OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 79

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS. (Conducted by Maoisteu. to whom *ll eon* munications must be addressed.) [Maoisteu will be gtaa to receive Nature notes, marked papers containing educational articles, diagrams, details of experiments, etc., of scholastic interest to teachers and pupils. Correspondents must use only onh side of tbe paper, and whether using a pea uniuo or nut, must send both XAiiE and ADUIIKSSj THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF CURRENT ENGLISH. A book I have recommended is “ The King’s English” (not the abridged Is 6d edition) at 5s net, by two gentlemen, H. W. F. and F. G. F. The main features of the book are the accuracy of the English, and at the same time the remarkable freedom from pedantry. With the writers pure English doesn’t mean stilted English. But it v. as not until recently that it vruX known whom these initials sheltered. Some months ago, however. “ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English ” (3s 6d not) made it appearance, and the authors of the two volumes stand revealed as 11. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler. Frequenters of the reference rooms in our Athcmeum and Free Library have the pleasure of- consulting “The Oxford English Dictionary ” as far as it is completed. It is many years nOw since the first volume appeared, and the letter T is not completed yet, though seven volumes and some sections of eight and nine, costing altogether over £2O. are now out. It is this monumental work—“ The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths has contributed £SOOO towards the cost of Volume VI ” —which ha* been adapted by the compilers. The Schoolmaster in a review' of it, says: “We have only one word for this scholarly book—it is marvellous. ... To the college and the library this wonderful production is indispensable, and no schoolmaster or schoolmistress should bo without.” Another review notice says: “The amassed wisdom which is embodied in the great Oxford English Dictionary is digested in this admirable book. The volume is on a small scale what the Largo .took is upon a great one. . . . The limited space has been cmploj-ed with excellent judgment. . . . It is a great privilege to have a body of good English prascology made accessible in this cheap and excellent form.” An examination of the book justifies these and other unqualified encomiums. It has several outstanding features. A copious use is made of illustrative sentences to_ indicate idioms and fine shades of moaning. Common words arc very fully elucidated, nothing being taken for granted; the severest economy of expression—“ amounting to the adoption of telegraphese ” —has been adopted, and this with a very comprehensive system of signs and contractions has made it possible to cram an enormous amount of matter into its thousand and fifty pages; colloquial, facetious, and slang expressions are aomitted if justified by current use. In spelling, some interesting and important changes have been made, o_r practices standardized. The suffix “ise” is retained for nouns, and “ izo ” (tnough “ ise ” is given too) is adopted as the verbal suffix; judgment, rhyme, axe, etc., are retained in preference to the O. E. D. forms of judgement, rime, ax, though tho latter aro retained as alternatives. “In dealing with verbs such as level, rivet, bias, whose parts and derivatives aro variously spelt, the final consonant being often doubled with no phonetic or other significance,” the compilers have faU< \in with tho tendency to drop the letter, yet they stop short of such Amev> can isms as traveling and traveler. “ Oii another point of varying usage—tho ,n ' sertion of a mute e in derivatives in able, age, ish. etc., (etc. is not used as a contraction of et cetera) to indicate tho long sound of tho stem vowel (hkaolo or likeable, milage or mileage, Jatish or iateish .’’