NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13032, 24 November 1905, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE MARVEL OF JAPANESE . ) EDUCATION. * In the National Review Mr. E. P. Culver* • well supplies a most interesting paper on I Japanese Education and Character. He - says that the Japanese child in an elementary school breakfasts at six,, and: stays at ' school from seven till twelve. These fire i hours are broken by gymnastics and play, i Sunday is a whole holiday, Saturday is a , half-holiday, a fortnight in midwinter,. a » week in April and the; month of August. . The children in their play, do everything [ but quarrel. An English teacher, after two years' experience, reports that he never saw r Japanese schoolboys quarrel. There is at , least one school journey in. the year, when everything that can be taught is ■ taught. There is no-corporal pdnishment. No Ja- . panese teachei ever loses, his temper without being disgraced. The pupils'' mental attitude is earnestness. The English school--3 boy's fashion of despising school* tasks is ! unknown. Children of all classes, rich and 1 poor, go together to the same school. ? All ' classes in Japan are characterised by extra--1 ordinary courtesy of action. and speech. t There are a few honorary prizes, for "th« 3 precepts of the Sermon on the Mount are i far more faithfully observed in Japan than

in those nations or Christendom which. pro- >; less to recognise their Divine authority ;" J for duty, hot self-advancement, is the mo- 'i tive appealed to. But loan scholarships are J given, tho< student promising to repay them - afterwards for the ■ benefit of; another stu- a d<int. Gymnastics are carefully taught, 1 parrot memory is discouraged. Morals are : taught two hours a week in the elementary .: schools, one hour- a week in the secondary ;.< schools. Moral maxim?- are illustrated by i deeds of history or actions" of private men.' l These stories are, not tales of triumphant < strength arid conquest, but of self-efface- ; meut. The nearest approach to them in J Christian teaching would/be the stories, of '<■ the martyrs, but to the Japanese mind the u martyr's hope of reward in. heaven would < rob the act ot virtue. This force of selfcontrol and' fcelf-cffacement is rooted in pub- ".; lie opinion, habit, and patriotism. Of re- ' ligious cnthusiasir. there seems to be none. ; A class of children in 1892, asked what was their direst wish, wrote, "To be'allowed ] to die for our beloved Emperor.' The Emperor is 'an abstraction put in the . place for God reserved in our minds. . The writer adds a note to say that since Western education, has passed out of the hands of the missionaries Christianity has been practically at a standstill in Japan. * !■ POLITICAL PLAGIARISM. Remarking on Mr. Seddon's method of getting together a policy by taking the Opposition's planks, the Christchurch Press points out that the Premier is talking a great deal just now about a free breakfast table, though the nearest we have got to hearing anything definite on the subject is a promise to reduce the duty on tobacco. He first mentioned the matter .in his speech in Wellington .after the close of the session, and because the Opposition have been advocating •the same thing he declares that they have appropriated his idea.. He omits to mention,, and trusts to his audience having forgotten, that a reduction of duty on the necessaries ' of life was declared to be a plank in the Opposition platform weeks be- • fore his Wellington speech. The other day in Auckland he made off with another idea, first suggested by Mr. Massey. The" Press then employs the deadly parallel as follows : —- . ■ : Mr. " Massey at 'Mr. Seddon at Christchurcn (May 2, Auokland (November i 1985): He (Mr. Maesey) ; 14,-1905):- What i they, would adept an might do, and be American law, which would invoke cnti- : provides that a wifecism upon it, was is a legal partner that they should have = with her husband if .a law-in New Zealand they own a house, that the % wife!: should! ; and that the ? house have a statutory right cannot be sold' with-, by law jto one-half out the wife's writ- of the home,: juste as ten consent. good as the husband. ■- • ' , , If the husband > wanted to mortgage the "home ■he must have the consent of his wife. : If he wanted to alienate he should ."* get the permission of his good wife. A good husband would not object to that. ■ The proposal, adds the Press, is one which has much to commend it, and if its principles are, as a Government organ claims, " thoroughly consistent with the established and accepted doctrines of liberalism," it is just as well that the public should remember that the thought was Mr. Massey's : before it was ■ the Premier's, and that the ' latter has simply pilfered it without acknowledgment. But Mr. Massey may justly complain of misrepresentations as well 36 of the appropriation of his ideas. As everyone knows, he is strongly of opinion that... no private lands should be compulsoriiy acquired without the sanction of Parliament first being obtained. Considering the very large sums involved in these transactions, the proposal is both prudent and reasonable. But what do we find? His opponents do not scruple to distort • this suggestion into an expression of opinion, hostile to the ac- , quisition of private estates for close settlement under any and alii circumstances. It may be that all ie fair in politics as in love, but it is nevertheless a confession of weak® ness when tactics like these have to be adopted to bolster up a party and discredit a rival.