NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20364, 19 September 1929, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURE

" Anyone of average intelligence, provided he or she has the driving force born of enthusiasm and the faculty of taking pains, is capable of making valuable contributions to knowledge in some department of scientific inquiry," said Professoi A. C. Seward at the British Association meeting. " Amateurs have taken an honourable and productive part in advancing geological and botanical knowledge; they have an advantage over professional teachers in that they are free to concentrate their energies where preference leads them. To-day the rfpportunities of making acquaintance with the natural sciences are much greater than they were a few years ago, but the number of men and women who become keen enough to cultivate any one subject as a hobby is relatively small. I venture to urge upon teachers of science the duty of doing the utmost to awaken the souls of their pupils, to introduce them by means of simple examples to the joy that is to be found in putting questions to Nature and in trying to extract answers. It is the passion for the search that matters. Science should be taught not so much in preparation for a profession or a business; it should be presented in a form calculated to develop an interest strong enough to make a permanent impression on receptive minds. Wc need helpers in the cause of research, and it is for us who are engaged in teaching to make clear to those within our .sphere of influence the saving grace of a deeply-rooted interest in life over and above our daily duties, which will servo not only as a means of advancing natural knowledge but as a guiding star. Facts arc the tools with which the man of science works, but to use them to the fullest advantage he must be able to respond to the inspiration which comes to him who can look beyond the odge of the world." s

INSTALMENT CREDIT.

The limitations of tho various forms of instalment trading were discussed recently hy tho City editor of tho Times, who wrote: —"Provided care is taken to give credit to (he proper persons, to keep alive the obligation and interest connecting buyer and seller, and to avoid goods which aro as easily consumed as a box of chocolates, there is no reason why the system should not work successfully. Obviously, in this type of business, it is necessary that there should bo strict adherence to certain principles which experience has shown to be necessary. Sotno enthusiasts havo claimed that hire-pur-chase or buying by instalments is a cure for bad trade and a solvent for unemployment. While this claim is absurd it is, nevertheless, clear tibat the system has come to stay and to develop. It possesses certain advantages. For instance, the hire-purchase system enables a person to purchase systematically instead of haphazardly. It enables him to mobilise, ns it were, small weekly or monthly surpluses, and to spend them under'a definite plan. on a wide range of objects, instead of frittering them away. Instalment purchases for reproductive purposes in small businesses havo a definite economic advantage, for they enable a man to introduce sooner, instead of later, a nioro economical and oflicient machine, and to increase the range of his business. The system very largely' depends upon proper methods of handling and sound methods of financing. While tho hire-purchase system will facilitate business in various directions, it would be absurd to suppose that by merely changing tho direction of expenditure, such as happens when a man, instead of spending his weekly surplus on cinemas and excursions, spends it pu bpyiny is increased.''