--the compilers found themselves “justified in taking a bolder lino, and have constantly omitted the mute e; it is against all analogy (or why not smilcing, Romeish, dotcage, tidoal, indcecribcable, desireable. cxcitcable?). it is used chiefly in werds npt familiar or important enough to have their form ivspeoted as established, it obscures the different and more valuable uso by which a soft g or c is indicated, as in manageable and serviceable, and it tempts bad spellers to use such monstrosities »3 unpaluteable. loveable, or moveable. Where the O. E. D. alio we nidour and ardor, and words of that type, the adapters exclude tho latter spelling as being entirely non-British. Where y has obtruded itself without entirely dispossessing the mere correct form i, ns in sylvan, tyro, tyre, thev have given the i form cither alone or first. Again, they lay down no rule'for the pluro-ls of nouns in o beyond faying that words in general use take es, while words still felt to be foreign or of abnormal form take s. On the question of (ompoumling words, the adapters aro delightfully unpcdantic: “We have also to admit that after trying hard at an early statre to arrive at some principle that should teach us when to separate, when to hyphen (will not pedants object to this verb;), and when to unite the parts of compound words, wo had to abandon the attempts as hopeless, and welter in the prevailing chaos.” . The use ox abbreviations has been reduced to a tmo art. 'The letter a stands for adjective, and aa is the plural; n for noun, and nn for plu; ex (example) and exx; w (with); i (intransitive), OHG old high German—not even points or spaces between; cc (centuries); g.-f (gtoundHoor), and so on. Many, of course, are easily inferred by the context; but whati cannot be arc found in a page of throa columns. AUTHORS’ AND PRINTERS’ DIG-' TIONARY. When getting “ Tho (Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English,” get also the “ Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary,” also published by Henry Frowde, of the Oxford Press. Tho price is fifteen pence. As “a standard guide for spelling, capitalisation, punctuat on ; the uso of italic type, etc.,” to my mind it is unapproacned How it was compiled I detailed a couple of years ago. ana I am glad to know that on the advice I then gave many teachers bought it. Every typist should get it and digest it, for I have received from sonio of our best houses typed letters which are a disgrace to the typists and the establishments ©ending them out.

FIRES IN SCENIC RESERVES. Through the kindness of Mr E. H. Clark, M.P., I Lave received a copy of tile report on Scenery Preservation for the year 1910-11. During the year £3370 has been spent by the Scenery Preservation Board, but only £1066 has gone in compensation for land resumed. The total area set aside for reserves —21 in number-r-dur-ing the year was 25,442 acres- The additions to the Otago reservations are:— Eawarau Falls, 14 acres; Titeremoana Scenic Reserve {Pudding Island), 2 acres, Otago Harbour; Gatlin’s River, 25 acres (Woodlands Survey District'. ; Mount Cargill Scenic Reserve (North Harbour and Blu.eskin), 13 acres; Taieri River (west bank), 5/ acres; Pounawea Scenic Reserve (Gler.omaru Survey District), - 4 acres; Blackcleugh Soenic Reserve (Eankleburn Survey District), 504 acres. The largest sot aside in the Dominion were Lake Kaneiri (Westland), 19,001 acres; Lake lanthe (Westland), 3570 acres; and the Ohakune Scenic Reserve, 908 acres. Now, just as I have been .advocating the preservation of our native birds and the institution of Arbor Day, so I want our folk, young and old, to do what they can to preserve pur forests. Even settles will find that, in the long run, it will pay financially to preserve native growth instead of sending the fire through it. Immediate necessities, however, cannot be overlooked, and tons of thousands of our forests are doomed. But that need not cause our reserves to be fired; and with the hope that my columns may help to save our forest ecauery I am giving the following extracts from the report. Soma refer to fires but others do not: —• Native Birds.

