NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22544, 8 October 1936, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

VALUE OF THE INDIVIDUAL J "Looking nround us in civilised Europe we see that 'the survival of the fittest' is the survival of those fittest to live a predatory and unscrupulous life," said the Rev. J. C. Hardwick, in addressing the Modern Churchmen s Conference at Oxford. "The first element of traditional Christian teaching about man that we can safely take over is that the individual is of supreme value. This involves the question, toi whom is he of value? and the answer is, to God. Apart from the existence of God, the individual can have no intrinsic value. There is something absolute and not merely relative about man's ideas of right. In short, they are not only his ideas, but God's ideas. If there be no God, no ultimate standard of reference, all moral values are relative merely. BEAUTY IN MANY FORMS It is fortunate that we do not all possess the same enthusiasms,. remarks "Atticus," writing in the Sunday Times. To sonic men there is nothing so beautiful as a flight of birds over the moor. Others find joy in the action of a horse straining for victory. There is a golfer at a seaside course whoso eyes grow dreary with delight at the sight of a red-sailed fishing smack against the blue evening mists of the sea. Other men find fascination in the brilliance of New York seen from a height at night. Fortunately there are those who still think that, a beautiful woman is God's most lovely gift to mankind. But beauty is a prodigal parent, and reproduces herself in many forms. For no particular reason I find an intense enjoyment in studying a symphony orchestra and the manner in which various conductors convey their moods to the players.

EXAMINATIONS DEFENDED Constant attempts are made nowadays to convince the lay public thfit examinations are entirely unreliable, writes Mr. W. .Tenkyn Thomas, expresident of the Incorporated Association of Headmasters, in a letter to the London Observer. I was a headmaster of a secondary school for .'59 years, and presented, literally, thousands of candidates for school certificate and similar examinations. My impression after this long and extensive experience is that examinations have reached a very high level of reliability. My colleagues and I were never more than 5 per cent wrong in our estimates of the chances of candidates. Complete surprises were extremely rare. Such surprises as there were could generally he accounted for in one of two ways. A candidate who had taken things easily previously, keyed up by the importance of the issue, did better than was expected, or a candidate through nervousness failed to do himself justice. In at least 95 per cent of the cases the results were what we anticipated. Scores of headmasters of experience can bear the same testimony.

VULNERABLE DOMINIONS Each Dominion is justly proud of its particular national life while co-ordi-nating and subordinating it in general allegiance to the Crown, writes Earl Winterton in the Sunday Times. Nevertheless, 1 am convinced that that national life has no chance of survival save through membership jof the Confederation of Nations known as the British Empire, or, to the more modern, as the British Commonwealth of Nations. The only possible exception is Canada, protected as she is from aggression by her proximity to the United States. Let us consider the facts. South Africa has a white population of under 2,000,000. New Zealand has a total population of 1,6CD,000; Australia of 6,700,000. With all their magnificent virility, how could such units alone, or even together, stand up against the armed might of certain European States and one Asiatic country with armaments greater and populations infinitely more trained, regimented, and united than in 1914? Let us remeniT ber that in a few years at most the radius of bombing and troop-carrying aircraft will be well-night limitless. Imperial sentiment, Respite mutual criticism between the component parts of the Empire, is strong; economic ties are increasing rather than diminishing; but this factor overtops both, for it is a matter of life and death. Much is being done, but far more is required to increase and co-ordinate Empire defence. Recent events have shown that, unhappily, collective security is not, as yet, effective in the League of Nations. Let us see that at least it functions in the British Empire.

CHOOSING A CAREER One of the most important developments of modern educational practice is the increasing attention that is being paid to assisting the boy or girl (or young man or young woman) to find a suitable cai-eer when school or college years are ended, says the Listener. There will aways, of course, be plenty of sturdy individualists who make up their own minds at a comparatively early age about what they want to bo; and 50 long as their ambitions and their capabilities are not too widely at variance no one should wish to discourage these enterprising young people. We do not want to see the youth of this country sternly regimented into adopting careers in accordance with official instructions. But not everyone is able to visualise the future so clearly as to know, beyond a shadow of doubt, the most suitable career to be chosen; and it is here that help is needed, if the young people (and their parents) are not to decide their futures by spinning a coin or by resorting to some variant of the childish "tinker, tailor" formula. This help is gradually being extended to all classes of the population. The excellent work that is done by university appointments boards has long been recognised; "careers masters" are becoming a feature of public school life; and now the Ministry of which has already published a series of inexpensive pamphlets on the conditions and prospects of careers in different occupations, has produced n valuable pamphlet on "Careers for Secondary School Boys," which gives a generaF survey of the field of employment available to boys leaving school. The notes have been prepared by arrangement between the Ministry and the .Incorporated Association of Headmasters of Public Secondary Schools, and the information, which is given quite briefly, is "intended to serve mainly as a preliminary to discussion in greater detail at a personal inter- ! view."