PUBLIC OPINION

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18016, 29 November 1926, Page 8

PUBLIC OPINION

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING.

Golf Before Business. Perhaps or.ly Mr P. G. Wodehouse could do full justice to the implications of the scene on the London Stock Exchange, when there was a long demonstration against a member who had had the indecency to suggest that his fellow members should work on Saturday mornings instead of playing golf. We have seldom heard of so rash an act. Golf is not a game; it is a religion. To suggest that men accustomed to Worshipping on the links on Saturday morning should debase the day by going to work was a gesture to materialism which members naturally resented. Of course, these devoted English Stock Exchange labourers axe wont to become indignant at the slackness of the worker who wears a flannel shirt or overalls. No five-day viek for this labourer in the national vineyard. Sandwiched in between a chatter about “ Kaffirs ” and “ rails ” is dark talk about the laziness of the bricklayer and the degeneration of the whole of the working class. “ The country’s going to the dogs. Men won't work.’ By gad, sir, I’d—by the way, what about a drop of lunch and a round of golf, eh?” Carried unanimously. We must remember, however, that the working man does not play golf, and is therefore beyond the pale.—“ Star,” Auckland.

The Examination Season. Next week the, examination season will be in full swing, for all the tests usually summed up in the one word matriculation will begin. These are not all the examinat.j ms making the Close of the scholastic year; they are neither the earliest nor tne last, but, attracting the greatest body of entrants, they stand for more, than the remainder. Auckland, one of fifty-nine centres in which they will be held simultaneously, caters for a little over 1000 candidates. From that figure it can be imagined how many, with mingled hopes and fears, will submit themselves to the ordeal. Next week's examinations are ostensibly the preliminary tests of fitness to commence training for various professions, medicine, dentistry, law, accountancy, engineering and others. Actually they will also serve as the crowning elfort and perhaps achievement of a secondary school career. If all that has been said against the written examination is to be accepted fully, they stand as a monumental exhibition of futility. Yet assuming that it is desirable to have Some authoritative declaration that students of post-primary grade have reached a certain degree of competence, can assailants of the examination system suggest any better method of assessing merits than the written test, when aspirants, for the imprimatur offer in their thousands?—“ N.Z. Herald,” Auckland.