ON THINGS N. GENERAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11059, 10 May 1899, Page 3

ON THINGS N. GENERAL

I THE DFFER, j.-j a letter which apfred in tho Herald i the other day, appmtly written by a schoolmaster, tho wri- asks whether anyone can " imagin th this or any other system will eliminate e 'duffer.' There, as every teacher knot is tho great difficulty; there is wlieinine-tenths of our ben efforts are waste.' Further on the writer talks about eking a bright girl of nine or 10 with a 'reat hulking duffer of 15 or 16.' I havo.tlo sympathy with such contemptuous refinces to the " hulking duffer." Historyecnrds almost innumerable instances otoys whom schoolmasters have pronounc to be failures and duffers-, making the w!d ring with theifame in after years, r :<y are often "duf"feis " only because tl teacher does not understand them. 'J - ver, fact that a master can talk of nJinvard buy or gi«l as a hulking duffer' ows a lamentable want of tint kindly syiathy which ought to cxi.-l between a tearr and his pupils A healthy good-na-turt " duffer" is inliritely preferable to the ecocious boy witu an old man's head on a I's shoulders, who has a superficial knowleu of almost everything under the sun, arwlio occupies his spare tini - in eorrecti; father, motto, sisters, and brothers, angcnerallv making himself a nuisance, Ocoimso. boys and girls of this stamp passll their examinations. I hey don't. rer|iv to bo "dragged tin(,ugh the fourth, by tlhai, of the head, the inspector, like .a senile man, winking ai it. As a really git educationalist has pointed out we havioo much experience -if uivasy restlessne ot brain anion" yum-; children. Some ildren have alto" j g.ther 'or much avidity,r learning, and I "it would be better forlemselves," says ■ tin wiiii. ati-.hority, "anhr heir parents, end for the lion too, (hei could be awakened in them, and lularly gratified, tile same avidity for play. Precocious cliildieu do no-, as a rule, riabove the average in after life; the temcy is rather to fall below it. A GALAXY OF JFFERS. Many a bulking duffe' as I have already said, lias lived to n:o a reputation, vliii ii will be. remembered • all time, while the very name ot the so.olma.stcr who may have dubbed him a lure is forgotten. or only survives becse to him was trusted the despised "dui's" early training. I ndei his flogging Jagogue Oliver (Tiniwell is said to have sural much, and to little purpose. He watt rank duffer; and so was C'live. the hctof oui Indian Empire. who simply woulnot, or could not, learn. Both preferred.tion to speculation. John Hunter, thoimous surge, and scientist, did not knows much Greek as an average schoolboy, a was learning to read English at an age 'en other boys were proficient in Latin; tit he was 'a splendid hand at birdnesti, and knew more about eggs than his tellers. I think it was Dean Stanley who -ver could get beyond the merest rndimenlof arithmetic, and Charity Darwin made any poo. show at school. His master reproved him 1 for wastint his time on chastrv. a stud.I that would be no use to In in after life. 1 George Romanes, Darwin's fnd and pupil, I is described as a " shocking nee," and his J boyhood was "shockingly ii, but. marvei- / lotisly happy." 'the list, o' duffers" also ' ircludes such men as Melahthon, Johnsen. Goldsmith. and a host ethers equally famous. who, it is said, lined lit-tJr or mailing but what was flog! int. them. These were all backward cdre.n, and if they were living to-day til would have to be dragged through the sdards by the h'nir of ill" head. When onjtinks of tiles'! things. a feeling of revereni for the dud ley, who invariably fails, e<es over him. Hi' might be an embryo Dain. or Stanley: and hat oi where wot the British Empire be to-day but for ti noble army of " hulking duffers" of the snj. of Cromwell and Ciive. WIRELESS TELEGRt'HY. The opinion of a scientific aiiority, published a few days ago. to the ect that the so-called wireless telegraphy 11 never entirelv supersede the useful, ii 1-fashioncd, I method of transmission of oner through a conducting medium, will probar not be re- i ceived with surprise by anye who has given the subject any considttion. So 1 far as concerns the sending of usages, the ■ only merit posstwd by the nevnethnd lies in the fact that