OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN,

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 80

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN,

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. [Conducted by Magistes, to whom all communications must be addressed.] CORRESPONDENCE. I must apologise to my correspondents who have been kept waiting. Toe more imuorfcant ones shall have their innings now. Some correspondent from the Roxburgh district sent me a moth for identification, but I have not yet found out its name. I must ask all sending notes or specimens to me aleo to send name and

address, for I naturally want to know with whom lam communicating. A Christchurch reader wishing to improve his English asks advice. If he were in Dunedin, I should say: Take the English classes at the Technical School. I assume there are English classes in connection with- the Christchurch Technical School, and I imagine the senior Knglish --class will meet his requirements; if not, he might make arrangements with 'Mr Marshall, the director of the Dunedin Technical Classes, to get notes from here. , There are correspondence classes in Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, all covering the work needed. If, however, my correspondent wishes to work unaided, then I suggest " A Manual of Our Mother Tongue," Nesfield's "English Past and Present," and " English Grammar and Composition." Reading good authors, with a play or an essay or a piece of poetry annotated, will widen the mental horizon, and give facility of expression. Read Macaulay's " Essays " and the essay on Clive annotated ; but to appreciate the essay and to read it intelligently, read a short life of Clive, and become acquainted with the political and commercial history of the time. Perhaps the inquirer will let me know if I have given him suitable advica I may cay here that only under exceptional circumstances do I reply through the post. A pupil frqm the Hawea Flat School sends extracts from his Nature-study observations ; but, while interesting as showing what is done in some schools — and for that

reason I am publishing it, and thank my young friend for sending the table, — such, e;ctracts, to be useful, ought to be the result of observations under conditions as nearly the same as possible, and placed in a table along with observations taken in other schools under similar conditions. If it were possible, I should like to have a weekly synopsis giving weekly maximum and minimum and mean thermometers and

barometers, amount of rain, of sunshine, and the prevailing wind, with one or two other details. These, coming from various parts of Otago — or, better stQl, from North Cape to Stewart Island,— would be of sjreat .value in studying climatology, and, I fancy, would be very interesting. These details would not take up much space ;

and if any school will send them in I shall be glad to publish the particulars. Take the table given, for instance. Already at Hawea the thermometer has been Bdeg below freezing point, and as high as 83deg — in the shade, I presume. Then notice the small amount of rain — less than a quarter of an inch for nine days ! That is, the climate has been both colder and warmer than we have had in Dunedin ; and — what j we envy the Hawea folk — much drier. The | temperature figures seem to indicate that just as it is hotter in summer and colder in winter in the interior than on the coast, co it is hotter as a rule in the day time and colder at night. Then, again, in what direction was the wind blowing when it was raining? In Dunedin, sometimes there is a drizzling, driving rain from the east, yet when the wind gets over the hills and onto the Taieri it is a dry one. My young contributor can now see how useful her figures are and how interesting it would probably be to hundreds, perhaps thousands. of readers, the figures and particulars I ask for together with any unusual climatic conditions would be, if they could be obtained over a wide area. So please send details, if possible, under the modified conditions I suggest. In Dunedin the barometer and the tides have been behaving very erratically of Late, I am told, but I have not made any observations. A North Otago teacher sends in a note on Evaporation which is instructive ; this gentleman, too, showed by a blackboard diagram how, in the streets of San Francisco, the high buildings block out nearly all light in the streets running north and couth, and allowed still less to get into the streets running east and west. The diagram applies still more to the streets of Chicago and New York, as last week's Witness pictures show. In an accompanying note I am promised some notes on the dispersal' of seeds. The letter sent in by Sea Beach draws attention to the thoughtless cruelty of many. I hope, however, that before long i 1 there will be nothing there for gulls to feed

upon. It is a disgrace that such a picturesque little spot ghouM be so polluted. Some time ago, someone on the West Coast who reads my column, sent me the Grey River Argus with a delightful marked article " Among the Fauna," which I hope to make use of some day. It is written by " VVaratah." I shall be very glad at any time to receive interesting clippings on the flora and fauna, or the history and geography of New Zealand, and, indeed, any information which will further the objects of this column.

My last is a letter from Owaka, giving a little information about the League of the Empire, and a letter received from a Home correspondent. I am quite in sympathy with the movement to bring about a correspondence between different parts of the Empire, and shall probably refer to this again. May I ask correspondents to be considerate towai*ds the linotype operators? They work at night, and are generally paid by results, so the clearer the writing is tho easier it is read, the quicker the matter is put up. Therefore, more is earned in a given time, and with the minimum amount of exhaustion. Then, too, whiting must BE ON ONE SIDE ONLY; and, if possible, with a margin on the left hand side. Ono correspondent this week wrote on botH aides. \

-, ( General Weather. Dry, dusty; cool breeze from south. Dry, dusty; cool breeze from south. i Slight shower; day dull; | barometer fell in morning. Dry, sunny; glass rising steadily. | Warm and bright. j Warm and bright. I Warm and bright. I Snow on hills; dull afternoon; barometer falling. Dull morning; heavy showers in afternoon.

