat in the Cabinet, but he joiifed the Cabinet in 1887, and was appoinjad Chairman of Grand Committees in 139. Several other new appointments to 7he Ministry ire announced. It is reposed that Lorf Onslow is likely to be appointed Under-Secretary for the Colonic,-.. The Marquis of Ripon, in taking farewell of. the Agmts-General, said the futuA of the Erruire depended upon the development of the colonies. The Powers hare demandti an explicit reply from Turkej. concerning reforms in Armenia. Ib « probable that half the Chinese war loan will be raiser in England and Germany. At a fire in Jinneapolis six firemen were killed by falliig' debris. A rumour is current in Londor that New South Wales intends to plao on the market a two million 3 per lent. ban.