PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10035, 28 April 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

PASSING NOTES.

(From the Otago Witness )

School concerns bnlk big in the records of the week, and it is only fitting that they should have their fair share of Passing Notes. First, then, because most graciou*, both In conception and accomplishment, let me refer to the dedication o£ Dr Stnart's portrait at the Girls' High School. A right graceful act it was, and right gracefully performed. The central school egg which the Hon. and—h'm, yes—weighty John MacKregor is so laboriously hatching, addled thongh it promises to be, shall in charity have a Note to itself. And now a word or two about the annual outbreak of elections. With the exception of KensingtoD, which is merely living up to its reputation, and the Education Board, which is fast making one, i everything has passed off in peace and quietness. As for the board, I would respectfully Euggest that when next it elects a chairman the deed be done in committee, to the end that the details may be kept out of print. Fur the reading of Them does not tend to edification. When Kensington s'amuse we can afford to smile, but when the body that controls all the primary and all the district high schools in Otago makoa a public spectacle of itself, the unthinking may laugh, but the judloiousjnust grieve.

Tiiat the peppery and poetical Dr Sfcenhouse was jockeyed out of the chair of the Education Board I by no means venture to affirm. Bat that he was a victim to some dark intrigua few who read the report will venture to deny. To quote himself—

What surprised him more than anything now was to see that of the gentlemen who on two former occasions nominated and supported him, one oE them should allow himself to bo nominated for the chair, and should not have the manliness to be in his accustomed place at the board. These were tactics he (the speaker) had never been guilty of—

" Loitering in the lobby " with his umbra Mr Rimsay (not Keith, of that ilk), as Mr Mackenzie put it. Mr Ramsay subsequently confessed, indiscreetly, I think, that he was keeping'but of the way In order to avoid voting for the doctor; but Mr Macgregor judiciously stood of his dignity and said nothing. Leastsaidsoonestmended. And after all Dr Stenhonse was abundantly avenged. It may well be that stormy times are coming, and a cool and steady hand ia needed at the helm. Mr Fraser says It, and he ought to know. He has-just appeared on the board himself, and, like the stormy pstrel, he is a sure herald of bad weather. It may also be that the tuneful doctor is not strong enough to ride the tempest and control the storm. But that his friends dreamed for one moment that Mr Oreen was to be the man I cannot biiog myself to believe. True, Mr Fraser, who is reputed to see eye to eye with Messrs Earneay and Macgregor, 'proposed him; but he had first carefully ascertained that on no account would he accept. And when, after much protesting, suddenly accept he did, moved thereto chiefly by Mr Clulha Mackenzie, who is reputed not to see eye to eye with the doctor's friends, the feelings of those friends may be easier imagined than dascribjd.

Dear C.,—What is this new-fangled kind of school that John Macgregor is going to worry us all about? Last Sunday morning I gave myeelf up to his three-column exposition of the subject published the night before. I read those three columns through and through, and through again. It was about the toughest job in that lino that ever I tackled, and I " wraslled " with it heroically all church time. A clear case of Sabbath breaking, no doubt, but bein£ a school committeeman, with an election in prospect nqxt evening, I thought the recording angel would perhaps take a lenient view. I might jusb as we.l have gone to church for all the good I diil. Do you think I could make head or tail of it ? Not in the smallest degree! And my case is not singular. Monday evening I asked one of our committeemen:

" Did you read John Macgregor's paper ? " " Well, I tried to." . "What did you make of it ? " "Couldn't make anythiDg—except that he has got a bee in Us bonnet, and is ia the deuce of a temper with the Daily Times." "Very likely.—but I mean about education."

" Well, all that I made out was that there is no such thing as education in this country at all. There is a school system, bat, according to John Macgregor, it is no goad." " What's wrong with it ? " " Goodness knows! Batter ask what's wrong with John Macgregor." I repeat this conversation just to show that other people who have struggled with this remarkable docament are no wiser about its meaning than I am. The new kind of school it propojes is a school such as nobody ever saw before, andSoehjia th&inventor.himself seems incapable of explaining, though he has attempted the task in three columns of brevier solid.—l am, and espest to remain, Sobely Perplexed.

The cisc h not so bad as this critic would make out. I deplore the tendency oE my correspocdents to the vice of exaggeration. Speaking for myself, I never exaggerate — that is, hardly ever. Mathsmatical accuracy in statement aßd a religions moderation of tone in criticism are the virtues I chiefly strive after in this column, and i£ I do not always attain unto them, at any rate I keep them steadily in view. Mr Macgregor is obscure, but not absolutely incomprehensible. For instance, about the defects of ouv present school system, which is " unworthy to be called a 6ystem," and of which he is one of the managers, his testimony is clear enough to Bitisfy even the Tablet. Let os make a littln list. It i 3 a system that—