“ While camped at Waimarino I was pleased, to find that the be Lb lid, korimako (or, on the Wanganui, kokomako), is now very plentiful there. It was absent fi orn there (and from the Wanganui also) for some years, but is now again plentiful. This bird far surpasses in the beauty and variety of ite notes any bird I have heaid. At daybreak at Pipiriki the chorus sung by bellbirds. tuis, native canaries, skylarks, blackbirds, and thrushes in praise to the great Author of Life and Day (who can say to the contrary?) is music that should compensate a tired and s'.eepy tourist for the bed he may have reluctantly left. “ At Waimarino also I saw a few robins, and -hoard occasionally the mournful but sweet note of tne kokako. The robins were so tamo that they would pick for insects under the tripod of the theolodite whilst I was observing; I even had to 1 o careful that I did not tread on thorn. A bird of ,eo unsuspicious a nature is not Likely to last long. I found the canary as far north as Marakopa “Aa all shooting and killing of birds on scenic reserves are statutory offences, it must be strongly impressed upon bird collectors and h’lnters that they are liable to heavy punishment if they take birds from our reserves. “It may be mentioned that the Maoris are in the habit of ornamenting baskets and mats, which thev sell to tourists and the public, with the feathers of kiwis, tuis, and kakas. „ Such a practice ’ends? to the wholesale destruction of such birds, and must be strongly deprecated. Botanical. On the cliffs of the Wanganui River, near its junction with the gorgy Mangaio, I had the good Luck to find a plant that is new to the botanical world, and which is one of the most interesting finds made of recent years in New Zealand. The plant grows only on damp, shady, precipitous cliffs, and belongs to the genus Senecio, it is rather a handsome plant, with largo bright-green cordite leaves about Ift long, and is quite unlike any other Serecio. It is confined to a very small Iccabty, and probably there are not more than 100 plants in existence. It will be another fact to support de Vries theory of mutants. At Marakopa Valley, about 400 ft above the sea, I found the toe (Cordyline indivisa) growing, also the most handsome Panox arborcum var. Return'; and ihcro and at Awaroa Inlet, and at Waitomo, the fern Asploniurn trichomancs; at Kawhia Harbour the native aniseed (Angelica gingidium), Polypodium tenellum (trailing fern), Paratrophis Banksii (n small latexproducing tree), and the most beautiful of all the ratas—Motrosideros diffusa —a rather slender trailing or climbing plant with a groat mass of (he most beautiful crimson flowers. At To Rau-a-moa I found Pittosporum huttonianum. On the Wanganui River, Dracophyllum strictum, the fern Trichomanes elongatum ; the strange carbuncle-like parasitic plant Dactylanthus Tayln-ri, at Waimarino; also, there, Prasophyllum rufum, a rare but modest orchid. The foregoing are simply new habitats, not now plants. Fires. Damage by fires still continues. Along the Main Trunk railway a good- deal of the proposed reservation near Owhango and Kakahi was much damaged, and probably many other places, as the drought was exceptionally continuous. That those fires are often caused through carelessness, and sometimes wilfully, there is no doubt. The present legislation is sufficient to act as a deterrent, if not preventive, if it were enforced. The fact is that people have enjoyed immunity for so long that they are quite indifferent to the damage they do the property of the State. I would, for next summer, suggest the employment of special rangers, whose sole duty should be to follow up cases of burning of public forests and reserves, for the purpose of bringing safe actions against offenders. For an expenditure of £2OO or £3OO in one year on rangers thousands of pounds’ worth of forest might be saved. It would also bo well to always have conspicuously printed in Land Guides a notification of the penalty for burning forest on the lands of the Crown. At the beginning of every summer there might, for comparatively small expense, be notifications in the daily press of the Dominion ■ warning people about burning on Crown property I am afraid that much of the damage by fire is caused by_ men who should know bettor. Men forming new roads, to make things easier, will frequently burn scrub and fern along the grade line, and take no trouble to prevent its devastating The whole adjacent country. Lately at Waimarino the meanderings of a rabbiter wore marked by the blackened areas if tussock and scrub land he had burned off to make his work easier. Surveyors, too (I am sorry to say), often do great damage in this respect. There should not bo much trouble about preventing men in these positions from firing the country; it should simply moan communication with the departments concerned.

