NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22963, 15 February 1938, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

YOUNG PEOPLE OF TO-DAY "I am not at all worried about the young people of to-day," declared Mr. Valentine Bell, a London headmaster, in an address at Bedford College. Ho would nevOr admit, he said, that the young people of to-day had no grit and no staying power. There was little scope to-day for the spirit of adventure in youth. In his own district he was presented with a problem in the fact that young men had to fill in their leisure hours at dog-racing tracks, in pin-table halls, and in dance halls. "But in spite of this desire for excitement," he added, "my opinion is that the modern generation are quite as moral as the boys and girls of my own young days. The modern girl of 18 to 24 is as well educated as a boy of the same age, and she is much more of a companion for him."

HAPPY CZECHOSLOVAKIA "What is the strongest impression I bring back from Czechoslovakia?" said Miss Elizabeth Hill in the course of a recent British broadcast. "It's this: 110 matter whether rich or poor, backward or advanced, the people are psychically whole. They aren't poisoned with the disease of being over-civilised, and analytical, and divorced from the land. They feel that life is worth while, and they have faith and pride in their country. No matter how many political parties there are—and there seems to be an abundance—l came away from Czechoslovakia convinced that it holds firmly together and is a rapidly developing Slavonic country. I didn't get an impression of a conglomeration of nationalities all pulling in different directions, as we sometimes hear them described. Most of the people are consciously and energetically building up a new corporate state and a truly democratic republic."

FURNISHINGS FROM SCHOOL "A certain amount of work at school must be looked upon- as rather like Swedish drill, apparently not of much use in itself, but which serves to train the body to be graceful, 6upple, strong and healthy," said Lord Leverhulme, addressing the pupils of a Lancashire school. "When boys grow older and go out into the Avorld it is easier to fill the warehouse of the mind than it is to rebuild the threshold of the mind if it has not been properly constructed at the beginning. You also acquire your taste for hobbies and interests at school, among the foremost the taste for literature. Into whatever profession or calling you go on leaving school, you will have to communicate your thoughts to other people, either in speech cc writing. Therefore the ability to speak or write good, clear, simple English will be of the greatest value. In order to acquire that ability I recommend every boy to have as companions a dozen interesting books of good literary style. With these you will be enabled to acquire a good literary style, which will be of great value to you in after life. TO INCREASE ROAD SAFETY

Admitting the value of and need foi efforts to improve the standard of road manners and road sense, the motoring correspondent of the Sunday limes savs;—l believe that the driving tests, for instance, aro already having effect, although less than one quarter of the drivers now on the roads have undergone them, and I believe that the rising generation of drivers is greatly superior to its elders in skill, sense and consideration. Much can undoubtedly be done by education, for the finest roads in the world will not be safe if there is an undue proportion of "wild" men and women on them. The Automobile Association would, I believe, like the Government to spend £500,000 on safety propaganda. If the Post Office can be given such a sum to teach the nation to be telephone-minded, surely as much might be devoted to making it safety-minded. But it is much more difficult to eradicate the human liability to err than it is to limit its power to cause injury when errant. Even railway signalmen, most carefully trained, make mistakes sometimes. The fact that those mistakes are so rare does not deter their superiors from intensifying the care spent on their training, nor from adopting better" mechanical safety devices as quickly as they are perfected. The writei' concludes with a plea for more attention to the material as well as the human factors in safety.

THE PACE THAT KILLS Hurry and scurry aro two of the greatest enemies of the human race. We are all their victims, and some of us increasingly so, says tho Nursing Mirror. When we are laid low as the result upon our systems of tho rush of modern life, medical men can help to cure us, but wo can ourselves avoid becoming their patients on that account. Yet how many of us almost delight in crowding up our days, feeling it a reproach if we have an unoccupied hour. Off-duty times, days off, summer holidays are all booked .up to the hilt. We scurry along the streets, hurl ourselves down escalators, fuming if the person in front is slow in getting off, irritated if the train should stop for a minute between stations. If wo get into a traffic block wo fidget in our scats, feeling we cannot endure the delay, and when we reach our destination we spend tho first ten minutes in explaining how terribly we have suffered. This sense of rush and haste pursues us everywhere. We must go to tho slickest play (Shakespeare is too leisurely), we must read a mere summary of the news, we have no time to wade through the newspapers, a novel is too long if it exceeds 300 pages. And this delusion of urgency pursues us in our work. This world is more i enjoyable if wo go through it at a fairly quiet pace. If we tear in a sports car through the lanes of England we lose much of their incomparable beauty, and if we tear through life wo fail to catch its loveliness, its humour, its variety. We do well to keep a few hours to ourselves when we can think or read, when wo can wander slowly through ancient buildings, or sit watching the unhurried river. Wo aro wise if we consciously learn to remain unruffled at a few minutes' delay, if we refuse that invitation which is going to make our day off too full, if we spend at least one week'a holiday in literally doing nothing.