A Literary Log

Southland Times, Issue 20771, 11 May 1929, Page 13

A Literary Log

ROLLED BY

IOTA.

EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND. In close proximity to the celebration o: the National Education System’s jubilee “Young New Zealand” appears aptly. Ir these pages Mr. A. G. Butchers has com pleted an exhaustive survey of the develop ment of education in this country from the earliest days to the foundation of that national system after many severe struggles, which in these days appear to have been extremely foolish. Looking over the big national organism which, at one stage at least, was generality admitted to lead the world in making provision for the primary education of its people, one cannot escape a feeling of astonishment that the early efforts to establish a national system met • with so much apathy and even opposition, but the explanation of that is to be found in the old provincial jealousies which finally had to give way before the realization that a series of small republics, even federated republics, could not- exist in such a small country' as this. Seven years were occupied in the struggle, if we assume that the starting point was the "motion made and question proposed” in the colonial legislature by Mr T. Ball, the representative of Mongonui, North Auckland, that it was desirable at the earliest possible period, to terminate the unequal distribution and lack of harmony which obtains in the administration of educational agencies under the independent action of Provincial Governments, by the introduction of a comprehensive system of public schools adapted to the requirements of this colony. There was no debate on the question, it was passed in silence, but it crystallized the idea of national effort, and in later discussions Mr Ball’s achievement in leading the legislature to that decision was acclaimed. Mr Butchers takes Lis narrative back to the earbest days of the country. He briefly sketches the conditions and then proceeds to a survey of the haphazard efforts in the various provinces which were then struggling with tremendously difficult problems and keeping a sharp watch on expenditure. In every case much was due to the energy of the denominal groups who established schools and despite the heavy burdens put on the settlers in their fight to establish themselves in the new land accomplished a great deal. But the march of education in New Zealand Was irregular. The provinces, where conditions differed so markedly, were compelled to adopt different expedients, but the battle of the centralists and provincialists was heavily joined, and some legacies of that combat are with us to-day in the steady effort to keep to local communities as much control as possible. When the place occupied by the denominational schools in the, early education machinery is understood the strength of the advocacy of the denominionalists can be realized. These fights killed the Bill of 1871. In those days, of course, the towns employed the ' richest advantages,- and the country districts suffered, but even in the • closely settled parts there were wide divergences. In 1869 for instance the public expenditure on education was £32,805, and of this sum Otago, Canterbury and Nelson

spent £29,369, leaving only £3436 for the rest of New Zealand containing half the population. Even in Otago where there were 10,200 children of school age. only 5340 attended public schools. Auckland abandoned and appointed its first Board of Education. The other provinces developed along very similar lines, though with some variations which were not enough to destroy the main line of progress, and in each case denominationalism fought strenuously. The need for the national system was gradually forced on the country and the abolition of the provinces destroyed the lingering entrenchments, though, as we know, the plea for local control has continued the losing fight down to the present day. It is not suggested that local administration will entirely disappear, but the inarch towards a truly national system is still going on and this fact adds interest to Mr Butchers’s very comprehensive study of the development up to the passage of the Education Act which established the New Zealand primary school system. The later developments, Mr Butchers suggests, will be the subject of a further work, and it is to be hoped that he is able to carry out this part of his task, thus completing an extremely valuable history of education ' in this country. New Zealand is on the eve of another change in its system, and the period from 1878 to 1928-9 offers a promising field for another review. Mr Butchers shows lucidly, and with liberal quotations and annotations to give ample authority for his statments, the ancestry of the present system and in these pages he has made a valuable contribution- to the store of literature dealing ‘with the early history of New Zealand. This work needed to be done and it has been given to us in a form that leaves very little, if anything, for later research students, for here is the main thread, supported by a mass of evidence, linking the first mission schools with the primary schools of to-day. The author has put a tremendous amount of energy into this work, and the appendices, including a very impressive record of the early teachers in New Zealand are of inestimable value.’ “Young New Zealand should be studied by anyone interested in education, because in its pages can be found much to explain the later developments in the national system. An extremely interesting, and momentous work. “Young New Zealand” * is published by Messrs Coulls, Somerville, and Wilkie Ltd., of Dunedin, who are to 1 be congratulated on the excellence of their < work. i

LOVE AND PALPITATION. All the ingredients that go to constitute .a best seller are in May Christie’s latest novel “Eager Love,” and coupled with her easy style and happy control of situations, it appears to be her most interesting novel to date. “Eager Love” is the story of Mary Oliver and Barry Dawson the boy-next-door, and the misunderstandings that arise for the girl who fears she is slipping into the dull, gray life of a spinster, and the boy who is arrested on the threshold one day by a sudden realization of Mary’s beauty. For the girl who has “little-mothered” her parentless two brothers and sister for nine years, the slow transformation of Barry from, chum and confider to shy and splendid lover means breathless joy and anticipation; to the boy.the readjustment is full of strange pleasure and half-revealed ideals. Following happy days and faintly-hinted plans, comes Lois Watson, Mary’s cousin, rich and startling and beautiful, fresh from triumphant travels in gay cities which were