It is not generally understood how fires destroy the fertility of the soil in tussock and scrub country. It has been established as a fact that nitrification is caused by the action of micro-organisms, and that their action is destroyed in an absolutely dry soil. The direct harmful effect of fire is the destruction and prevention of the formation of humus, which is the source of all vegetation; the first results are the absolute desiccation of the superficial layer and the destruction of the micro-organisms which are in it. It has been shown by Henry that dead leaves, except on pure sand, possess in a high degree the faculty of deriving nitrogen direct from the air. The proportion of nitrogen in loaves is loss at the time of their r all than when they have been some time on the ground, as it is absorbed from the atmosphere after falling. Every fire, therefore, largely lessens the fertility of cur tussock, fern, and scrub lands. It may bo of interest to point out that by virtue of past legislation ali scenic reserves and national parks in New Zealand are practically sanctuaries for the native birds and game, and no shooting or killing whatever is permitted on them. The greatest care is taken to keep thorn free from noxious weeds, and wherever practicable and advisable the fencing of the external boundaries has been proceeded with, particularly when the : yiervo adjoins settled land or a road in general use. The inspector was partly engaged in surveying operations during the year, but he lias inspected most of the scenic reserves in the Dominion, and will now Complete the remaining inspections, whilst the Crown lands rangers and other, officers of the Department of Lands are also available for isolated cases or in any urgent matter. General. Areas on the. banks cf the Wanganui River have been surveyed, end are now being taken for scenic purposes, and land along the Pipiriki-Raetihi road has been acquired from the Maori District Land Board, as has also a fine area overlooking Ohakune, both of which reserves will appear in next year’s schedules. A number of scenic areas in the' Westland district arc also being reserved, me lands being the property of the Crown, and comprising picturesque forest scenery cither on the ,shores of lakes, the banks of rivers,'or along the ranges. Many other scattered areas in various parts _of the Dominion arc also being dealt with as opportunity offers. The claims of settlement are. however, invariably respected, and land well adapted for close settlement is rarely taken. We have treasures in our scenic reserves which in. years to come will be thought priceless by our ffuccce-ors. If it is _ .argely our scenery that makes this Dominion one of the most delightful countries in the world, surely it is worth our while to make strenuous attempts to preserve what Nature has so lavishly supplied. As Roosavelt lately stated, no nation with purely utilitarian ideals ever reached real greatness in its highest " sense. Our unimaginative settler who protests against the reservation of a very email prr entage (and that generally poor Land) of the country for scenic and like purposes would be astonished at the'stupidity of the Londoner, Berliner, and Parisian for net cutting up into allotments the beautiful parks of their cities. I read recently that a propos'd railway lire in Germany has actually been diverted so as rot to spoil the scenic beauty of some spot cherished for its beauty. In England nieces of fern land have been bought solely to preserve their distinctive plant-covering. ,In Canada one leserve alore of 35,000 square miles has been made. If at present a large, number of adults in this country do- not appreciate its beauties, then we must try to teach their 'chidren to do eo. E. Phillips Turner. Inspector of Scenic Reserves. THE GREAT VALUE OF GOVERNMENT REPORTS. I have stated often enough that these reports are of great value educationally, and many should be sent to every school in the Dominion. Further, they contain a large amount of interesting matter, which could bo adapted to suit the columns of our school journals, and should be used in some such publication as is issued bv the State Governments to teachers in the Commonwealth. Take the report I have ju-t quoted from. The average teacher could make interesting and ind active use of it; and its value is increased by the excellent illustrations: —Scene on Mokau River, A Glimpse of the Oiinton River, two views of the Wanganui River, The Aranui Cave (near Waitomo), Lake Ada (Milford Sound), Franz Jceef Glacier, Bailer River. Mahinapua Creek, Mitre Peak and the Lion (Milford Sound), and Road over Mount Hercules. All tlifso are of a szi that could bo Tran3‘'erred without reducing, to the school journals. Since writing the above. I have received two reports valuable and interesting—“ Report on State Afforestation in New Zealand, 1910-11.” and “ Dune Areas of New Zealand: Their Geologv. Botany, and Reclamation,"’ by L. Cockayne, Ph. D., F.L.S, I