NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20597, 23 June 1930, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS. " The malaise that afflicts the Unionists has less to do with internal differences than is commonly supposed. No party is really mcie proof against disruptive attempts," said tho Times in commenting on tho result of the Fulham byelection, where, if: says, tho Conservative victory was largely due to Lord Beaverbrook, who made fiscal reciprocity within the Empire tho leading issuo of tho election. "Yet they have a stale touch on tho platform, and as an Opposition in Parliament they sometimes lack diligence, but seldom dullness. It cannot well be othenviso while the same old hierarchy presides in unbroken order, and defeat has not' even brought tho blessings of disturbance. If the. party is bored by this perversion of tho principle of continuity, the public cannot bo less bored. . . . What the Unionist faith chiefly lacks is fresh-mindedness. It will not discover its frosh minds until it displays more readiness to employ them and to superannuate its veterans. The course of Parliamentary events since the general election has been long enough to prove that tho Unionist Opposition needs time to find itself, to find tho new men it needs, to form a clear picture of tho position of this country in a muchchanged world, and to formulate its ideas accordingly." GENIUS OR DILIGENCE. " Tho essential virtue, if you are to make anything of your life, is diligence," said Mr. Stanley Baldwin, in his address on the occasion of his installation as Chancellor of St. Andrew's University. " Diligenco seems so commonplace that when wo see a great accomplishment of learning, of discovery, in statesmanship, in what you will, we are always inclined to attribute it to genius, to good fortune, to anything and everything except that very power of concentration and continuous work which is its very foundation. And this belief is sometimes fostered by a human weakness not unknown among thoso who have dazzled the eyes of their own contemporaries. There is a temptation to make men bolicvo that yoiir success i 3 due less to that capacity for work which is to be found in every position of life than to some innate superiority which has predestined you from the beginning to do, in a fit of absence of mind, as it were, what can only bo accomplished by others, if indeed it can be accomplished at all, by the unceasing labour of a lifetime. Let me remind you of Dr. Johnson's answer to Boswell on the subject wo aro considering. They were speaking of literary composition, and Boswell asked him very naturally whether one should wait for the favourable moment, for the afflatus, before beginning to write. 1 No, sir, said Johnson, 'he should sit down doggedly.' And that is how all tho work best worth doing has been and will be done. There are no short cuts." WESTERN AUSTRALIA. "There is a serious demand for secession in Western Australia," said the Premier of that State, Sir James Mitchell, recently. " Western Australians are becoming restive. The majority of the people of my State are supporting the separation movement, and they will continue to do so unless something can be done to reduce considerably and immediately the load of taxation and other burdens for which the Federal Government is mostly responsible. The people of Western Australia know that their country cannot bo developed as rapidly as it could bo if the present terrific load of taxation is not lessened. They feel it to be their duty to coming generations to ask either for freedom or for a chanco to live in reasonable comfort and decency without having to struggle year after year to meot charges imposed by the Federal authorities." The Premier expressed disappointment with tho allocation of money by the Loan Council as far as Western Australia was concerned. Next year, he said, Western Australia's loan allocation woujd bo £1.800,000 less than it was three years ago, and insufficient to enable the Government to proceed fully with its policy of land settlement. Westem Australia was being sacrificed for tho industrial development of the eastern States. Tho annual per capita expenditure in Western Australia on goods manufactured in the eastern States was £25, while tho per capita expenditure in the eastern States on goods from Western Australia was only four shillings. LEAVING CERTIFICATES. "Examinations havo their uses. They supply a genuine stimulus to many — probably tho vast majority of—pupils. We all need some goal fo aim at; arid the young person is rare who can work steadily for the love of learning or for distant fame. Provided they aro not abused, they aro a powerful aid to tho teacher; and comparatively simple reforms could rid them of their worst drawbacks," says a correspondent of tho Times Edncational Supplement. Discussing that aspect of the question that has arisen in New Zealand owing to tlio. uso of matriculation examination as a tost at tho conclusion of secondary education, he commends a scheme proposed anonymously some years ago. and now published under his own name, by Dr. William Edwardes, formerly H.M. inspector of schools, nnd chief inspector of tho Central Welsh Board. His proposal is that a certfiicatc (or certified record) should be given to each candidate, "which does no more than give the valuo of the candidate's performance in each presented subject taken separately." By this revolutionary but simple plan, Dr. Edwardes contrives "an examination which shall givo the schools tho utmost freedom without sacrifico of efficiency." If there is no pass or fail, schools cannot compete in unhealthy rivalry; a candidate who now fails the whole examination by a few marks in one subject would get credit for liis actual performance; tho excuse for emotional strain on the part of both teacher and child would be lessened if not destroyed; and each individual would feel free to work at tho subjects for which he had a bent. Everybody knows that the pass lino is an arbitrary and artificial thing; yet at present a pass is a pass and a failure is a failure. Under Dr. Edwardps' plan all that would go. Evory one would have a record of his proficiency; it would be for tho employer to judge whether be considered that record satisfactory for bis particular purposes.