NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

COMPETENCE COMES FIRST Competence should come before selfreliance, says Dr. L. P. Jacks, the famous principal of Manchester College, in an article discussing how the virtues of independence can bo fostered in an educational scheme. If I had to devise a system of education for the special purpose of training young people in the virtue of self-reliance, he writes in the News Chronicle, I should not put that word, in the forefront of my programme, and I am not sure that I should put it in the programme at all, certainly not in the time-table, but keep it silently in the back of my mind The word 1 should put in the forefront of my programme would bo competence. I should expect self-reliance to grow out of corppetenco, but nob vice versa. I should feel that if competence in any given direction is acquired then self-reliance, in that direction, and perhaps in others that lie near it, can be safely left to look after itself. But if competence is not acquired J. should tell my pupils, if I told them anything at all about the matter, that self-reliance in that direction is not a virtue, but a vice. A system of education which ends in general incompetence or, what is pretty much the same thing, in general slovenliness of mind and body—the two kinds of slovenliness general!}' go together—can never be a system which produces self-reliance, except that most dangerous kind of it, the self-reliance of tho fool.

BREAD AND SOCIAL STATUS The state of human existence politely termed "civilisation" has always been associated with bread-eating, says the Morning Post, in an editorial. Prehistoric man lived on roots, fish and indifferently-roasted meat. He spent 60 much time scrabbling and hunting that ho must have had little patience for the first philosopher-scientists who suggested that man should settle down to a quiet life of grain cultivation. Such innovators must have been considered as anaemic as the products from their primitive ovens. But the bread-makers triumphed, and when we recall how long "civilisation" has been in thrall to these anaemic products it comes as rather a shock to learn that "as one's social position improves one tends more and more to reject bread." According to Sir John Russell, Director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, the upper and middle classes in England do not consume a great deal of bread, which has become rather "a vehicle for the transportation of such luxuries as jam, honey and caviare." Does this denote a subcon-. scious reversion to the habits of our nomadic ancestors, or is it merely a temporary demonstration of antipathy to the extreme anaemia of the British quartern-loaf? White bread may be the symbol of civilisation, but when it is purified to the point of losing all mundane savour, the "civilised" may be excused the weakness of regarding it as an adjunct rather than a necessity of daily existence.

FILMS AND CENSORS The concern shown by several correspondents at the uncontrolled, if occasional, exhibition of scenes of violence and horror in news films prompted a question in the House of Commons, and the Homo Secretary's answer conveyed a hint of corrective powers, in the background, which might as a last resort have to bo employed, says tho Times in an editorial. On general principles it is to be hoped that no such necessity for intervention will arise. The company resTjonsible for an unfortunate lapse from taste recently has set an excellent example by promptly withdrawing the offending film on becoming aware of the public disapprobation it had aroused. But tho incident was not an isolated one, and there is at present no security against its repetition. In this particular case the film showed, first, the re-enactment of his crime by a . self-confessed . murderer under the supervision of the Californian police, and, afterwards, as a "still" picture, the final scene of his lynching by an infuriated mob. Before this we have had more than one film showing tho dreadful circumstances of death in motor accidents; and, perhaps worst of all, the terrible spectacle of a man fighting for his life against, and at last destroyed by, the revolutionary crowds in Cuba. It would be possible to, make out a case for showing these horrors in certain circumstances and to a special audience. That they Bhould bo shown as an adjunct to an everyday entertainment and to an audience sure, to contain young children is indefensible, the Times concludes.

FREEDOM OF THE SKIES A powerful plea for the freedom of the skies is made by the air pioneer Sir Harry Brittain in his book "By Air." After giving an account of the formidable requirements the ordinary pilot has to fulfil before he can commence a flight overseas Sir Harry continues: "They are nothing, however, compared with what the big commercial air lines have to endure. There are critics who argue that the transport of goods by air will never be a payable proposition. It is astonishing that with so many regulations and obstacles to overcome the air transport of goods is actually' in operation at 'all. No ship entering a foreign port is subject to so many hampering rules as an aeroplane that has landed to refuel for the next stage of its journey. Before enlarging on these difficulties confronting the development of international aviation, it might be worth while considering how this admittedly bad system" of air law came into existence. As might be expected, it .'a really a war legislation. . • • And those laws, born during the great conflict, exist to-day. The only modification is that the right of innocent passage has been accepted, in part, by all nations, but only by special treaty. It is thescf treaties which permit Imporial Airways and others to fly or not to fly over cOrtain territories. But the many laws and prohibitions regarding international flying hang over the frontiers of Europe like thoso balloOn-moored apron screens that hung over London to prevent, raiding aeroplanes reaching the city during the Avar. ' . . . It is ob;vious from a calm, unbiased study of these laws that for the most part they are based on international jealousies rather than international co-operation. And air-mindedness has gone too far to be hampered by legal-mindedness. Regulations for safety and the like there must be. But let us rid the air of these irritating obstructions."