NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20793, 9 February 1931, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE TURN OF THE TIDE. "Tho influences of depression are cumulative and it is tho usual thing for the outlook to appear more and more unpromising in proportion as the depression nears its end," says tho December letter issued by the National City Bank of New York. " The processes of deflation operate in a vicious circle, each unfavourable development bringing in its train a series of other unfavourable developments, each of which in its turn constitutes a potential source of further difficulty. But obviously this sort of thing has to come to an end sometime and by tho very nature of the circumstances the turn is likely to come at tho time when to most peoplo the outlook appears the blackest. . . Of course, the fact that a feeling of pessimism prevails in many quarters is not in itself a sure indication that the bottom has been reached, but it may be worth remembering that such is likely to be one of the characteristics of the bottom when it is reached. It should not be forgotten that it is typical of periods of business depression for the obstacles to loom up most formidably and that we never see the impelling forces from which revival springs until afterwards." SPORTING CONTESTS. Tho success of Americans in sporting contests is the subject of analytical review in Harper's Monthly by Mr. §. R Tunis. " The .English have not had much luck at imitating our methods; and, continuing to lose, they have become—to put it plainly—just a little peevish," ho concludes. " Should we in their place be as good-humoured losers as the English after 30 years of concentrated lickings ? I doubt it; if they are peevish, I am confident that in a similar situation we should bo simply unbearable. Nor is there anything in the manner in which our business world has taken the setbacks of the recent depression to make one believe the contrary. . . . The important thing is that these great international contests, far from serving the purposes for which they were instituted, are doing exactly the opposite. The more we meet upon the common ground of sport the less respect we have for each other. It is distressing, but it is a fact. Let us not blink facts, let us face them. And the facts are that the fundamental purposes of sport about which we all agree are being defeated, not furthered, by international contests. Let us have dono with them. Let us shako hands like sportsmen and say good-bye." BRITAIN AND WAR DEBTS. "It is now eight years since tho British Government —through what is known as the Balfour Note —explained the attitude of this country toward war debts. They stated that they were prepared—if such policy formed part of a satisfactory international settlement —to remit all tho debts due. to Great Britain by our Allies in respoct o7 loans, or by Germany in respect of reparations," Barclay's Bank review remarked recently. "At that time the aggregate amount due to Great Britain was about £3,400,000,000; on the other hand, Great Britain owed tho United States about £850,000,000. The suggestion made in the Balfour Note was unfortunately not adopted, but the British Government gave definite proof of the sincerity of their offer by a declaration on tho part of Great Britain that in no circumstances would sho exact payment of any greater sum from her debtors than was necessary to pay what she might owe to her creditors. In effect, therefore, the amount that Great Britain thus wrote off from the debts due to her was £2,550,000,000." The debts duo to the United States by 16 nations now amount to about £2,320,000,000. Britain has actually not received from hor debtors sufficient to meet her payments to the United States. An official statement was recently made in the House of Commons that the total sums paid to the United States, including the instalment last December, exceed tho amounts received in respect of Allied war debts and reparation by £140,000,000. Tho accumulated deficiency is close on £200,000,000, if interest on past payments and receipts is taken into account.

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. The importance of the thorough and sound teaching of English was emphasised iii an address to the Preparatory Schools Association recently by the headmaster of Stowe. Although English teaching had improved 100 per cent in the last 30 years, he said, the English still used their own incomparable language with less ease, less skill, less care, and less pride than the French showed in using French, or the Germans in using German. The ordinary Englishman was slightly suspicious of a man who showed skill in the art of expression, although, A just because ho was ignorant of the art, he was more easily, taken in than anyone elsts by it. This weakness was partly due to national temperament and national tradition, hut it must be partly due also to the education that the Englishman received. The teaching of English was oi enormous importance, both educationally and psychologically. Latin composition was like being taught to row in a tub moored to the banks of a river, but English composition was like rowing a boat of one's own and going where one liked in it.' If the English teaching was mishandled or neglected the boy's whole development Suffered. English teaching represented tlio " vitamins" of education; wo did not need much of tho foods that had vitamins in them, but we needed them regularly, and wo needed them good and fresh; English must be well taught, by a man who was fresh and young, at any rate in mind. To make boys articulate, to get themselves to express themselves, it was necessary to got their minds moving eagerly; to provide activity was a large part of tho duty of the teacher in every subject, but in English it was almost the whole of his duty. Beauty and correctness and disputation. were all needed. But the best teacher was the man who got the most done by the boys, and who did not deprive them of the feeling that they had done something for themselves, or shake their occasional conviction that they had dono something good. Pompous peoplo called that the joy of creation—the phrase was un pleasant, but the thing was a reality. THat little spark of the creative spirit was the light by which every star-lod schoolmaster moved.