hope to make us© of these soon. SIGHT-SEEING AS AN EDUCATION. We are now fair into the school holidays, and though the Christmas weather was not good, let us hope that the remainder of the vacation will give every opportunity for the enjoyment of outdoor life to the full. But we want not only outdoor life but every facility to travel, and excursion fares should be Issued not only up to the 2nd of January, but to all going on bona fide holidays. Teachers, for instance, would like to travel after the Christmas and New Year crush is over, but, like many more who would prefer quieter times, are forced to travel when traffic is congested- or stay at homo, and many prefer the latter. And the same applies to children. I advocate travelling facilities purely from an educational point of view, and, to emphasise my point, for that reason use the following from an English educational paper: — More than one famous man has said, in words varying little from the following, that 7 ‘ The greatest educator of all is Travel.’’ And there can hardly he any doubt in the mind of the thinking person that this dictum is correct. Where most people make the initial mistake is in fancying that by the word “Travel” advocates of it must necessarily mean “Travel Abroad.” But I venture to say that such a fancy is very far from the truth. For one’s education will he vastly improved, and one’s mind greatly enlarged, and one’s ideas immensely widened and strengthened by

merely travelling aoid going sight-seeing in our own country, in the United Kingdom, even if one never once set foot abroad dur- . ing the course of •«, lifetime. Now what I want to make clear in this short article then, is that, if you wish children to have the real education that produces the finest men and women —not necessarily, though usually, also, the best-equipped for success at big examinations!—you oah go a very long way towards achieving that desirable object by seeing that they travel in different parts of our own or other lands, as far as your circumstances and means permit. It isn’t only a matter of money, nor is it merely a case of educating the younger members of a family. It affects you. yourself not less than they. Most people complain of certain grades or. professions that their members are too narrow-minded in their views, too much restricted in the way they regard outside things. Well, a man , who is confined in a small school most of his life, or one whose outlook seldom goes further than the dull window of an office, or whose work is kept within the narrow walls of a prison, is not likely to take a vrjp broad and embracing view of exterior things unconnected with his special labour. How can he? All the mere reason, therefore, that when such a man does get the chance ho should not always go to the same spot for a. holiday, see the, same things ■ time after time, learn and hear and see no-

thing new of the vario-as ’isms and- ’ologies and 'ics that are instructing imd interesting and educating so many of his fellows ! : “ Familiarity breeds contempt,” says the old proverb . In the caeo we are considering it does worse than that. It breeds stagnation, indifference, deadening, dulness. For it is novelty, freshness of scene, of air, of view, of surroundings,, of acquaintances, which breed knowledge, attraction, interest, and success. Yes, sight-seeing is in itself a tremendous education. When you really' stand at Kenilworth and gaze on the castle and its environs, you understand more about your Scott and about Elizabethan times than you would do from reading any half-dozen books l When you have -been over the battlefield of you will never tire afterwards of trying to learn all you can about the Wars of the Roses! ''When you actually stand at C'levcdon Church, and watch ‘‘The stately ships sail on To the haven under the hill,j’ you’ll begin to feel the Tennyson fever, and r.} want to search out the Tennyson lore, far more than ever you d d by simply reading the poems themselves at school or home. Book-learning is, all right—So far as it goes! Theory is most excellent—in its way. But life is, after all, very practical, and most of us have to be workers rather than dreamers. The thing which counts, for the majority of us, is the doing. The cducaton carried on outsi e the school and the room is usually the education that tells most in the end. So travel,; somewhere or other; move about, even if within a space lees than you would desire; view men and things from all sorts of angles and summits. That is the b:st way to become thoroughly well-educated, and the meet certain way to win true knowledge, power, Influence, and succors in life. HAIR WORMS. 