CORRESPONDENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18616, 11 July 1930, Page 12

CORRESPONDENCE.

FOOTPATH FOR GLEN-ITI RESIDENTS. To the Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.” Sir, —The Levels Council staff is at present shingling the main Glen-iti Road. A few ratepayers are wondering if it would be possible for the Council to grade one side of the so-called footpaths, and put a light coat of this same fine shingle on it. Although there are twenty-six houses within half a mile of the store there is no footpath. I am sure we would all be very grateful, especially for the children’s sake, so long as they do not make a shingle beach of it. Apart from that,, no matter how tidy a man keeps his place, the uneven and untidy state of the footpaths spoils the effect.—l am, etc., A RATEPAYER. Glen-iti, July 10. THE CANCER MENACE. To the Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.” Sir,—l notice in yesterday’s issue of the “Herald” a correspondent writes over the signature of “Aches and Pains.” drawing attention to the cancer menace and the alarming statistics which go to show the toll the scourge is taking of the community. Your correspondent desires to know what are the premonitory symptoms of the presence of cancer in the human body. External cancer can easily be recognised by the scirrhus swelling of the part affected, if the part is glandular. The presence of the disease is generally heralded with a peculiarly burning and lancinating pain in that portion of the body affected, either external or internal. The sufferer becomes uneasy; one day he feels all right, and the next all wrong, and thus the disease progresses until the unfortunate being is right in the grip of the disease itself, and the only hope is the surgeon’s knife. I am not writing to raise fears in the mind of anyone, but would like to point out as briefly as possible that a good deal more could be done than is done at present towards preventing the spread of this fearful malady, for one ounce of prevention is worth pounds of cure. While on a visit to Australia nearly three years ago the writer came in con- | tact with more than one cancer subject, j and in nearly every case, after delving J into the patient’s history, one could only come to the conclusion that the main cause of the trouble was the mode of living previously adopted by the person so afflicted. I have given years of study to the subject of cancer, part of which has been spent in research work in one of the best universities in the world, and nave come to the conclusion that the disease can be prevented if people would only live a more simple life and break away from high living altogether. Take a case in point: A relative of mine is passing through the 101st year of her existence, and proudly points to the fact that she has lived the simple life; what I mean by that is, that the daily menu is of the simplest kind. The system has never been allowed to get clogged up with impurities. Hence, good health is enjoyed right to the end of the chapter. Just another example: The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone was a particularly healthy man. No matter how pressing parliamentary duties were, he saw to it that every mouthful of food was properly masticated before it entered its proper channel. Over-eating, over-drinking, and over-smoking all contribute to illhealth. There is an old saying which comes to my mind at the moment, which is an opportune one to use. It runs thus: “Men laugh and sing till the feast is o’er; and then comes the reckoning, and they laugh no more.” I could write more on this subject, but ■wall take up no more of your valuable space at present. Thanking you in anticipation.—l am, etc., EX-STUDENT OF RESEARCH, UNIV. OF TORONTO. Temuka, July 10. i CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS. To the I itor of the ” Timaru Herald.” Sir,—The Minister of Education in his endeavour to satiate the Ministerial keenness in the saving of a few pounds in the expenditure of his particular department, is apparently lash- ! ing out right and left with little care of where his shafts are striking. Recently we in Adair were favoured with a visit from some members of the Canterbury Education Board, for the purpose of collecting data in connection with the idea of the consolidation of some of the local schools. \ The matter of consolidation may be quite a useful idea in some districts, but in a district like our own—one of small mixed farmers—it would appear as if the official pruning knife is going to commence cutting where it is presumed the least resistance will be offered. Having been brought face to face with officialdom herein, we are beginning to realise that the Parliamentary fetish of stopping the drift towards the towrs by putting more men on the land, is developing into so

much moonshine. We are being i threatened with the loss of our local \ school facilities, and find this threat anything but consistent with the above Ministerial howls. The Minister of Education, as head of the Depart- j ment, is through the Canterbury Education Board, apparently quite ready to deprive the householders of certain districts of their local schools, and incidentally the services of their children for small duties before and after school hours. For. after all, consolidation means that the children of certain districts will have to travel a considerable distance to obtain their schooling, and will of a certainty have to leave home too early and reach home too late to be of any assistance. We are told of course that with more pupils attending any one school, there will be more opportunity of the teachers employed giving more of their attention to the requirements of individual pupils. What I cannot understand about this piece of propaganda is that if a teacher cannot successfully teach say twelve pupils of every standard, how on earth is the same teacher with two or three standards, comprising double or treble the number of pupils, going to make a success of teaching any one child of the number anything. Have our present day teachers forgotten their moral obligations to the children, or are they all busily chasing a certain quantity of the Almighty Dollar. Perhaps flitting to and fro per medium of a private motor car is tending to make the vast majority of them light headed, and they cannot ' stand the strain. Now, sir, ordinary academic education is an essential, but how much more essential in a great young country like our New Zealand, wherein small mixed farmers are concerned, is the domestic education of the child. Anything which tends to take away from the parents, and incidentally the child, his chance of being made selfreliant in the farming game of life, is surely a retrograde step. All parents are jealous beings when the welfare of their children is at stake, and I am quite sure if the present scheme of consolidation is carried out in many districts, that many of our mixed farmers will sell up their holdings and move into the towns, where they will have the parents’ part in the education of their children secure. If our Ministers of the Crown are sincere in their advocation of more production, the putting of more men on the land, here is a great opportunity for the Minister of Education to do his bit. Let him make sure that handy schooling facilities are available to all farm-

ing communities. Admittedly consolidation may save him a few pounds of departmental expenditure, but that saving will leave behind it a trail of harm to the man and wife struggling along on a few acres, which all the balanced budgets of a decade will not be able to wipe out. There is one thing which the New Zealand small holder knows about production, and that is the value of hard work. An old saying, “like father, like son” might very well be applied herein. Where will the average boy or girl learn the lesson of life’s work to better advantage than under the eye of the parent. Deprive the child of the chance to perform tasks about a home and he becomes a drifter. Give him the chance of a few hours’ work for Dad or Mum daily, and he will have learned a great deal towards taking care of himself when his school days are over. If consolidation must come, I think the members of the Canterbury Education Board should do some looking before they commence leaping. To take children away from and close a big school with accommodation for 50 pupils and 5 acres of a playing area, and send them to a smaller and which then would be an over-crowded one, and with a much smaller playing area, seems to me to be false economy. 1 trust that our local Member of Parliament will take this matter up to some purpose with the Department, and thereby give us some proof of the sincerity of the many Ministerial cries for-more production, stopping the drift towards the towns and getting more men on the land, and let us see that when the opportunity occurs, as at present, that something can really be accomplished in protecting young New Zealand, so that when he goes on the land he will make a success of it.—l am, etc., EX-PUPIL. Adair, July 7.