1. Misdirects education by cast iron regulations under which education consists almost exclusively of book learning,, which is not intelligent and which rouses no interest. 2. Hence, means stuffing the children with mere information to be difgorged on examination day. 3. Hence, again, it turnr them out without any vital or intelligent interest in literature, or any craving for knowledge when there is no examination to pas». 4. And yet, on the other hand, it seems designed for the express purpose of giving them a bias against practical pursuits. 5. As a matter Of fact, it leaves them, after they have passed all the Standards, without any idea how to turn what they have learned to practical use. 6. For example, a boy out of the Seventh Standard cannot, as a rule, write a letter in passable English. 7. Nor attempt the simplest everyday calculation in a mercantile office without looking like a booby. 8. So, to snm up, the system does not go the way to make good citizens. It ought to prepare for either the university or the world, but ''oar common schools prepare onr children for neither the one nor the other."

This is the indictment as framed by an honourable, worshipful, and Bosaewtnt masterful member of thß Education B^ard. I don't Eec how it can ba accused of being bbsenre. On the contrary, its perspicuity will set all St. Joseph's simmering with holy aelight. ,—- .

It is in expounding hi 3 remedy for these ills that Mr Macgregor becomes obscure. Perhaps " profound" would be the bettor word, as sounding le3 3 "dyslogistic"—to quote one of bis own lucid expression?. AnythiDg for a quiet life,! f o " profound " let it be. Mr Macgregcfs profundity may be described as abysmal—which is nearly as good a word as " dyslogistic," or even as "hnmanitic," another of the Macgregorian flowers of speech in this same paper. Tbe remedy he has invented appears to proceed on the homoeopathic, similia similibtis, "hair of the dog that bit you," principle. The cure for bad education is more bad edncatioD. The primary school system being rotten—says Mr Macgregor—let us extend it. Let hs create, under this same system, one Bchool more, one grand central school, for Donedin and for Otago, into which, as into a general sink, all the spoiled products of all other schools may be precipitated. This seems to be Mr Macgrrgor's idea—bnt I speak with reserve. lam not sure that I have fathomed it. By-and-bje the oracle will be heard again, and we sball also bo favoured with the interpretation of its utterances by the academical sagacity of the Education Board. Till then we must wait.

An ingenious correspondent has discovered that the Hon. Richard Saddon is a Dictator. As thus:

His name is Richard ; commonly called Dick, for shorH, He is member for Knmara. Kumara in the Maori tongue means potato; coma only called " tater," for short. Combine the elements, and Richard of Kumara becomes easily and naturally Dick-tater— Atiglice, Dictator.- Q.E.D.

Now, if I suspected my correspondent of trying to perpetrate a constructive pun I should Ineontinemly suppress him. But I don't. I look on it as an application of the method pursued by Mr Baxter in proving that the late Emperor Napoleon waa the destined monarch of the world. And how successfully pursued — until the destined monarch defied prophecy by dying—l leave it to any reader of the book to declare. Napoleon is dead, but the method live 3, and so does Mr Seddoo. He is very much alive, and it is impossible to say what may not be diECovered by a carefnl and prayerful study of bis full name, addition, and

achiavements^in the light of Daniel, Ezskiel, and Revelations. Let some colonial Baxtßr iook to it. Certain it is that our Richard has not yet accomplished his destiny. He governs New Zsaknd qiite in his own masterful way. From throttling the native land difficulty to bojcottirg the Wellington Post nothing is too great for him, nothing too small. And not content with New Zealand, he is now stretching out his hand to annex Samoa, and extend to its unsophisticated natives the Wessing3 of vigorous and progressive Liberalism. That Samoa will satisfy him I decline to believe; and I await impatiently the lifting of the Veil. I

A correspondent has cat out from the Argns and sends to me some advertisements nnder the heading " Matrimony." One specimen will Buffioa:

A- — MARRIAGES (Special Licence) •Solem- • nised any day or nichtby fully accredited minister of good Btanding.,-isl. Witnesses provided. No notice required. Strictest privacy. Appointments now made only by H. Hanslow, jeweller, 307 Elizabeth street.

A rival advertiser sets forth the Inducement, " Ceremony conducted in minister's study patlour," and bases bis claim to preference on the fact that he was the "first minister to advertise fee £1." Finally be adds, with an appalling disregard for the principles of Malthus: "Needy people free!" Verily these be signs of the times. They mark the lowest deep yet reached by the Victorians in the bottomless pit of their depression. From the days of Boccaccio down to the days of the Irish potato blight, seasons of plague, pestilence, and famine have notoriously been associated with general moral recklessness and an active marriage market. The fact may be explained philosophically; let it suffice to cay here that fact it is, and to cite these shameless notifications from -the columns of the Argus as the latest illustration of it. The state of the law in Victoria seems to be propitious to mad marriages. You can be married at night, without notice, and in the strictest privacy. This is next door to barbarism. The irreducible mininum of ceremony can hardly have been lower at marriages "solemnised" amongst the aboriginal blacks.