The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1900.

Waikato Argus, Volume IX, Issue 765, 27 September 1900, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1900.

It is recognised on all hands that the instruction in our primary schools does not fit children for rural life. An attempt , had been made in France to meet this defect. In France as in New Zealand it was recognised- that the curriculum of the country school required revising, it was also realised at the same time that no change could be satisfactory unless there were teachers qualified to take the new subjects. In 1899 a law passed the French Legislature for the establishment of chairs, of agriculture in every department, and it was the duty of the departmental professors of agriculture to give theoretical and practical instruction to second and third year students in all training colleges. For male students land surveying, levelling and agriculture are obligatory subjects, while female students receive instruction in domestic economy. All are taught the elements of the natural and physical sciences, with their principal applications and horticulture. It was not intended to train agricultural experts. This, was emphasised in the report of a Commission made in 1879 as follows :—"The Legislature did not intend, nor do we desire, to make overy student who leaves the traincollege a kind of professor of agriculture. The teacher who advanced any claim of the sorb would soon find himself a butt for the raillery of farmers, who believe, and not without reason, that a man only becomes master in agriculture after devoting himself to actual work in t,he fields." The function of the teacher is to form develop'and direct the intelligence of the children, he is above all an educator. But there is no reason why a teacher who has the requisite knowledge should nob give his pupils useful ideas by selecting as the subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic matters of agricultural interest. Under the French system students in the training colleges are expected to enter minutely into the details of the art of horticulture, and to carry them out in practice as far as it is possible. In the garden of every training college there is a nursery of fruit trees, and a portion is reserved specially for botanical studies. Lessons in pruning and grafting are given. In some colleges it is usual to distribute a number of grafts annually to the rural schools of the Department. In.ab least three respects the French methods suggest ways in which the difficulties which attend the reforms of rural education may be diminished. Teachers must no longer be prepared solely for the " complex and artificial life of towns," they must recognise that the requirements of the country have some claim. Secondly there should be greater equality between the payment of the rural and the urban teacher. A teacher should be paid according to his qualifications, irrespective of the size of the school to which he happens to bo attached. The responsibilities and miscellaneous duties of the ill-paid teacher of ja rural school are often far heavier than those of a man no more highly qualified who happens to be in a town.

The short sketch we have given above of the French system should prove a useful object lesson to those who are responsible for the education of the people. The first difficulty that meets us in contemplating the possibility of adopting it in New Zealand in some modified form is the fact that training colleges do not exist in the colony, the rising generation of teachers is therefore dependent almost entirely for their preparation as teachers upon the head teachers of the schools to which thoy are attached in the capacity of pupil teachers. Manifestly men who have spent their whole lives in giving instruction of a particular type would expel ience great difficulty in substituting other subjects and other methods. Instruction, therefore, in matters appertaining to the land industry cannot be looked for from the present generation of head teachers, and in the absence of training colleges we ore unable to see how any improvement in the next generation is to be brought about.

When referring to the trial of Massey-Harris and Co.'s ploughs at Cambridge last Saturday, we omitted to state chat Mr G. E. Clark had been appointed agent [or the firm in that town. He will at all times be pleased to give any information regarding these celebrated implements.

The most magnificent work of architecture is the Tai Mahal, in Agra, Hindustan. It is octagonal in form, of pure white marble, inlaid with every sort of precious stone. The work took 22,000 men 20 years to complete, and though there were numerous gifts and the labour was free, the cost was £3,200,000.

Mr Thos. Wells, of Cambridge, is about to commence erecting three new shops on the corner opposite the Criterion Hotel, in that town. Mr J. R. Roberts, of Bevonport, is the architect, but Mr Wells' own men will do the bnilding, under the superintendence of Mr J. Reid, manager of the cabiuet-makiug department.

