NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14868, 20 December 1911, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE DAEK SIDE OF SOUTH AMERICA.

A writer in Blackwood's magazine paints a terrible picture of the dark side of South America' He says:—The 'white slave' traffic is horribly active along the South American coast Companies of high repute are not ashamed to profit by its money. There is no secrecy about the thing. It is obtruded on the notice of the first-class passengers by the flaunting swagger of persons of both sexes who come and go regu laxly, and whose purpose is notorious. They take ft first-class cabin for themselves, and perhaps a score of second and third-class berths for those they bring with them. The captain will tell you that they could be stopped. and that he hates to see his fine ship turned into—and he uses a very plain word. But the companies dp not act." The immigrant could be easily protected if the police did their duty. But "the judicial and police establishments of South America are generally maintained for any purpose except the avowed one. They, are the political agents of the men in power, and because they are indispenablethey must not be punished for their excesses. Their hand is heavy on the poor settler in town or country. If a commissary of police desires the good-looking daughter of a small tradesman, and finds himself denied, he will tax the father to ruin. In Buenos Aires itself, which boasts profusely of its civilisation,' the police, mostly, Indians from Salta, have, seized women in, the streets." The spiritual police is not much better:" From Mexico southwards the disorders of the clergy, secular or regular, are notorious. Decentbehaved clerics can only be obtained by importing them. The men who possess what passes for education in' South America are as destitute of all religious belief as of sexual morality." *

* THE NEW SCHOLARSHIP. In his article on the" " Heart of Things," in Chambers's. Journal, Mr. Henry Leach takes .for his subject the New Scholarship. The present system of examinations, especially in .secondary schools, has long been under suspicion, he says. Candidates are crammed with books of facts which are nob understood,- and the examinations are mere memory-tests. Mediocrity is encouraged and individuality suppressed.-, History books often end at the accession of Queen Victoria, exactly, where they ought more properly to begin. It is the events of the modern time that'' have an immediate bearing' on all that I we have ' to v do today. ' ..Students »khow-.all.»about -the- Ee-

formation, but nothing' about v..- [Worm and the Education measures of ihv, most tremendous consequence. _ While they know, or at least once did know, all about the old-time trouble -with the barons, they know nothing of the causes which led up to the Parliament Act of '.1911. How serviceable it would be to be equipped with a knowledge of the rise of labour and the history of , the Trade Union movement I The knowledge of many of our early wars with France could well be spared to. make room for some concerning the progress of Germany in recent years, and knowledge of the Continental alliances of long-gone times, very soon forgotten- again, is infinitely less important than knowledge about the Triple Alliance of today. What do students learn about the British Empire? Can they read with any understanding the money-columns of the daily papers? What do'thev, know .of the Morocco of. to-day? If only there was such a thing-as a school at which those destined for commercial careers could be taught only the things of to day, beginning English history with the nineteenth -century, considering geography only from the point of view of the political and' commercial problems of. the recent past and the future, being made, to speak and. read both French and "German, and being taught something of the simpler laws of. the country as they affect the ordinary doings of the individual in private and commercial life—in short, being made so efficient in knowledge of subjects and matters of current interest and importance, that they could pass an examination based upon tho morning's newspaper, surely such a school would succeed amazingly. How a little of such practical knowledge would add to the interest and pleasure and profit of reading the daily paper".