Notes os Evapohatioit. One Wednesday afternoon wo gatherea a quantity of fair, stringy, red clover, which weighed exactly 81b. When weighed 24 hours later it was 6Jlb. It had lost l£lb of moisture, that is 3-16'e, or 182 P« cent, of its | weight in one day. Six days later it weighed s§lb. It had lost lib in six days. Again ■ we weighed at the end of 24 hours, but it was only 2oz or |lb lighter. During these eight days it had been kept inside, in a corner of the room. On Friday morning we laid it outside to let the hot sun and a drying wind play upon it. Five hours later we weighed again, and, to our surprise, the balance re-, corded exactly 41b. It had thus lost ljjlb in the five hours, or almost exactly a, Jib of moisture per hour under the influence of sun and wind. It was 'now exactly one half cf its original weight. Fifty per cent, of its weight had mysteriously disappeared. Last Friday we varied the above little experiment I by making two bundles of the same clover, each 31b in weight. One we again kept inside, but the other wo put outside on the top of a tank, to be out of harm's way. Unfortunately the weather wa3 wet, and so we did not weigh' again till six days had passed. Then we found that the bundle inside weighed 2ilb, and the one outside ljlb, or just lib less. Inside, the loss of moisture was 25 per cent., and outside it was 42 per cent. There is no doubt, then, had the weather conditions been more favourable, the results would have been more striking. To I get the pupils to fully realise the amount of moisture absorbed by the atmostphere I asked them to weigh quantities of water at home. This most of them did, one boy finding that 2Jlb exactly filled one of his mother's small pots. I may say this is not exactly a dairyfarming district, but small herds are kept with considerable profit, and when I asked at the close of tho lesson why clover was such , a good milk producer, it was evident that , everyone had at least one reason to give. Need I add that every child took a lively interest in the experiment, and that I was always reminded when it was time to weigh again. The results w«re always left on the blackboard, and Standards V. and VI. worked out the percentages, etc.

if one was struck there was a general laugh. At last they drove all the seagulls away, and then the men-and-boy-gu!!s left. I think that there should be » notice posted up that anyone caught throwing stones at the seagulls would be proseoated. The seagulls there, if not interferod with, would become quite tame, and be one of the sights of the Ocean Bench. I went to the north end of the beach, partly to find out were these quicksands were that some gentlemen have been writing to the.press about. There is no such thing as a quicksand from one end of the beach to the other. What was taken for quicksands is this : About low water or half tide let anyone step on th« sand when the wave recedes, and he would sink in a little, it being half sand and half water. Let him put his walking-stick down, and it would be the same as putting a stick in soft mud for a foot or so, when he would get hard bottom. There was another thing some gentleman called a quicksand. It happened a few months ago between the two lagoons when they were" full. There was a big lump of seaweed which the sea had cast up and the wind covered with sand. It looked solid >on top, and in" crossing to tho beach ( one would naturally put his foot en it and' go through it, for it was hollow underneath. It lay right between the two lagoons, there being a small stream, of water running underneath, the heap. I went through ,<the heap although I knew it was there, having seen the lump of seaweed before being covered with sand. That was the dangerous quicksand that some elderly person complained of in the Daily Times. Sea Beach.

Tahatika, Owaka, April 18, 1906. Dear *' Magister," — Seeing some of your notes concerned the League of the Empire, or Correspondence League, I thought I would write to acquaint you of the contents of two letters I received lately. One was from the hon. secretary (Mrs John Haldane, 4, St. Margaret's road) requesting me to collect the names, ages, and addresses of any boys or girls from about 10 to about 16 who wished to correspond with a little English friend. Theother was from my correspondent in Wales. I will send you its contents to publish, so any boy or girl may receive the name and address by- fulfilling the above-mentioned conditions and getting their parent to state that their child can do so, and either sending it to Mrs Haldane or myself. — I remain, yours sincerely, (Miss) Mary Hewson.

fl* 00 O)Cn !*• OS *o f Date. fi? I *» CO 03 CO CO CO 00 'CO tffc SSgTliermometei ."3! 2 en ~i <i s s CD S pThermomete] Klg OOOQ O © o Rainfall*