The entries for the Jubilee Baud Contest to be held at Christehurch are : —Waihi Brass Band, Wellington Garrison, Kaiapoi, Elite (Christehurch), Stanmore (Christehurch), Canterbury Engineers, Wools ton (Christehurch), South Canterbury Battalion, Port Chalmers, North-east Valley, Dunedin Navals, Kaikora, Invercargill Garrison. A sensation was caused at Hokatika on Tuesday afternoon by the news that a miner named William Irvine hud been entombed in a tunuel in Craig's Freehold, the scene of a fatal accident a few years ugo. The tunnel caved in at nine o'clock on Tuesday. Relays of men were at work all day, aud got Irvine out that evening, only slightly injured. A remarkable story of heroism in civil life is told in the New York Press. A fire broke out in the east side tenement home of a poor Jewish tailor on the first Seder (Passover) evening. The tailor, his wife and children were caught in a trap by ths flames. When the firemen forced an entry into the tiilor's bedroom they found against the further wall four unconscious bodies, with charred clothing and black faceß. Three of them—the wife and two children—were saved by the poor Jew's heroism. He had stretched his body as a shield in front of his family, and gave his life to rescue theirs.

At the Dunedin Police Court on Tuesday, Edward Horton was charged with, about the month of June, receiving eight pairs of boots, knowing them to have been stolen from the warehouse of Sargood, Son and Ewen. He was further charged with receiving 12 fountain pens, three pencil cases, six pocket knives, a box of pencils, a pencil case and a lady's dressing.bag, knowing them to have been stolen from the shop of Fergusson and Mitchell. This is a sequel to the case in which a young man was charged with theft, having been, it was alleged, enticed by Horton. After evidence, Horton was committed for trial.

It appears that the title of Governor • General of Australia, now borne by the Earl of Hopetoun is not a new creation, but a revival. It has been lying dormant since 1861. Its lust holder was .Sir William DerJson, the brother of a Speaker of the House of Commons, and the author of " Varieties of Vice-Regal Life " New South Wales, the mother colony, was for the first half of the century so synonymous with Australia that.its ruler was always officially styled " Governor-General." But with the rise of Victoria and Queensland it was felt that the title carried with it an assumption of superiority no longer' justified by the local or constitutional facts. And so it was quietly dropped by Downing-street when Sir William Denison was translated from Sydney to Madras

A meeting of the Cambridge Young People's Mutual Improvement Society was held in Victoria Hall on Monday evening, when Mr James Dean read a spleudid paper on the life of Robert Barns. There was a good attendance, and Mr Dean was listened to with repture by those present. The proceedings were enlivened by songs contributed by the following performers, all of them being loudly applauded —:" Row Me O'er to Charlie," Miss Sharp ; "A' for the Sake 0' Somebody," Miss Dean ; "A Man's a Man for A'That," Mr R. Crickett; "0' a' the Airts the Win' can Blow," Mr T. Rickards., This was undoubtedly the best evening's entertainment that has been given since the Society was inaugurated. On the 15th October the Rev. J. Erwin will deliver an address on the life of Robert Browning, and the following Monday the final meeting of the season will be held, in the form of a social gathering.

At the Police Court, Auckland on Tuesday, Alfred Brooks, a commercial traveller, was charged that he used a railway ticket on the journey from Huntiy to Taupiri, such ticket having been already used to the full extent to which he was entitled to use it for travelling between the abovenamed stations. Mr Devore prosecuted on behalf of the Railway Department, and Mr J. R. I\,eed appeared for the accused, who pleaded guilty. It appeared that defendant had taken a ticket from Auckland to Taupiri, and then returned from Taupiri to Huntiy, and on the return journey travelled on the ticket which he had used from Auckland to Taupiri. A fine of 10s and costs £1 16s, was imposed. A similar charge against G. Longdill, a commercial traveller, of attempting to use a railway ticket which had been already used was also heard. Mr McGregor appeared for defendant. The circumstances were exactly similar and His Worship fined defendant £2, and costs £1 16s.—Herald.

A visitor to South America, writing from Buenos Ayres to the Stock and Statiou Journal, says :—" A line to you from a far off country. lam amazed at this place ; 'tis a second Paris. The wealth, the carriages and horses, the jewellery, etc., could only be seen in such places as Paris, Merlin, or Loudon. The amount of shipping, the mountains of wheat, the life and hustle leave Sydney a long way in the shade. Tlie country is also wonderful ; heavy-carrying country it is, and water nearly everywhere at 30ft. The horses are superb. 1 have just left one place with 40,000 of these, all being bred from imported stallions. Carriage horses, cavalry horses, chargers, etc., are being shipped to all parts of the world nearly every day. One thing is a great improvement on New South Wales and Australia generally : v stock are all loader 1 from the end of the train, and they walk richt along into their respective trucks. No jolting is allowed, and stock trains, which cake the precedence of coods traius, are run through very quickly."

