NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22086, 16 April 1935, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

WELL-BEING OF YOUTH "In common with you all I am concerned for boys and girls after they have left school during that difficult time up to the age of 18." said the Prince of Wales in supporting the establishment of the proposed Trust Fund to help the youth movement in Britain. "The interest of home and school declines, and boys and girls enter an unfamiliar world at the most critical moment of tljcir physical, moral and mental development. Youth, as 1 see it f needs three things to tit it for life. It needs discipline, it needs friends, and it needs opportunity. These three gifts arc in our power. They will help youth itself to master the means of making life worth while. Youth must be helped to discover for' itself a sense of direction and purpose, which is one key of happiness and security v The first step is to evoke and encourage those interests latent in everyone whiclj will steady youth in its difficult days and strengthen its maturity." UNIVERSE " RUNNING DOWN " "I find no difficulty in accepting the consequences of the present scientific theory as regards the future —the heatdeath of the universe," writes Sir Arthur Eddington in New Pathways in Science. "It may be billions of years hence, but slowly and inexorably the sands are running out. I feel no instinctive shrinking from this conclusion. From a moral standpoint the conception of a cyclic universe, continually running down and continually rejuvenating itself, seems to me wholly retrograde. Must Sisyphus for ever roll his stone up the hill only for it to roll down again every time it approaches the top? That was a description of Hell. If we hare any conception of progress as a whole reaching deeper than the physical symbols of the external world, the way must, it would seem, lie in escape from the Wheel of things. It is curious that the doctrine £>f the running-down of the physical universe is so often looked upon as pessimistic and contrary to the aspirations of«religion. Since when has the teaching that 'heaven and earth shall pass away' become ecclesiastically unorthodox?" TEACHING OF SEX Speaking at the Winter School for Health Visitors and School Nurses, Dr. W. Moodie, medical director of the London Child Guidance Clinic, said: — "I am old-fashioned. I do not believe that the early teaching of sex is either necessary or advisable. I see too much harm arising in the minds of adolescents as a result of education given in the wrong way and at the wrong time. My belief is that that interest is only present, except in abnormal cases, if the child's mind is not sufficiently occupied with other things. I believe that the basic subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic form still the essential basis of mind exercise, and that if these subjects are taught early to children it so exercises their minds, so interests them if they are taught properly, and so links their interests together that their minds do not exercise themselves with other things. Therefore, 1 would definitely hold back from giving sex instruction early, and I would give a great deal even to go back to more secrecy upon the subject." OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE Dr. Cyril Bailey, Public Orator of Oxford University, recently wrote:—"l do not share the gloomy view of Sir Michael Sadler that Oxford and Cambridge are on their last legs, but I do believe that the newer and largely non-residential universities have got an ever-increasing part to play in national education. We have got to face a world in which hours of work will be limited—at least, I see no other permanent cure for unemployment —in which State education will be prolonged to later years, and when the problem of useful employment of leisure will, as I hope and believe, turn men's thoughts here and now to education and culture. It is obvious that it will be much easier and much more natural in such circumstances to make use of the universities in the great cities. Oxford and Cambridge must no longer stand aloof in splendid isolation, but must unite with the other universities in trying to think out the national system of university education. Oxford still exists," Dr. Bailey added. "There is more real desire for learning both among dons and among undergraduates tban-I have ever known, and there is a serious, if sometimes rather wayward, care for the affairs of the world. Gradually she is adjusting hersejf to new circumstances and a new outlook, and yet, I believe, she is losing nothing of what is valuable in the old traditions. We may look with confidence, to the future." EMPIRE AIR MAILS It is good news, 6ays the Times editorially, that the Australian Cabinet has approved the tentative agreement reached in Sydney between representatives of Great Britain, the Commonwealth, and New Zealand for co-opera-tion in the proposed Empire air service. The agreement is not complete, for several points were raised by the Australian delegates to the Sydney conference which the British delegates had to refer to their Government. The original proposals contemplated the carriage by air of all first-class mail within the Empire at the rate of threehalfpence the first half-ounce. In Australia it is believed that this low rate would involve the Australian Post Office in a heavy annual loss, and power is desired to impose a surcharge. There are, moreover, objections to the use of seaplanes between Singaporo and Sydney on the ground that, besides lengthening the journey, it would deprive the inland towns on the overland route between Darwin and Sydney of the facilities which they would enjoy if land aeroplanes were used. These are all matters for adjustment, and there is no doubt that they will be adjusted. At any rate, the decision now taken by the Federal Cabinet is an important stop toward final agreement. There was never any doubt of the support of the New Zealand Government. It is satisfactory to know that preparations on the executive side have not been held back to await the conclusion of all the necessary agreements. The scheme will increase to more than 5,000,000 miles the annual mileage to be flown by Imperial Airways, requiring twice the present number of liners and the carriage of very much heavier loads. So great an extension involves a vast amount of preparatory work, some of which is already in hand.