LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18889, 11 December 1924, Page 7

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

ANOTHER ROUGH ROAD. Sir, —We cannot imagine why Albion Road, which is hewly-formed, is to bo left in its present rough condition.. The residents of 11 houses on the north side cannot get entrance to Gladstone Road without crossing over rough stones, whiSh damage boots and shoes. A Ratepayer Albion Road.

THE MATRIC. EXAMINATION. Sir,-—Scots Hall on Wednesday, mid-day, presents an amusing spectacle, candidates for matriculation were straggling out on to the pavement after having made unhappy attempts upon the French language paper, and harsh comments upon the examiners. To obtain a pass in matriculation the candidate must satisfy in at least one foreign language. French then, for being a modern popular (?) language is chosen by the many. A great number have obtained a partial pass but year after year are baulked at the French hurdle. In most subjects we experienced examinees can gull the self-satisfied examiner—but not in French. One never knows what the topic of the translation is going to be I One year the paper tests the knowledge on birds; another year it is something about horse thieves; . the next it is about dreams and robbers.

But this year! this year, sir, ha 3 brought us up to breaking point! Practically from beginning to end the paper gabbles on cats!!! When the commencing bell clanged and the candidates took up their papers, I looked round- on a j sweeping array of pleasing faces. How ■ beautifully the paper started—" La Mere. \ Chatto"—that is, the mother cat, nearly all the students knew that! Then it goes'j " Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, Non, Cinq." That's the way they count in French you know! Well, the mother was counting her kittens and she had lost, some of them. It was a very pathetic, little story, but I heard a deep sigh when ' all the candidates had reached the end (we > usually keep the same time in French —it's so regular) for the mother cat wok© up and found it all a dream. The next question was about a lion, which is only a development on the cat, anyway! Question 3, for translation into French was all about kittens. Question 4 depended on Question 1, which was the paean of the cats. Question 2 also depended on the cat question. Not many could do Question 5, because it • had nothing to do with cats, so it really does not count. And the essay was not to be attempted before the rest of' tha paper had been done. So if you got lost among the cats you left the essay out.

Well, sir, I ask you sanely, why should j a student forfeit money, time, health, e«. joyment and position because ho learnt every French rule in the book, but did" J not happen to know what was in tli» examiner's cat-egory ? Knowing that the present system of examination is, at its , best, most unsatisfactory, why in the name of the eternal nightmare do they make* it wallow in the ridiculous ? ' No doubt . many of your readers will see the cats chalked on the footpath in front of the Scots Hall, but only disappointed and unfairly-treated students will see them in their dreams. Catapult.

EFFICIENCY IN BUSINESS. Sir, —The lady from Philiipi must have had only a limited opportunity for observing efficiency as it is practised in State and private business in New Zealand.sinee she judges State management to be incompetent by exasperating incidents in the purchase of stamps and from that hasty conclusion presumes the superiority of private enterprise. Such deficiencies may bo observed in a hundred different manifestations in private business. Is the customer at all retail shops always received with instant attention, perfect courtesy and even moderate appreciation of his or her requirements? Efficiency in private business is - very largely a fiction. T took a small repair job to one of the largest and superficially most efficient establishments in the city. It was to be ready in a few days. A week later, it was not ready. Several calls were made at intervals, each involving a long wait while search was made for the article, twice unsuccessfully. Finally it was discovered—untouched. Another visit—and it had been done wrongly, in direct disobedionce of explicit instructions. When at last delivered, finished as required, the job had been in the care of this private efficient business for over three months. Again I gave an order, with written instructions, to a private business for_certain goods, similar in character, but oi different sizes and different numbers, of each of three types. The work was badly done, the numbers were wrong, and the charge was admittedly inaccurately reckoned. is a shining example of lack of system in one of the largest private institutions in the city, where thousands of small payments are received. The business of giving a receipt and change apparently compels the clerk to make half-a-dozen, trips to as many widely-separated points in a spacious office,, while the customer waits 15 or 20 minutes for a transaction that need not take more than one minute. There is, no doubt, "a certain measure of organisation and efficiency in private businesses, but few of them can teach the State departments. lam neither a public servant nor a socialist. "No Prejudice.