Tt is no easy matter to change a calendar. Russia is experiencing this fact- Tbe Committee of the St. Petersburg Astronomical Society are having no end of trouble in their efforts to have dropped the excess of eleven days in the Julian method of reckoning, so that Russia may come in with the rest of the civilised world under the Gregorian calendar. The people do not want it. They feel as the people did in England when the change was made there 150 years ago. They say that the Government are trying to cheat them out of eleven days of life ; that to call the first of the mouth the twelfth is robbing them of just that much time. Then they object to the upsetting of their religious anil secular festivals, aud say that the days will all be wrong under the proposed change, aud that they will lose their effectiveness. But the change is to be made, aud the plan is to use both dates until the people become familiar with the new style. The law will make compulsory the use of both dates on all private and public documents. Try The Akgos Office for horse cards. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Trooper J. Wright is expected to return to Hamilton to-morrow or Saturday. He will, no doubt, be accorded an enthusiastic reception by his old comrades Much sympathy is felt with Mr P. Pogarty, of Cambridge, vvha lost his sister suddenly on Sunday last. The interment took place at the Cambridge Cemetery yesterday. A miner, whilst excavating stone from a ridge about seven miles from Guloug, New South Wales, found in a ! crevioa a Worcester sauce bottle containing 12ob of alluvial gold, which had evidently been deposited there for over 20 years. The rehearsal of " Charley's Aunt," the comedy to be staged by the Hamilton Comedy Company on show nights, will be undertaken at once. The company generally affords considerable amusement to the large number of visitors in town about show time, devoting the proceeds to some worthy object, and we are pleased to see that they are. again to the fore. The Herald's London correspondent, writing under date August 25th, says:—Private Rayues, of Waikato, a member of the First New Zealand Contingent, arrived in the s.s. Canada from the Cape this week. He has six weeks' furlough, and is staying with friends at 137, Petherton Road, Highbury, N. At the end of the six weeks he expects to be sent hack to South Africa, and hopes to assist in catching De Wet, if that wily Beer be not caught before then. He was inva ,: d"d through enteric fever, but is now quite strong again. Through the kindness of Mr E. L. Hope we have been permitted to peruse a copy of The Mafeking Mail and Protectorate Guardian, which he received from his son The paper is demy folio iu size and published daily, the terms being Is a week payable iu advance. One side is devoted to advertisements, one of which notifies the sale of 150 horses, being attached stock from the Liohtenburg and Rustenberg districts, while the other side contains two columns of African war news, officially communicated to the press from Lord Roberts to H.E. the High Commission, and a third column on the Chinese trouble. The paper ia printed in pica, which besides filling up quickly abviates to a great extent the necessity for using spectacles. The sale held at Moanavale, yesterday was a succees in every department except the furniture. This was disposed of first and the morning being a very wet one very few ladies were present, and consequently tbe bidding was dull. The horses, cattle and sheep sold well, the competition for them being keen. A couple of horses made £49 each, and ewe hoggets brought 14s. A splendid luncheon was provided in barn, Mr C. Boyce, of Cambridge, doing the catering. Many attended the sale for the purpose of having a last look at the old place, and of saying farewell to the remaining one of the family that has occupied it for such a lengthy period. We are sure everyone joins with us in wishing Mr Thornton Walker suoeess in his future undertakings, and we trust he may yet decide to remain in Waikato. Locomotion in London, as far as the price is concerned, is (says the St. James Budget)" in a state of revolution. Remounts for the 'bus services are so scarce that penny fares are in danger of spelling ruin to the richest companies. The cabby, contrariwise, bereft of military men aud other " good spenders," hastens lo make a secret armistice with reference to an illegal sixpenny fare, which, as it gives some half a crown a day extra receipts, may shortly be generally adopted. Again, extraordinary cheap travelling by tram, at the rate of a tarthing a mile, has just been decided on by the Board of Trade for the labouring classes, even a man of comparatively limited income could indulge in half a mile or so it this rate occasionally without sinful extravagance. And the new Central Loudou Railway will carry passengers six and a-half miles for 2d—in the case of early rising workmen for Id —in a week or two. What with a chastened and purified telephone service, possibly three - penny telegrams, halfpenny L.C.C. 'buses, fourpeuny - halfpenny restaurants, and other irreducibly minimum conveniences, the life of the working mau io rapidly becoming worth living. ______