OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 3043, 10 July 1912, Page 81

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS,

(Conducted by Magibteb, to whom all com munications must be addressed.)

[MAOisrEB will bo glad to receive Nature notes, marked papers containing educational articles, diagrams, details of experiments, etc., of scholastic interest to teachers and pupils. Correspondent* must use onli one BID! of the paper, and whether using a. pen name or not. must send both naub and ADOBE3B.]

KIPLING'S "FLEET IN BEING." Referring to my note of last week on the above, the hon. secretary of the Navy League sends me a copy, nicely printed in large type, of this admirable. little book, which tells so well and truly what the men behind the guns are' doing for our safety. The secretary rays that he is sending, on behalf of the Otago Branch, a conv to each Otaeo "school where there is a branch, and I am sure the masters and teachers wiH appreciate Mr Kipling s story. lam glad to say, too, that any other teachers who so' wish may obtain a copy through the hon. secretary for one shilling, including postage. Let me recommend another book: How the Navy is Run," sold here at Is 3d. It is written by Archibald S. Hurd. There isn't a dull page in it. I mentioned Kipling's " Fleet in Being " because, among so much that is picturesque, and good there is a fine appreciation of the men down in the bowels of the ship.. Here is one of Mr Hurd's references to these brave fellows: " There are no men in the modern ship of war whose part is more heroic than the artificers and stokers, and _ their highly trained officers in the engine room and stokeholds, and executive officers and seamen in the magazines, torpedo flats, and 6hell rooms, and other parts of the bowels of the ship. When the excitement of battle and the moving scene on every hand are putting fire into their companions at the guns, these men are forced to remain below—below even the waterline, of course, —sometimes working, sometimes merely on the qui vive. Well they know that events they canot see and can hardly guess at amid the roar of battle, may suddenly cause the ship to heel over or make a great plunge forward into the waters upon which it has hitherto ridden so majestically."

"THE FIREMEN'S LAST WATCH."' This is the title of a poem by Mr Neil Connor, who wrote it in memory of the engineers—not one was saved—who went down with the Titanic. Here are three of the verses.' I should like to get tho poem complete:— For them no last long look upon the sky That speaks of home, or friend, or watching God. Silent, alone, 'tis thus that heroes die. But trumpet notes shall spread their fame abroad. Theirs was the mistv, swirling, sweltering Hell, The fatal scorching blast, the kiss of flame. The oruneh of steel that hammered out their knell. And took its toll upon the living frame And then, the downward plunge a fearful pall, Cimmerian darkness and the choking tide, No brother-hand to grasp, yet brothers all At duty's post, in brotherhood they died ! "THE LAW OF THE SEA This is another piece that our young folk might read with profit, though the occasion of the writing of it was a one so mournful:— "Women and children first!'' That is the law of the sea. The law that holds unwritten, should ever the need arise The labourer's wife in the steerage, the lady of high degree, Go down to the boats together wherever the old Flag flies! That is the privilege granted to man —that he stand aside, For thus he may prove his manhood, by looking deatn in the face. Nor has the blood proved lacking wherever the test be tried To conquer self is the guerdon bestowed on a conquering race. Thus have they died together, men of the Saxon breed, Tho millionaire and the stoker, Britons and Briton's kin. All of them standing equal in the light of a golden deed That shows, whatever their seeming, that the same blood flows within. So shall their kinsfolk laud them, hailing them all as Men, Men who have kept our honour unsullied and free from stain, Though many an hundred fathom shall coyer their bones, what then? We know that the lives thus yielded can never be given in vain. They did in their simple courage, as the Master bade them do, And be sure He will judge them kindly wherever their steps have trod, Because in their hour of trial their hearts were loyal and true To succour the weak, and helpless . . . and that is the law of God! —" Touchstone " in London Daily Mail. WHICH?—I2.3O OR 0.30? Last week I had a note or two upon time, and stated that 12.30 p.m. (past midday) and 12.30 a.m. (past midnight), should read 0.30 p.m. and 0.30 a.m.—l, by a slip, however, transposed the p.m. and a.m. Four readers question my statement. Here is a letter sent by one of them.—"J. T. B." (Wyndhaiii) :—Dear " Magister,"—ln your notes on "What is a day" you refer to the expressions 12.30 p.m. and 0.30 p.m. I submit tho following: The expressions 0.30 a.m. and 0.30 p.m are used in oversight of the true meaning of the contractions used to Tefer to time. Tho expression 12.30 p.m. is a contraction. What is it a contraction for? Consider the expressions 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. 3 p.m. dees not mean throe hours after the sun- "les to meridian —if it did 3 am. would •■;!!! three hours before the eum to meridian, that is, nine in the morning, which is not 5 a.m. The expression 3 p.m. is a contraction for 3

