Untitled

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144713, 23 June 1915, Page 2

At a meeting of householders at Moturoa on Monday night a committee was appointed to draft a petition and obtain signatures to it asking the Board of Education to establish a sbliool in that neighbourhood. There are, it is said, some fifty children of school age residing within about 300 yards of the suggested si to and a score or more of others within easy reach. The nearest school is the West End, where the accommodation is overtaxed, and that is about a jnllo and a half from the proposed site at Moturoa, which is on the side of tho hill in the Prison Reserve. Tho population around Motmiroa is growing steadily, and there is a prospect of n large increase in tho near future, so that tho request, for a school there is reasonable. By placing it where suggested it is probable that it would servo many of thc,*Spotswood children, for whom a school is also desired. As against tho establishment of a new school so near to town it may bo urged that the installation of tho tramways will bring Moturoa much closer fb the West End, but tho trains will not carry school children free, and, as already stated. tlw> West End School is already overtaxed and must be soon enlarged unless a new school is established somewhere to take some of tho children. All things considered, a strong case can bo made out in support of the request oT tho Moturoa people.

Tho war provides ns with many interesting’ studies in temperament, among our friends. Roughly people may bo diviScd into tho optimist, pessimist, and irritable with regard to tho progress of the war. The irritable class are perhaps tho most annoying. The war lias set all their nerves on edge, and they arc constantly wondering why tho Allies do not got on faster, why tho wasters do not volunteer for service, and why wo are not all doing more. They feel sure that a National Ministry should be formed, that compulsory service will have to be introduced, that all Germans ought to t bo interned, and urge that race meetings and football ought to ho stopped at once. These people, who may bo described as worriers,' should toko tonics and as much physical exercise as our weather will permit and, with better physical health, they will become more cheerful. They are not, as they suppose, tho' only people who have the welfare of the Empire really at heart, but are rather injuring tho .general well-being by their febrile excitement. The really thorough-going pessimist is far more pleasing to meet. Vi hen ho tolls you that tho Allies have-gained little or no ground in the west, you can remind him that tho -Russians have lost much in tho east. Or it ho shakes his head over tho deficient supply of munitions in Britain, ho may bo romindtxl of the extraordinary efficiency of tho German organisation in every direction. By tactics of this sort the average pessimist will from sheer opposition begin to take a more cheerful view and, if skilfully handled, end in a more cheerful state of mind than ho started. Tho optimist who is cheerful from more ignorance must be supplied with tho facts which really tend to optimism—and there aro many of those. What we should aim at is to ho well-informed optimists because, after a careful study of the pros and cons, wo believe that the British Empire has answered nobly to the call of duty and that her allies have done the same. So long as this is so, victory’, though it may be long in coming, is sure, for no ono ever fought for a hotter cause. In many ways tho task of those who go to tho front is tho easiest. They undergo hardships and risk their lives, but they fool that they aro doing their duty to tho full. Those who have to stay behind have many anxieties about those at tho front and have to exercise tho virtue of patience in an unusual degree, But since this is their lot they should endeavour cheerfully to shoulder the burden and imitate tho cheerfulness of the men at the front.