NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22489, 5 August 1936, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

CHANGING FAMILY LIFE The effect upon children of the change from fhe roomy old house to a small house or flat was discussed at the annual conference of the English Association of Headmistresses. Home life had been profoundly affected by the change, said Miss I. M. Drtimmond, of the North Loudon Collegiate School. The adult and child were thrown much closer together. Children took part in helping to cook meals and wash up, and grew up into most capable young people. When both parents were at work, quite young children might have to let themselves in after school with their own latchkeys, get their own meals and settle down to their homework alone. In such circumstances a child might become very independent, but at its best the change in homo life brought a delightful freedom into tho family relationship. REMINDERS IN ARBOR DAY The thought of New Zealand with an Arbor Day would have seemed too grotesque for words when white men first saw this country. At that time these islands had so rich a covering of forest in most parts that the idea of planting them with trees, except in the few areas noted as exceptions, never occurred to the pioneer settlers. Their thought was given chiefly to carving out a home amid the luxuriant growth, and with a will they went to work. It had to be done. Necessity compelled. When blame is heaped upon their devoted heads tho immediate need they had for open spaces should temper the scorn, for their methods had to be rough and ready. The earliest of these settlers could have put a case entitling them to credit rather than wholesale condemnation. Those coming on their heels, however, cannot be so easily excused. With axe and tire, sturdy agents of their will, they did more than subdue the leafy holders of the soil; they laid waste ruthlessly. Thousands of acres of sylvan upland, of little or no cultivable value, were denuded recklessly as settlement spread. The devouring flames ate their way far beyond the limits of the task they were let loose to do. And the result has been worse than inroads of ugliness into beauty; direct destruction of valuable economic resources, loss of countless acres of soil, choking of river mouths, and the need to replace, as far as that is possible, the wealth so riotously consumed. An annual Arbor Day can do something to shame agencies still destructively employed and to develop a free-minded people caring especially for the glories of native growth. USING LEISURE HOURS Have people to-day forsaken the pursuit of literature and learning for pastimes and amusements? Mr. Ernest A. Savage, of Edinburgh, answered this question in his presidential address at the annual conference of the British Library Association, at Margate. Austere and narrow critics, after their kind, with precipitate judgment, would condemn the present so-called craze for amusement, he said, and would sav that it was more evident to-day than the desire for education. It was true that in Victorian times organised amusement was limited, but he could remember that the naughty 'nineties were mad and merry, and he suspected that alliterative censure might be applied as justly to the erratic 'eighties and the sinful 'seventies. "How will it serve us to echo the parrot cry about the 'craze for amusement'?" Mr. Savage asked. "Why should we complain that people love cakes and ale too well, and forget that as few live wholly for pleasure as for study? To-day leisure is greater and is it not more reasonable to take tho view that the discipline of games and the relaxation of amusement are desirable respites from business, reading and study?" Tho librarian, though he had less excuse, was not alone in deprecating the reading habits of today. Mr. Oliver Stanley, the president of the Board of Education, had recently referred to "widespread lack of judgment in reading and to the habit of skimming." "If, after over 60 years of popular education, Mr. Stanley is right in his criticism of readers, had we not better shut up our schools and abolish tho Board of Education asked the speaker. "My daily experience tells me that his opinion is not well founded." BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY There are some who would seek safety in isolation, others who would strengthen the so-called guarantees of the League of Nations, says the Morning Post in discussing the lino Britain should take in foreign policy. Both of these courses are ruled out by the plain logic of the facts. A third school (represented by tho Times) urges an accommodation with Germany. What precisely is meant by this idea has never been explained by its protagonists. Does it mean that wo are merely to persevere in our efforts to bring Germanv within tlio ambit of a. peaco pact with suitable safeguards for its obscrvanco? Or does it mean that wo are to hitch our star to Germany in any case? If tho first is meant and no more, well and good. We, for our part, should be the first to welcomo Germany back into the comity of peace-loving nations. On the other hand, there are some minds which seem to bo playing with the second course; and it. is a course than which we could conceive nono more disastrous to tho interests and security of this country. What, after all. is it that makes the European situation in 1936 comparable with that of 1914? Is it not tho patent revival of German ambitions toward the domination of the world based on military hegemony in Europe? Tho ambition is tho same, but experience has taught prudence in tho choico of tho means In 1914 she challenged tho hostility of Great Britain; to-day she courts our benevolent neutrality. But neutrality will not save us from tho wrath to come; once tho rest of the programme had been fulfilled, we should be merely tho last in the series of victims. Tho real attitude of Germany toward Great Britain is well exemplified by a speech by Herr Hess, the deputy of Herr Hitler, at a "Family Day" gathering in Cologne, when he said: "The question of space is one which will be some day put to the Powers, whose reply will decide the question of peace or war in Europe. Above all, we want to sav to one nation in particular that wo want and must have colonies; in fact, we demand them."