The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1914.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3149, 22 July 1914, Page 48

The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1914.) THE WEEK.

" Nunqutra allud natura, eliafl' taplenMa 31x14.” JfyTMirAL. “ Good nature aad good tone* mutt «rtr join. fora. The Education Bill* introduced by the

Tlie Fducation Bill.

Hon. Mr Allen last week in the House, has been received with general favour,

excepting here and- there, where some smouldering of the embers of provincialism has taken centralisation as its anti-type. When the House is found to, voluntarily ask for an extension, of time to Mr Allen in order that he might elaborate the proposals in the Bill, and Bo exceed the time limit mercifully fixed by the Standing Orders, the compliment is”, very significant in these days when coiirtesy is rapidly waning in j)olitics. The measure almost rises to the height that may be termed statesmanlike in the breadth ~ of its outlook. The education system in New Zealand is still undergoing the process of development. Though of late years the tendency towards uniformity has been accelerated, there still remain traces of parochial provincialism out of which it was growing. There have beeiv, different methods, different salaries, different systems of training and promotion, and different rules of measuring results in different education districts. It might be supposed on reading the reports of the districts when bound together in a Parliamentary paper that the children in some of them differed in race from the children in others. For example, in the reports for last year it was found in Auckland that composition and English were disappointing. The inspectors in

Taranaki found that many teachers negligently allowed errors in spelling to pass; in the Wanganui schools the arithmetic left much to he desired. The Wellington inspectors noticed some slackness in the matter of punctuation. In South Canterbury more attention to history was wanted. The Otago inspectors made reference to deficiencies in the niceties of oral expression; while in Southland oral composition does not receive the attention it deserves. These deficiencies seem to be endemic in their character. There seems to be something in the profession of teaching that narrows the outlook, and when the teacher becomes an inspector it does not follow that his mental horizon recedes. There was once an inspector in Otago who afterwards became somewhat eminent in New Zealand pedagogy. He was much struck, on his arrival, with the Scottish accent of the children in Dunedin. He was commenting upon this -to a head teacher, long since attained his worthily earned rest, who tartly retorted that the inspector might take the potato out of his mouth, and speak to the children so as to be understood. As the inspector was himself the possessor of a pronounced Northumbrian burr, inspectors of the present day might perhaps take the beam out of their own eye. To charge the children in one district with a weakness in the mass in grammar, while another inspector is charging the children in another district with neglect of arithmetic, savours of the ridiculous. To elicit a reliable gauge of the value of results there must be a uniform method of measurement, and to obtain uniformity there must be a central organisation, io many this will be the principal objection to the Bill. There is already a premonitory growl from some of the smaller districts which will, if the Bill becomes law, be merged into larger ones, and thus lose their parochial indentity. One of the most gratifying features of the Bill is the promise of increased emolument to teachers, the profession having been the Cinderella among the callings; and even the pittance hitherto thought sufficient for men and women to whom were entrusted the formation _of the character of the coming generation was subject to diminution from such causes as an epidemic ol scarlet fever or an outbreak of measles. The level of education must be raised when the application of a test is not leaf to the idiosyncrasies of individual inspectors. Nor does it follow that the erection of a national scheme will entail a wooden system of central administration, which will compel a local body to appeal to Wellington for a lead pencil, or the money for a knob for a back door. To retain the sympathy of parents there must be an absence of 'chilling officialdom. Faddism has not been .absent from the education system, and this should not flourish under the influence of a Council of Education. Tire mode of election to this body, and the scope of its functions, should ensure a membership which will be representative at the same time of the service and of educational experience. The Bill is full of promise as a valuable reform.