merely exciting names to her poor relations. Lois comes to live with them, and the dull routine of their life vanishes, and with it Mary’s wondering confidence of Barry, with whom Lois discovers many interests in common. About her there is a faint air of mystery and elusiveness which is swelled up in her love of fun, and the handsome foreigner who comes to the house to see her, pays ardent court to Mary, in whom Barry sees new beauty and new philosophies, and lover-like, misunderstands, while she in her turn reads in his contraint the counter-attractions of her brilliant cousin. Lois, however, is finally driven to confide in Mary, who staunchly supports her through subsequent difficulties out of which fresh complications arise; and it is not before Barry is nearly killed in an accident that the inevitable happy ending is in sight, and then through the clear-visioned agency of Lois. “Eager Love” is a readable story, with homely surroundings and peopled by natural, every-day men and women. Hodder and Stoughton are the publishers, whence my copy. WOMEN AND LOVE. Charles Pettit is an American who has an excellent touch in what passes as the Chinese style, and he uses it in "The Elegant. Infidelities of Mrs Li Pei Foil for some frank criticism of women, and of the men they love. Ostensibly a Chinese tale, for it gives us an echo of the Bramah of “Kai Lung’s Wallet,” it tells with complacency the story of Mrs Li Pei Foil's seduction of a young scullion, Grain of Rice, during the absence from home of her scholarly husband, and the education of that adolescent until he graduates as the master of another woman. Pettit’s touch in irony is excellent and he makes his points deftly. He sees no romance in love other than the romance of

lying, because the Grain of Rice learns to regard a woman talking of love as the victims of their own histrionlsm. Mrs Li Pei Fou, the grass widow, murders very pleasantly to make her guilty association with the scullion safer, though she continues to terrorise him with the thought of what discovery will mean. She puts their love on a high plane, and shows him that the murders have ennobled it. ’Not quite sure of this, and still rather absorbed in the tortures devised for those who violate the domestic virtues of a Chinese scholar’s household, the Grain of Rice remains the victim of the lady. Then Li Pei Fou returns and the scullion flees in terror from

the discovery he feels sure this eminently wise and discerning man must make. He is succoured by Mrs Tchang Hi, a widow whose husband is safety underground. She proceeds to tear to pieces with many effective sneers, the love instruction of Mrs Li Pei Fou, thus seeking to kill the Grain of Rice’s affection for her (which had never gone much beyond an awed acquiesence in that

lady’s desires) and to satisfy her own jealousy. She takes the Grain of Rice to her arms, but now he is adolescent only in name. The youth who loves one woman-be-comes a dangerous man when he has loved a second. Pettit sees in women the cunning seducer, the tyrants of love who play act and terrorise but who are helpless in dealing with a man who has graduated—who has known the love of two or more women. Mrs Tchang Hi frees the scullion from Mrs Li Pei Fou’s love fetters in order to shackle him in her own, but she does not realize that the revelation of her rival’s tricks also shows her own, and he becomes master of the situation —he graduates. Women are often told they are difficult to understand and out of this advice they have raised the theory that they cannot be understood. Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, I believe. Any experienced man who wishes to spare the time for the job can understand enough of a woman to let her have her own way in a manner that agrees with his wishes. This is in Pettit’s story, and if there are any misgivings about it they must be based on the fear that he has been unwise in stating this so patently. He emphasises it, too, by showing how easy it is for a woman to deceive a husband who is brainy. Mr Li is a renowned scholar, a wise man, but in the love business he is a child alongside his cunning wife. The Grain of Rice ia the simple, uneducated youth, who is compelled to take a course in love and one can see him developing into a master of the art. "The Elegant Infidelities of Mrs Li Pei Fou” which is decidely amusing is published by Horace Liveright of New York. London’s taste. Following were the best sellers in London at the beginning of April:— Fiction. —E. F. Benson’s “Paying Guests” (Heinemann) ; Lorna' Rea’s “Six Mrs Greenes” (Cassell); Hugh Walpole and J. B. Priestley’s “Farthing Hall” (Macmillan) ; Compton Mackenzie’s ‘The Three Couriers” (Cassell). Miscellaneous.—J. D. Gregory’s “On the Edge of Diplomacy” (Hutchinson); Dr. A. F. Legendre’s “Modern Chinese Civilization” (Cape) ; M. G. M. Butler’s "Modern z\thletics” (Cambridge University Press,) ; “Great Short Biographies of the World” (Heinemann).

ERICH REMARQUE. Sir lan Hamilton mentioned as a war deterrent a war novel “All Quiet, on the Western Front,” by Herr Erich Maria Remarque. Herr Remarque, as his name indicates—belongs to a family of French extraction. He served with the German troops through the War, and is now, at thirty-one, a literary celebrity on the Continent. After the War he was by turns an organist in an asylum, a motor-car dealer, a mechanical draughtsman, and a dramatic critic. Then he won a large sum at roulette which enabled him to travel abroad and study literature. Until recently he was a motor specialist in Berlin. SAWDUST George Preedy, author of “General Crack” has been in Dresden, exploring the archives and verifying references for his new novel, “The Rocklitz.” This—a story of Germany in the seventeenth century—is being published by Messrs John Lane. “From Leipzig to Cabul,” by G. StratelSauer, is the story of a motor-cycle trip through Europe, Turkey in Asia, Armenia, Persia, Afghanistan and India. In Afghanistair he was arrested for murder, spent nine-months in gaol, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, and then pardoned. (Hutchinson)