by the clock after the sum comes into meridian. The expression 12.30 P ; m. is similarly a contraction for . Iwelve thirty" bv the clock after the sun has come to meridian, and is correct. The sun crosses our meridian at If a-™;; and as soon as the clock strikes M, V-™; commences; again '>».' « n , ds whon + ,„® clock strikes 12 at midnight, because then the sun crosses the antimeridian. ana morning begins. "A.m." and "p.m. cannot exceed 12 hours each. Even in Canada, Italy, France, and perhaps elsewneie, too, where time goes on to 24 o'clock, as soon as 12 midnight strikes, a.m. commences, ana the next minute is 0.1 a.m. For curiosity sake I turned up the shipping columns oI the Times, and on May 28 I read: *»«& tide, Taiaroa Heads, 0.47 a.m.' Custom allows 12.30 am. (past midnight) and IZ.W p.m. (past midday), but even here you will find many have confused ideas, for 12.30 p.m. is sometimes interpreted as past midnight. After my notes appeared last week one of our teachers who made use of them was handed, next day the Union Company s time-table for July, and in the calendar and tides page the use of the nought id shown about a dozen times.

ANOTHER NOTE OR TWO ON TIME. At what timo did the sun rise on June 22? When did i„ set? Did it rise later after June 22? From June 22 to July 4 (today) how much has the day lengthened in the morning? How much in the afternoon? What is tiie average per day? Assuming the lengthening of the day is of the same average, what time will the sun rise and set on December 22? What is the actual time of the rising and the setting of the sun on December 22? How do you account for the difference? Follow the Times shipping columns and note which week or weeks show the greatest lengthening in the day. What sea.son will it be? Is the time from the rising of the sun to midday the same «s the time from midday to the sotting of the sun? Why or why not? What is the time from high tide to high tide? From this find how much later ex&rv evening the moon is in rising. How much earlier is high tide at Taiaroa Heads than at Port Chalmers? How much later is high tide at Dunedin than at the Head«? hWat is the height of the tide at Dunedin?

Get a Union Company's time-table and compare times of high water at Dunedin, Bluff, Westport, Nelson, and Manukau Heads Wellington and Port Lyttelton arc not given. Read Professor Marshall's chapter on Tides in his New Zealand Geography, and study tho accompanying map. Perhaps I had better give 6ome data to work upon. On June 22 the sun rose and set at 7.56 and 4.23; 23rd, 7.56 and 4.24; 24th, 7.56 and 4.24; 25th, 7.56 and 4.25; 26th, 7.55 and 4.25; 27th. 7.55 and 4.26; 28th, 7.55 and 4.26; 23th, 7.55 and 4.27; 30th, 7.55 and 4.27; July 1, 7.54 and 4.28; July 2, 7.54 and 4.28. As my notes were made up on Tuesday I haven't Wednesdays and to-day's. Now take the lengthening of the day from June 22 to July 4, and you will find that it does not average a minute a day. Say it did, however; then from June 22 to December 22, say 182 days, the lengthening at the same rate will not exceed about three hours. Halving this, to get a general result, we should have the sun rising about 6.26 a.m. and netting about 5.53. Now, we know that the days lengthen much more than that, for on December 21 the sun rises at 4.19 and sets at 7.53. Watch the Times and see. There is no need to take time day by day, for taking it, say, -on Mondays, will do Work out weekly lengthening, and from that get the daily average.