NEW ZEALAND NEWS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 83, 6 February 1928, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND NEWS

NOTES FROM ALL PARTB.

'SUE DOMINION DAY BY DAY. Lytteßon Harbour. ' ;f Although. 1,000,000 tins of spoil haa been taken out of Lyttelton Harbour during the p t ist two years the channel is becoming shallower, reported the engineer. The amount of spoil j removed each year should deepen tho channel by 3ft yearly, but the channel wa» silting up to that extent eacn year. . What was . taken out by the dredge was "mere fieabite" compared with that brought back by the ! sea. The board- decided to obtain a report on the subject in six months' time, and then reclamation work ou a large scale may b e carried out * *" • •"' ■ Puttaromia-by-the-Lake. Chosen no doubt to avoid the confusion caused by so many Wain&S on the New Zealand map, tlijej pretty name "Punaromia" i s now the official;. designation of the tourist resort and telephone office- at the end of the motoring route to the buried village at Lake Tarawe'ra:- Th# is Te "WJiiroa of tragic memory, a green tangle of vegetation to-dav where the lively little pakeha Maori township was forty odd years- ago. • "Puna" means a spring 0 f water (as in Takapuna); a "romia" means; choked, smothered, engulfed - There is a veritable "puna" there to-day to justify the nfMne, a spring of cold water issuing from the rock into the lake near the Tarawera wharf. Mr Alfred Warbrick, the chief Government guide, lives not far from the spot. • «« « District Nurses. n

Visitors from the. city who have been spendiug their holidjiys in the country, far away from- the usual routes of travellers, have come back with glowing accounts of the work done by the district nurses, of the hospital BoMrd, whose work takes them into most inaoessible parts says the Star. Most of the nurses are good horsewomen, and travel long distances on horseback to attend to patients. There seems to be little, respite for them, land they are called out at all hours of the night or day. ihe recent fine weather, litis made their work much,easier,! audi they cfxu travel along the hard clay roads at more tlmn twice the speed than cau be done m winter w.hehi&h.e road's are >so muddy and when they wear long leggings and overalls'to protect them from the weather Too. high praise Oannoti be given these women, wh« are, in most cases, skilled above the average nurse, who probably special!* 'aes m only a few subjects, v/ks the remark of an English lady who was visiting the North recently, "amd, she was going Home to tell her friends of the splendid work done by the district nurses in New Zealand, who are not only trained midwivoi, but often • have to ride 'miles to attend to such simple 'ailments as bee stings, or paiiig caused by children eating unripe fruit.

A Sensitive Department. A few weeks ago the Director of Education ! took : s'trdngMexception to certain pass)igcfc appearing in the, Auckland Training Collegia magazine, which commented upon the lack of employment for teachers, sfeys tho Auckland Star. In answer to the Director, Mr H. G. Cousins, principal of the College, has written to -file Education Board deprecating thik somewhat rigorous criticism. MiGoxtsin.3 considers that the aim of the editor of the magazine was not "to promote discontent among the students," but "to express truly audi forcefully a dissatisfaction.; sliat was at the time very real," Vuid'we may add completely justifiable. We are glad to find that Mr Cousins politely but emphatically coudemnv; the Director's preposterous idea of appointing a censor to supervise the students. Nothing could be better calculated to foment discontent and resentment among Our'young teachers, or to undermine i the authority of the principal himself. The real trouble is that the great surpluta of teachers and the consequent look of employment is largely due to the Education Deppu'temat's policy of centralisation and the Director's lack of forethought; and .. the • Department, like all bureaucracies, is extremely sensitive to criticism when it knowfj that it is in the wrong.