NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18283, 27 December 1922, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

TO POPULARISE READING. I A novel suggestion to revive popular in- | terest in reading has betn made by Mr. iE. E. Calkins, an American publisher. I " Book publishers use advertising to teach | people to read books as they have been | already taught to ride in motor-cars, go to | the movies, or use raisins and oranges and j prunes in unheard-of new ways—by advorj tising," he writes. " With many, not reading books is merely a habitt " They j don't read books because it isn't the thing l to do. A large percentage of motor sales ! are duo to mere emulation. People buy 1 cars because other people have them, a!i most os much as because they want cars. I Watch tho growth of radio and you will ! see the thing work out. It's tho desire to be in the style, to do or have the thing everybody is doing or having. It would take a lot of money to make reading a fashion —to make people read books because everybody was doing it—to make reading as popular as dancing, tho movies or chewing gum—but it would be worth every cent that it cost. . . . There is bound to be another result. Make the country as a whole more conscious of books, and its taste will improve. Tho man who betrins golf with a score of 153 is at first delighted to think ho can play at all. But as he gets farther on and gets '• the effect of the golf mind, hp Tvants first ! to be in the atound-a-hujidred class, and ! then he strives for the low handicaps — j not, be it understood, because hi<* is a j soul that yearns for perfection, no' even, ! as a rule, because ho is Keen aboiu golf, , but simply because his world, the nun ha I is associated with, think that it mutters 1 and judge him and each other so, and Its is affected by their attitude, by the stats of mind that exists. It is emulation.'' ORGANISATION IN EDUCATION.

" The fear I have at the present time is of the over-orgaaiisation of our national education., and of bonds that may become bondage," said Professor A. Smithells recently , in the courso of ,1 farewell speech on his retirement from his 38 years' tenure of the Chair of Chemistry at Leeds University. " There have been in the last few years msjiy great incidents in the educational world, and none has beon more satisfactory than the improvement in the worldly circumstances of teachers. I confess that in my opinion it has not been made without the incidence of great risks. The new scale increases what I call the regimentation of education, and I believe that regimentation may stranglo out the life of true education. To the organiser bent on a certain kind of efficiency, and addicted much to the worship of system, co-ordination, and subordination, a perfectly organised and well-drilled army is a very imposing sight. To the teacher who is concerned with the human being, with the growth and tending of body, mind, and soul of young humanity, an army may l>ft an imposing spectacle, but its purpose and its ways are the very opposite of his. Our national system of education is growing more complete. We seo that what used to be called the. voluntary schools are now prepared to become the other sort. It is singular that this should happen at a time when there are signs of a revival of voluntaryism elsewhere. Psople, I think, in some quarters are beginning to grow restless under organisation. They yearn to keep education free from politics in its government., from the worst features of a trade unionism in its service, and from flat uniformity in its methods. lam in the heartiest sympathy, and I should bo keeping back from you what I have learned from a lifetime spent in education if I did not say that it has taught mo to value freedom as the highest necessity for my task as a teacher." LONDON BIRD SANCTUARIES. The committee on the establishment of bird sanctuaries in the Royal parks, appointed by Lord Crawford last year,- has already added t'o the amenities of London. Early this spring small enclosures in Hyde Park and' Kensington Gardens were prepared by suitable fencing, a small amount of planting, anc! exclusion of tidying gardeners. The birds accepted the hospitality; no fewer ban 20 species, including willow wrens, great and blue tits, redbreasts and lesser whitethroats, spotted flv-catchers, carrion crows, lawny owls, pheasants, and moorhen nested there this year. According to a report issued by the committee, it is proposed to extend these successful experiments. In Hyde Park two areas are to be allowed to grow wild, and some planting of suitable shrubs is to be carried out. The area on the east side of the Long Water in Kensington Gardens and a smaller enclosure on the west side are to be sanctuaries. The Duck Island in St. James' Park, two or three sites in Buckingham Palace Gardens, by consent of His Majesty, the islands in the lake in Regent's Park, the wilderness in Greenwich Park, and the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park are all to be prepared and reserved. These admirable sanctuaries, due to the initiation "of Mr. Harold Russell, a well-known London ornithologist, cost little, give pleasure to many, and will not incommode a single human being. They are not to inc'ommode even the London cats, for the committee decided that there was no practical catproof fence. But war is declared against the grey squirrels, absolute to extermination in Richmond Park, and intermittent in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens on the charge of their being habitual robbers of nests.