4 This week “Nature'” refers to those forms of animal life, and I thought that a note upon them would interest readers. The following is taken from “The Royal Natural History ”:—The family of ha.rwonns, Gordiudae, owe their English name to the resemblance that their long, black, slender, flexible bodies bear to hairs from a horse’s mane or tail, and their scientific title, “ Gordius ” to the peculiar habit the. animals have of tangling and entwining themselves in a way that may be compared to a Gordian knot. The best-known species is G- aquaticus, -the average length of which is about four inches. . . . Another mark by which the mule may be recognised is the bifurcated tali end. Although living a free life in the adult condition, these worms spend the greater part of their lives, up to tne last period, in- certain insects. The young- hair-worms, as they issue from the egg,, are scarcely more than l-25th of an inch in length, and most curiously shaped, the body being cylindrical, and consisting of a thick forepart, and a thinner tail-like appendage. Out of the front end of the body a sort of head can bo thrust, which is armed with two circles of email hooks, and t pped with a horny proboscis. With these instruments the creatures, in the first plate, bore their w-ay through the egg-shell. . Insects ... in the iidult and larval stages, abound in meet fresh waters, and sooner or later the young worms come across them. They then stek out a soft spot, bore a hole by their apparatus of hecks, and by a series of contractions and extensions of the body form an entrance between the muscle-fibres of the limbs, whence they spread into the body-cavity of their host. . . . They also infest in this way water-bugs and gnats. All these water-insects, however, are liable to be devoured by fresh-water fish, and by this means the young hair-worms arc set free in the intestines of the fish, where, they undergo their metamorphosis, and after five or six months pass into the water in the mature form.” Another authority says: “The fact that the largo watefrbectlcs frequently fly .by night from one mass of water to another explains the sporadic appearance of horsehair worms bn rain-water tanks, small ponds, etc.” THE GORDIAN KNOT. I suppose you have heard of it? . It refers to an intricate or difficult question which is solved by forcing or by evading the conditions. The following is said to ihe the origin of the expression: “ The Phrygians, seeking a king, were informed by the oracle at Delphi that they were to choose the first person they met riding on an ox-cart towards the Temple of Zeus. That person was Gordius, a poor peasant, who accordingly was elected king. He afterwards dedicated his car and yoke to Zeus, in the Acropolis of Gordium {a city named aft>er himself), and tn.'d the knot of the yoke in so' skilful a manner that an oracle declared whoever should unloose it would bo ruler of all Asia. When Alexander the Great came to Gordium he out the knot in two with his sword, adding, ‘lt is thus wo loose our knots,’ and so applied the prophecy to himself. CORRESPONDENCE AND NOTES. As I shall be out of town for a month, answers to correspondents’ queries may be delayed. I am hoping that when the holidays arc over young folk will be able to supply a good many interesting paragraphs unon what they have observed. " “Nature” refers to the worm Gordius aquaticus. One was, sent to me two or

three years ago, -when it was identified for ue by Dr Denham* I am making auoto upon it to-day under a separate heading. “ Nature ” will bo interested in the notes under the heading ■“ The Irreducible Minimum.” Can any reader account for the silence of the tui as noticed by “ Nature ” ?

52 Henry , street, Maori Hill, December 23. Dear “ Magister,”—ln a late local i noticed that the Rev. Mr Elliott discovered a specimen of the Gordius in one of the branches of the Ashburton River. I had the pleasure of showing Mr W aite, of the Christchurch Museum, a specimen last Christmas, which I found in a tub in a Riccartor.' orchard. He at once named it the Gordius aquations. There were several in the same tub, which was fed from a tap, the water coming from the Avon Raver. They varied in colour from almost black to pale yellow, and averaged 12in. Just a note or two or birds. Living on the edge of the Belt, I am able to have many glimpses of our feathered friends, native and imported. There arc nearly every one of the (inches, and at least one pair of redpoles Tuis are fairly plentiful, but are strangely silent since the nesting season commenced. Is this usual? A pair of starlings reared a family in my chimney, and the day after the young ones left the nest, which they did not do until they were quite at horn© on the wing, the mother bird commenced, between spells of worm-hunting to renovate the nest, and by the time the young birds were able_ to forage for themselves she was sitting. The second brood should leave the ne-t any day. It was pitiful to see her and her mate on wet days with drenched feathers and bedraggled wings hunting amongst the dead leaves for food, and always cheerful and keeping the one end in view.

This is, maybe, getting too long, so I must end by wishing my young natureloving friends and “ Magister ” the compliments of th© season mainfold.—Yours truly, Nature.