INACCURATE GEOGRAPHY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3808, 8 March 1927, Page 4

INACCURATE GEOGRAPHY.

MISLEADING TEXT BOOKS. WANGANUI, March 2. Attention is drawn locally to the very misleading and inaccurate statements made in a certain geography book in use in the secondary schools of the Dominion. One statement is: “In Japan earthquakes are so frequent that the houses are only lightlybuilt, and of a single storey. Stone is rarely used. In Wellington, New Zealand, the houses and other buildings are built similarly for the same reason.” Another glaring and unpardonable inaccuracy is: “But the obstacles of human progress, due to volcanoes, do not end with the eruption. The volcanic areas which are shown in figure 13 usually provide poor harvests. In Central France and in the North Island of New Zealand tho soil is infertile, because it consists mainly of volcanic material.” It .is well known that some of tho richest soil in the Auckland and Taranaki provinces is volcanic, and it is considered that the Education Department should see to it that the children are protected against such misleading information.