NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22393, 14 April 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

DEFEATISM AND RELIGION The Dean of Manchester, Dr. Garfield Williams, in a recent sermon, spoke of the enormous responsibility of being a Christian. The consciousness of that responsibility, ho said, was one of St. Paul's, main thoughts when ho emphasised the dignity and privilege of leading a Christian liie. Part of our difficulty to-day was that Christians had lost their sense of spiritual affluence and their sense of responsibility to their fellow-men, and particularly to other races. We had lost that sense of responsibility because we had become defeatists, and we had become defeatists becauso wo had allowed ourselves to become too much the centre of the picture. " I am absolutely certain," ho added, " one of our difficulties to-day is that we have lost tho meaning of that tremendous historic sweep of tho Divine purposo of redemption.'' SCIENCE AND DELINQUENCY Lord Eustace Percy, in an address before the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency, said the function of the institute was to carry out what was expressed in the oldfashioned word "correction," a word implying punishment and also cure. The problem of punishment was comparatively simple. Tho problem of euro wa" intensely difficult, mainly because it could be effected only through personal influence. The modern form of such personal influence was the probation officer. Science said that the doctor and psychologist had an important part to play in conjunction with the probation officer and all others who sought to bring personal influence to bear upon the wrongdoer. Tho experiment of tho scientist in this had also gone far enough to make it certain that a society which neglected to mako use of the knowledge and tho skill which were already at its disposal would incur a very heavy responsibility. PEACE AND DEFENCE

Sir Norman Angell, in a London address, said that apparently the uppermost thought all over the British Empire at the present time was peace, but their statesmen did not put peace first. Tho problem appeared to he not the establishment of peace, but that of peace plus defence —a very justifiable addition, but making it an entirely different matter. Tho problem was to reconcile peace with defence, and tho essence of defence was:—"Who is with us and who is against us?" He said it was his view that the British Navy and the industrial resources of America had made tho unjust Versailles Treaty. "We can imagine a next war," he said, "directed against injustice. A new Versailles Treaty will appear. The face of Europe will be redrawn, and Britain will find herself in the position now occupied by Germany. Britain will then rearm, secretly at first, and then defiantly, just as Germany is now doing, and there will be another war against injustice. We can imagine a series of wars waged against injustice by men passionately convinced that they are right."

SCHOOL HOMEWORK Ono of the greatest difficulties in the setting of homework is caused by the varying capacity of the children in any given form or class, writes Mr. E. Howard Muncey. of King's School, Gloucester. A quick and clever child will learn thoroughly in 15 minutes what a slow child will take 45 minutes to learn. An experienced teacher knows that allowances have to be made. The general impression left on one's mind after reading the report of the debate on this subject in the House of Commons is that children are made mental and physical wrecks as the result of the widesproad practico of setting and demanding excessive homework. A system is best judged by its results. And to obtain a fair estimate in this case intensivo inquiries would li«avo to be made. But it would be interesting to know, e,g., whether, in the opinion of collc-ge tutors and lecturers at the universities, the majority of young men coming up from the schools are mentally and physically tired out. And lastly, there is this talk about "rest and recreation" in the evenings. Has anybody ever known a normally healthy child "resting" except when in bed? As to "recreation," I fear this generally means, at any rate, in town areas, either a visit to the cinema or, worse still, wandering about the streets, which is undesirable.

ROYAL REGALIA At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries Mr. M. 11. Holmes read a paper on "The Crowns of England." He said that only once, for a short period in the seventeenth century, had England thought she had no further use for crowns. That brief heresy led to the destruction of the Regalia, an act which had been deplored ever since, and which made a definite break in the history of the crowns themselves. The popular belief was that all oui* Sovereigns, from William the Conqueror to Charles 1., were crowned with the Crown of St. Edward the Confessor, and that all later Kings or Queens used the new St. Edward's Crown, which was made at the Restoration. The truth was not so simple. Many other crowns had existed —Edward 11. owned at least 10— and the actual Coronation Crown had varied in all periods. Mr. Holmes began his detailed survey with the Plantagenet Kings, the first of whom, Henry 11., was crowned with tho crown of his mother's first husband, the Emperor Henry V. This was apparently also used for Richard I. and John, and it seemed likely that the Confessor's Crown might have been taken from his tomb when his body was moved in Henry 111-'s reign. An important development in the shape of crowns was the introduction of the "Imperial" form, which had tho top not open, but covered by arches which met and crossed. From a phrase in Froissart it might well be that Henry IV, was tho first King to be crowned with a crown of this type. From the coronation of Charles 11. to that of George IV. was tho custom to hire jewels for the adornment of the crowns, which were often mere frames into which tho stones were fitted. Three of these ■ frames, those of James 11., Queen Charlotte and George IV., now belonged to Lord Amherst of Hackney, who had allowed them to be brought from tho London Museum for exhibition at the meeting. The most recent of tho existing crowns was the Imperial Crown of India, which King George V. caused to be made for the Delhi Durbar in 1911.