eonimiinicatioinay be es-; tablished between two places vise natural' position makes them inaceessh to each other. It has been found thabver short, distances, such as three miles, tbraves are ; propagated with comparative ea; but that as the dislan-e increases the apratus required must be of enormously increased power, and the advantages der-d would not warrant the expenditure. Ik obvious too. that- as the waves are profited in straight lines, if it were requireto signal between two points at some consiiiablc distance apart, the curvature of the eili would render it necessary for the earth tbe made the medium of transmission, and pposing it were possible to obtain a coil olnfHcient ; power to generate waves that wol reach from here to London, the waves whl have to lake a direct path through the ntre of the earth. Theoretically, perhapithis is possible, but it seems hardly likelyhat wo shall lose our cables just yet. WORKS OF NECESSITY. An interesting illustration of the 'I saying that necessity knows no law —(defies all laws-was afforded by a case del with l at the Police Court the other da A I woman was charged, with selling threenny-1 worth of apples to a hungry custom, but : th" information teas dismissed becat: the j Sale was in the winds of the woman Siliei-1 tor, a "work cf necessity and chity."' Counsel for the defence also remarkethat 1 had a packet of cigarettes been sold tlcase would have been wilhin the Act. It ?dly ein,'-' fair that the man whose necsity takes the form of a i raving for apples Sold be allowed to gratify his longings wiout let or hindrance, even on Sunday, whilthe other follow, who is dying fur a smokejias to possess his s»ul ill patience (ill Mo 1 ,ay inornrig. To many a man his pipe a greater necessity than Lis meals, and to-o-vide a sin.-ker in time of need with a fi.of tobacco is often more of a work of cl.a'y than to serve a man whose soul cannot ;o above apples. A halo of poetry hangs or (he soothing weed, while eating applets a terribly common-place procedure. 1 dot I blame the woman who so'd tbe apples, t j is true she can't go In church and sell app; I at the same tim? ; bat after all we are t<; : that " to work is to pray." and therefo ' selling apples, like Cabinet meetings, is on another form of prayer. A DOUBTFUL COMPL.-tEXT, Most of the members of the National Colli eil of Women no doubt claim to be Christia women, and therefore they will probably rd gard a letter which appeared in the HKHALI the other day as a doubtful compliment Commenting on the Councils famous utter mice that "work is prayer." the writer oi the letter states, "All good Rationalists will rejoice to sic that a Council representing the women of this colony have to such an extent freed themselves from the cramping influences of ecclesiasticism. _ Hie Indies baldly expected this interpretation to be placed on their action. It seems, however, a little inconsistent for the Rationalists attempt to appropriate the famous dictum, labor.ue est orare." They do not, as a rule, believe in prayer, and if work is prayer, they ought surely to leave the work for those who pi ay. The savin!;, "to work is to pray, comes, I believe', from the great St. Bernard, and the true meaning of the Saint is brought out in the life of Mr. Airing, the celebrated headmaster of Uppingham School, of ivho. - ; it has been s::id that 'lie work;,i aj lis machinerv as if nothing could be idone by prayer, but he also prayed as if tjere were notjiing to be done by machinery, the late Canon Liddon said that in re;l pravei, the understanding, the affections, and the will were all put in motion, and tlise three ingredients of prayer were also t e ingredients of all hard work; the same opinion was held by the lat Bishop Hamilton, of Salisbury, who said, 'No man was likely to do much good at pra er who did not begin by looking upon it in he light oi a work, to be prepared for and p -severed in with all the earnestness which e bring to bear upon subjects which arc at ccs most interesting and most necessary." *1 > doubt the majority of the women of the ational Council would say "Amen" to this They did not mean to deny the necessity or to lower the dignity of prayer, but to ise tho dignity of all good unselfish work >r God and humanity to the level of prayer. vs . :.v; The GkiulV