NEW WRITING METHOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21141, 26 March 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

NEW WRITING METHOD.

SIGNATURES IN SCRIPT. LEGALITY IN QUESTION. t Are signatures in script writing legal ? i This problem is facing bankers and others I- in Britain who depend on signatures for > the authentication of documents. It may bo that not many years hence, says the Daily Mail, the fingerprint will bo the ' only legal " signature." Script writing, which is now generally ! taught in elementary schools, consists of the formation of print-like characters. The ideal is attained when all the children copy the example so exactly that there is no difference between their writing. Already this system led to difficulties. A girl wishing to make a withdrawal from a Post Office Savings Bank account wrote her name in script. The post office clerk declined to accept it. " This," he said in effect, " may be your name, but it is not ; your signature. Anyone could write your name in those characters; there is nothing distinctive about them." Before she was allowed to draw her money the girl had to remember all she had been taught to forget and reproduce her name in oldstyle writing. An official of the general post office said : " Script writing is becoming universal and it robs ' signatures ' of all distinctive character. The new fashion, if maintained bv children after they leave school, is likely to open up a serious problem for bankers and lawyers." Education officials of the London County Council explained that script had been introduced so that young children should not have the difficulty of reading one kind of lettering and writing another. " As a child progresses," it was explained, " what is known as join-script is i taught, that is, the letters are joined to- j gether instead of being separate. Still | later tho writing becomes cursive or flowing. But, of course, a number of people retain the script style. Many head teachers do all their official correspondence in script, and beautiful writing it is."