CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5911, 1 July 1897, Page 1

CURRENT TOPICS.

Miss Tracey, who read a A woman on japtr on "University ExuNrvEESiTT tension " a few days ago, education, at the annual conference of the Southland branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute, appears to be fully impressed with the necessity for the democratisation of learning in this country, if we are not to fall hopelessly out of the race for supremacy in industry, commerce and science. The thoroughly radical nature of her views on the subject may be judged from her indictment of the system of charging fees for university tuition. An institution, supported from the public purse, should not, she maintained," open its doors only to those whose means enabled them to pay for its privileges. "One might go so far as to ask if it is legal to charge fees at all, and a student presenting himself and demanding free tuition as his right might make out a good case for himself." In Eepublican countries, with progressive administration, such as Switzerland and the United States, she pointed out that the universities were not hampered in their high possibilities of usefulness, by fees. Moreover, in Chicago they made all possible provision for a large and increasing class of self-supporting students, by which they were enabled to earn in vacation time means of subsistence. These students, according to equipment and ability, took up • journalism, compositors' work, teaching, mercantile pursuits, &c, openings being procured for them by the University management. ' Lady students recoup their means similarly, many of them, for example, taking up domestic pursuits in the large boarding-houses connected ( with the universities. Miss Tracey put in a , 'plea for the Home universities throwing. open their doora, as regards examinations, so that students from all parts of the empire, as well as " extra-mural students " at Home, might obtain academical degrees from the great seats of learning. Finally, she contended that "the plea that our system of scholarships in New Zealand opens the way to,' a complete course of education to children of promise, whose parents cannot- pay for such a course, was vain. The .New Zealand University scholarships simply fell to those who could afford tp pay for. the . necessary coaching, and she; emphasised the need . for a complete revolution in our educational methods. The opinions expressed by her ought to receive attention from those who have the power to effect the desired changes, Nansen's "Farthest-North" abctic is to be pushed still further exploka- north, if human ingenuity tion. and perseverance can accomplish the feat. Mr M. F. G. Jackson, the English explorer who met Nansen "on the ice " some two years ago, is about to start on another Polar expedition, subsidised as before by the millionaire Harmsworth, and he may on this occasion carry the odour of scented soap and the spectacle of a well-groomed Englishman nearer to the mystic Pole than even Nansen carried the unwonted sight of two hardy Norsemen, dirt-begrimed and strangely-clad. A French explorer is also organising an Arctic expedition ; but unlike Jackson, who sticks to land and ice, M. Louis Godard means to conquer the Pole with the aid of the powers of the air. , He is having a balloon constructed of 'sufficient size to carry himself and six other persons, with a supply of scientific apparatus, food, ballast, &c. ' The ballast alone is calculated to weigh 3 tons 12 cwt. The balloon is to be taken to Spitzbergen, . where it will be inflated and set out on its journey towards the North Pole. The French Minister of Marine will be asked to place a steamer, with a crew of 30 hands, at the disposal of the committee, to transport the cargo, some 300 tons, to Spitzbergen. To produce the requisite amount of gas — 18,000 cubic metres— including accessories, &c, 179 tons of sulphuric acid and 72 of iron will bo needed. In talking over the project, M. Godard said that, assuming. the balloon to travel at the rate. of 16 kilometres per hour, it would cover daily 360 kilometres, or 225 miles ; that is to say, 13,500 miles during 60 days. But the contemplated voyage of exploration ib not expected to exceed 12 or 15 days, equivalent to a total journey of 3375 miles. M. Godard thought that, with their complete scientific equipment, there would be no great danger in the expedition, but, he quietly added, they were prepared for whatever might befall them. They feared most being blown away from the Pole, instead of towards it, in which case they would remain in the air 50 to 60 days, if necessary, in the hope of a change. The provisions to be taken are calculated to last 120 days. In Bpite of the calm assurance of the projector of the journey, the scheme must strike ordinary people as extremely risky. We would much rather trust to the methods that achieved such a large measure of success in the case of the Fram.

Modern woman, judged women's by a jury of her peers, must, , views on it seems, be pronounced a women. failure. The ladies of the Austral Salon, a few evenings ago, spent two hours at their Melbourne meeting place in debating the question.:. "Is ,the character of woman improving/as compared with past times ?" and the of argument was decidedly in the negative. . Audible argument, that is, for the speaker who opened in the affirmative could not be heard, while Mrs G. B. Lewis, who followed on the other side, was vigorous and effective. The advantage enjoyed by the woman of to-day, the latter speaker urged, was the privilege of working for herself and keeping her family, and as a rule she strove to wear men's shoes and generally aimed at a goal she would never attain. The company was moved to laughter by the picture the speaker drew of the plight of a woman being tried by a feminine jury. "What pity would such a one get from the prudes sitting in judgment?" she asked. She supplied the answer herself — "None. Women are hardest on women." But apart from the sympathetic aspect of such a case, a woman's jury would be impracticable, because whereas twelve men were occasionally locked up for forty-eight hours when fchfcy disagreed, twelve women might be locked up for forty-eight years j they

would never agree. Modern environment and teaching, Mrs Lewis continued, had " turned women into politicians and stump orators, had made girls over-fastidious in the choice of husbands, bending, their fond gaze only on those possessing £ s. d." "In fact," the speaker declared, "they want to begin where their mothers ended, and it always occurred that the women with the least attractions, very little capability and no money were the most exacting." The idealistic girl next passed under review, and she was condemned for her airy boast that she never read works of fiction unless they were "naughty." When Mrs Lewis concluded with the exhortation, "Let us remember that our greatest part in the world's drama is as trainers of man," she was warmly applauded as a worthy exponent of the "suckle-fools-and-chromcle-small-beer " definition of the functions of womanhood. A very depressing estiatheistical mate of the character of the ant) modern woman was preimmobal. sented by Miss E. Smith, who said that under present day influences woman had become "a socialist, and thus an atheist, irreverent, disrespectful, and immoral," and she uttered the extraordinary sentiment that no woman who had to compete with man in the rough and tumble of life could be otherwise, and that therefore she deserved all pity. Once women were mentally inferior and morally superior to men, she said, but now tha%was all being altered. Miss Sophie Osmond, who was understood to be retained for the negative side, was more entertaining than lucid. She believed that with the aid of a cookery book and a ftible any woman could get to heaven, and as for dress, well, every woman should make herself look as nice as possible. To the excessive knowledge of modern women she attributed the dearth of marriages, because man did not care to inarry anyone who knew more than he did. Man wanted his wife to look up to him, and modern woman knew too much for that. In order to clinch her arguments, which, though interesting, were hardly explanatory of woman's character, this speaker represented herself as having been, just 10,000 years ago, a "primordial atomic globule," which, passing through ages, had assumed the form of lovely -woman 1000 years ago, and now stood on the platform full of the imperfections gathered in transition, but happy because of such deficiencies. The champions of woman included Miss Castilla, who made timely reference to the Queen, whom " neither Courts nor Parliaments nor politics had spoiled," and Mrs Quinell, who regarded the girl of the past as a pretty but useless toy ; the girl of to-day as one who played a large part in the world, and had the privilege of choosing her own husband. If the Austral Salon is fairly representative of the intellectual status of Victorian woman, it is not to be wondered that the agitation for female suffrage makes but little progress in the neighbouring colony. ■ '