WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21987, 23 June 1933, Page 7

WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

(Contributed by the Local Branch.) WOMEN’S CLASS. The enrolment in the women’s class this year exceeds 60, Some former members have found itdmpossible to attend on account of family ties, illness, and other causes, but their places have been filled by an unusually large number of new members. The following have been elected as class officials: —Chairman, Miss Nelson; vice-chairman, Mrs Mee; secretary and treasurer, Miss Farnie; committee —the leaders of the study groups, together with Miss Burgess and Miss M'George; representative on the District Council, Mrs Watson. “Outstanding Figures in History” has been the subject of this year’s study. During the summer, circles were formed for preliminary work, and to a large extent the class is conducted by these circles, the tutor (Mrs Benson), cooperating and assisting when needed. The number of members who have thus taken an active part in the work of the class and who have shared the responsibility for' the week to week work has been unusually large. ' Under the leadership of Mrs Laurenson and Miss Farnie, the study of the first, month centred around Socrates, the social and political history of his time, his philosophical, ethical, and religious teachings, and the reasons for his trial and death. Illustrative readings included the play “ Socrates,” by Clifford Bax. The second section is dealing with the study of Saint Joan, under the guidance of Miss Laing, and there have been several effective readings from Bernard Shaw’s play, “ Saint Joan.” Marcus Aurelius will be the subject for the third series of studies. MUSIC. ‘ The class in music, which has been a regular outstanding feature in W ( .E.A. programmes during recent years, is again to meet this year in the main building at the University on Thursdays. Under the ’guidance of Miss Mary Martin, Mus.B., a series of 12 lectures will be given weekly. The course will open with a survey of the foundations of music. Some time will then be given to the study of the classical composers, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, leading through the growth of the romantic spirit to more recent tendencies, . including the influence of nationalism, which has shown itself in folk song, the impressionistic school 6f Debussy and Ravel, and some modern British composers, including Elgar, Delius, and Vaughan Williams. LITERATURE. The literature class has now concluded the second scried of studies, for which Miss H. Johnson has been responsible, dealing mainly with the poetry inspired by the Great War and including also some other studies of modern literature. The tutor for the third series of four lectures is Miss Muriel May, who will deal first with Francois Villon, the French poet of the Middle Ages, and later with the pre-Raphaelites. The preRaphaelite movement touched; of course other fields besides literature, and, according to Walter Raleigh, Dante Gabriel Rossetti was alone among his pre- | Raphaelite associates in being first of all a poet. But Raleigh also maintains that the pre-Raphaelite method touches a perfection in poetry which is missed in painting, ‘ and it deserves study on its own account, as well as for its historical significance. MONEY. Among the numerous subjects of controversy which have been raised during the period of the depression, none has been more energetically controverted than money. The economics class is at present engaged in a consideration of the part played in the organisation of industry by money, and in particular by variations in the value of money such as are reflected in general movements, upwards or downwards, of the general level of prices. Especially in a competitive or quasi-competitive organisation, the most important indicators showing in what directions production should be expanded or contracted are to be found in the movements in relative profits which attract or repel investors according to the direction in which they appear to be moving. Such indicators must, however, be interpreted in terms of money, and it is therefore of the utmost importance that the medium in which they are expressed shall be stable. Otherwise we have absurd situations like the present when, if we look at the profit indicators alone, we should conclude that it was desirable to contract activity in every department without exception" because profits had everywhere fallen below the level of recent years. On the other hand it is an illusion to suppose that general price movements are invariably the results of changes in the mono-

tary situation. Unbalanced production will also upset the price level, so that there are distinct limitations to the potency of credit reform as an instrument for recovery from depression. THE W.E.A. IN ENGLAND. . In spite of the depression which directly affects a large number of its members, the W.B.A. in England reports a continuous steady increase in the number of classes and members. Class facilities have been afforded to a considerable number of unemployed men and women, who are unable to assist the association financially. The W.E.A. in England has not been completely deprived, as it has in ■ New Zealand, of State aid, but the whole cost of organisation, administration, and propaganda has to be met out of members’ subscriptions. Of late years an increasing proportion of the work has been of a pioneering character, especially in rural areas, which does not immediately result In the establishment of classes eligible for grants from the Education Board or the local education authorities. The fact that the sales of Highway, the journal of the association, have risen by 60 per cent, to a montly average of 13,000, during the three most depressed years in modern English history is especially significant of the increased interest which has been aroused in the outlook on affairs in general which is characteristic of the WiE.A.