NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20640, 12 August 1930, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

AS OTHERS SEE US. " Nations are liko individuals in that it is important for their growth in mental and moral structure that they should have as accurate an idea of themselves as circumstances allow. Liko individuals, therefore, they may profit by a study of the opinions entertained of them by outsiders—by the exercise of the highly desirable power to 'see ourselves as others see us,' " writes Mr. B. K. Sandwell in the Queen's Quarterly. ''That nation is most wise which most accurately knows how to revise its opinion of itself by a properly adjusted allowance for the opinions entertained of it by others. A sane attitude toward external criticism is one o£ the best of all signs of national maturity. Complete insensitiveness to this external criticism, such as we may suppose was exhibited by the Sublime Porte regime in Turkey, is a sign of decay, a sort of hardening of the national arteries. Excessive and resentful sensitiveness is equally a weakness, but characteristically a weakness of youth not unrelated to the well-known phenomena of shyness and bumptiousness in individual adolescence. The mature nation, liko the individual in the height of his powers, listens to external criticism with calmness, values it according to its concept of the intelligence and prejudice of the critic, and endeavours to profit by that part of it which appears sound and justifiable."

METHOD IN TEACHING. Sir John Adams, who, for many years, was Professor of Education at the University of London, has published a book for tho benefit of teachers arid educational workers. In one passage he says:— No careful observer will feel called upon to deny that a great deal of the teaching in the world is carried on by fumbling. We must all have the greatest sympathy with those teachers who desire to be allowed to teach in their own way, so as not to constrain their personality and be compelled to make themselves other than they are. Such teachers shudder at the name of method, and regard it as nothing more than a chain imposed from without. They are loud in proclaiming that there is no one and indivisible method before which all others must bow, and that whatever method suits each teacher is the best for him. When all this is analysed, it comes to no more than a demand that each teacher should bo allowed to work out the details of method in his own way. These details are not nearly so important as tho protesting teachers believe, and if the truth came out it would be found that the teachers who are loudest in their protests are most given over to set ways of doing things—in other words, to method. The really important thing to get into our heads is that there are certain broad principles of method that are of general acceptation, and must be observed before there can be any genuine teaching. In applying these general principles, there is abundant scope for the development of all the individuality of which teachers can boast.

BRITISH RAILWAYS AND COAL. The reasons why main lino electrification of railways has made little headway in Britain were explained by Mr. Roger T. Smith at a recent meeting in Paris of the French society of electrical engineers. 110 said tho carriage of coal accounts for about one-third of tho freight revenue and one-fifth of tho total revenue of British railways. In these circumstances the coal trader naturally lobks to the railways to use the commodity which brings them so much revenue. "The use for railway traction of electricity generated in power stations with coal-fired boilers demands, for a given tractive power, about half the amount of coal which would be burnt in the furnaces of steam locomotives," Mr. Smith added. "Where locomotive coal is imported, electric traction is a saving to the country whether water or thermal generated power is used; but, in a country where coal is so good and so abundant as to be exported, unless there is a saving in total expenses by electric traction and not only in coal, its use may offend the most important single customer —the colliery—by halving its sales to the railways for locomotive purposes. This trade difference between the electrification of railways in a country where electricity is produced wholly or largely by water power, and in a country where it is produced wholly bv home-raised coal, must be taken account of as one reason why no main-line electrification in Great Britain has as yet been carried out, quite independently of the price of coal."

" RATIONALISE THE EMPIRE." The forthcoming Imperial -Conference was described recently by Mr. ,T. H. Thomas, secretary for the Dominions, as a unique opportunity. for free and unfettered discussion of all aspects of the unemployment problem. " Tlio problem of unemployment is, and must, until it is settled, remain the paramount political issue of our people," said Mr. Thomas, " not alone becauso of its tremendous cost, but becauso the British Empire has been built up by the spirit of independence and adventure characteristic of our race. Idleness, if it became permanent, would inevitably sap the independent spirit of our people." Fortunately the Imperial Conference would give a unique opportunity for a free and unfettered discussion of all aspects of this question. " Everything that the United States possesses to-day in material wealth and resources is possessed within the ambit of the British Empire. Outside a limited amount of oil and a limited period for cotton, tho improvement of which depends on tho extent to which wo like to encourage and develop it. there is nothing (hat is not possible within the British Empire. It is because of that knowledge that on behalf of the Government I announced that wo intended to enter this conference frco and unfettered, freo to consider every problem on its merits, unfettered by prejudice or bias, and prepared with a single-minded desire to try and find a solution of the problem." Mr. Thomas asked if it ought not to bo possible in the Imperial Conference that rationalisation of the Empire should have consideration. Ho added: "It is becauso I know the difficulties, limitations and dangers of rationalisation that I say: Lot us, regardless of our politics, face the fact that we have borno the burden and heat of the day. Wo are not down and out. We have survivod our past difficulties, aud in that spirit I approach my task."