The primary purpose of the Government’s

Taxation of Motors,

Motor Bill., which amends “The Motor Regulation Act, 1908,” is the elimina-

tion of the “road hog. That may „ not be the avowed purpose, but it will have that effect. It has now become recognised that a motor car has much greater influence on the wear and tear of a road than the seemingly harmless appearance of the vehicle with its noiseless pneumatic tyres was suspected of. Not only is this so, but the country local bodies which maintain the roads have not only derived no revenue from this source, but have been subjected also to the gibes and of the motorists against the condition of the highways. A scale of fees has been tentatively drawn up. In the case of private motor cars the fees are to be expended as Parliament directs in the special repair of main roads throughout the provincial district in which the garages of the cars are situated. Ol the fees received by local authorities from the licensing of other motor cars two-thirds are to be paid into the local fund of the authority, and one-third to the Consolidated Fund to be expended in repairs of roads within a certain radius of the district. Provision is made for the licensing of drivers and of motor cars. The driver’s license makes him responsible for his acts, and the court before which he is convicted of negligence or improper acts may suspend or cancel his license. Registration of a car will obviate much of the present confusion arising from the multiplicity of registering authorities, and it confers the freedom of all the roads in the Dominion. Though it is not proposed to impose any qualification on the driver, his license makes him amenable to the law, and he must demonstrate his ability to drive, as if he proves incompetent or incapable his license may be dealt with. In 1 effect the Bill is based on the English Act, and so far as is shown, representative bodies of motorists rather welcome the proposal to systematise the taxation and make provision for the allocation of the fees to the upkeep of the roads. There are to be registry offices in the principal centres, and registration is not to require renewal, but the fee is payable annually, it being stated that the fees prescribed are considerably lower than those paid under the English Act. The motor car is now in general use, and has proved a groat acquisition to country life. It has come to stay—that is, until a better means of locomotion has been discovered. As motor cars are more severe on roads than other vehicles of similar weight, owing to the suction arising from their velocity, this may lead to a better method of making roads, which is causing much Interest. The Romans made “streets” through Britain, and these are more durable than any local body has yet constructed, and this leads to a consideration of the wisdom of abandoning Macadam’s method and the substitution of machinebroken metal, which is productive of dust

iu summer and mud in winter. This is a prospect of indirect benefit from the enactment now proposed. The latest news available for this issue

Daylight at Last

of the Home Rule tangle leads to the confident hope that there is daylight visible out of the mum 01

party heat and the ominous cloud of impending bloodshed. The summoning by the King of the leaders of the contending, parties to meet in conference, probably under his presidency, and discuss the matter around the table in a necessarily cool, and as far as possible in a friendly, manner is a momentous step. As the press recognises, an immediate change in the situation has been effected, it is not often that the British Monarch interposes personally between conflicting political parties, but it is not without precedent. The King’s revered grandmother intervened in the Franchise crisis in 1884, and terminated the deadlock. Also, his father, the late King, consulted the leaders in the Budget controversy, and in turn conferred with leading politicians on both sides. It now seems that Home Rule is certain, and it only remains that the terms be settled. Both sides, or those of them who retain their sanity, are prepared to concede something, and up to the present it has been impossible to say how much. One paper says that the time limit for the exclusion of Ulster is already dead, and there remains the question ox the area of inclusion. Even The Times, which has displayed its customary says the initiation of the conference is a “wise, proper, and statesmanlike step, more likely to extricate the country from its imminent peril than any other course.” The great journal also recognises that the event is calculated t-o strengthen constitutional monarchy to the benefit of the nation. It is shrewdly surmised that the suggestion emanated from the King, though Mr Asquith was apparently the medium of circulating it. Whether the conference terminates the bitter struggle for once and all or not, great benefit must accrue from it. Asperities must be softened by necessarily amicable talk. As The Times, again, says: “In the case of great political parties and dangerous deadlocks like the present, no one but the Sovereign could play that part”—the intervention of a superior, independent, and disinterested authority. It has been too often said by irresponsible orators that kings were useless ornamental, appendages. It is again to be demonstrated that the principle of monarchy is deeply rooted in the British national feeling. It has been shown that the family from which George V has sprung have been past masters in the art of diplomacy. , There was in Europe not one more clear-sighted than his father, and to his diplomatic skill his grandmother added that womanly tact which was one. of lier chief charms. That this ability is hereditary has now been shown. The "outcome of the conference will be awaited with great solicitude. It may be known before this reaches the eye of the reader, but it is almost inevitable that if a complete settlement is not reached, then the road to it will be paved.