The Week in Review.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVLI, Issue 10, 6 September 1911, Page 1

The Week in Review.

NOTICE. *The Editor will be pleased to re* teive for consideration Short Stories find Descriptive Articles, illustrated with photos, or suggestions from cot-* tributors. Bright, terse contnoutions are wanted dealing with Dominion life and quea* Hons. Unless stamps ar.e sent, the Editor Cannot guarantee the return of unsuit* able MSS.

University Reform. THE University Reform Association has come forward with a somewhat bulky pamphlet in support of its claims. The pamphlet contains mu-ch valuable information on the problems that confront all students of higher education, and few will con test the statement that our University badly needs overhauling and that its principal defects are clearly traceable to faulty organisation. Forty years ago Parliament framed a temporary system to meet special conditions that no longer exist, and Parliament has never devised or inquired into the system since. The pamphlet deals exhaustively with organiisation, appointment, finance, examinations, libraries, research and reorganisation. The two outstanding features in regard to finance are the haphazard distribution of the funds, and the fact that accounts' are kept in such various forms that comparisons of expenditure are not easy. As regards libraries, it is of grfeat importance that the books should be readily accessible to students. There. is always a tendency to make a college library into a museum where the •books are securely locked away in glass cases or wire .cages. There should be a lending department, distinct from the reference library. All books should I*o a. liable for reference, and the lending 11 ary should consist mainly of duplicate cc/ies. Afany modern text 'books are so full of references that no student can in-ke any material advance in his studies in.’css he has ready access to a really ?. I library.

Fxterual Examiners. The crux of the whole reform agitation seems to be the question of outside examinations. Our students are examined 'by their own professors at the college ckCininations, and the final examinations ore conducted by English examiners. The 1 formers object to this last arrangesr nt. To us it seems in every way undesirable that the actual teacher should examine his own class. At the largo 1 nglish schools no form master examines his own form, and the services of out-

r lors are frequently requisitioned in - lolarship, and other important examiinM ona. At Oxford and Cambridge the * iminers are seldom those who havo been engaged in tho immediate tuition of pupils. Frequently at both these tin!'■■rsities outside assistance is obtaiinod. , iio value of our degrees depends to a large extent on the fact that the examin*r* are men of world wide eminence in 'to respective spheres of learning. The a -t ot the teacher, and the art of the examiner are not necessarily akin, and cannot see what useful end would be

served by altering our present system in this matter. In America the teacher often has the absolute right to confer degrees on his own students, but no one could pretend that American degrees have anything like the same value as our own. The reformers would have us believe that our University is in a 'bad way. That it is not perfect we admit, but we think it compares favourably with most of the American Universities, and the pass degree demands a higher standard of knowledge than a similar degree at either Oxford or Cambridge. It is not to 'be expected that a young country should be able to compete with older lands in the domain of pure scholarship, but we have shown that in the world of science we can more thai hold our own, and we have every reason to feel proud of a University that has turned out so many eminent graduated in the few short years of its existence.

I*evelling-np Process.

The ancient Spartans, the finest soldiers the world has ever seen, were proud of their long hair which they carefully combed before going into action, But it would seem that our local territorials are to be compelled to wear thenhair very short on the grounds that long hair is unmilitary. A staff-sergeant major told the members of his company that many of them were wearing their hair too long, and added “A lot of you have not got your hair cut yet; you can never lie soldiers with hair like that. It does not matter about the girls; get t cut.” One associates very short hair with convicts, but it is difficult to see why the length of the hair should affect a man's efficiency as a soldier. The sixty thousand Spartans who marched against Mardonius and his 300.000 troops, am! who crushed the Persian host and so altered the whole face of history, wore halir reaching to the waist. The historian tells us that on the eve of Ther mopylae Leonidas and hiis three hundred “combed their long hair for death” before they entered on the most heroic struggle the world has witnessed. Facts are against the staff-sergeant-major. Anyway, it seems absurd that men who serve in the territorials should be compelled to go about like shorn lambs, and it is small surprise that many members of the company should have expressed indignation at the regulations which require them to do so. The Defence Department. however, states that it only requires short hair one day in the week, and the men may wear it long on the. other six days. That is some comfort. jt The Eugenics Society. The Eugenics Education ..Society of New Zealand has issued its first annual report. The objects of the society are to set forth the national importance of eugenics, to spread a knowledge of the laws of heredity, and to further eugenic teaching at home and in the schools. Dr. doss, in his address on “Eugenie* and Disease,” sketched the history of. tuberculosis and its ravages amongst the races of the world. He said that it win £mly within comparatively recent years that medical attention had been aroused to its grave importance. Attempts had been made in all the chief medical centres of the world to combat this scourge, but the goal appeared to be ss far off as ever. All the anti tuberculin preparations discovered had hitherto proved unavailing to cope with the insidious disease. The legislature and charitable and philanthropic institutions

had apparently disregarded the law of natural selection while trying to cure this most intractable disease. It was well for the people to recognise the danger of alliances with tubercular subjects, and it was the aim of eugenic teaching that such alliances should not he entered into. The remedy was in the hands of the people themselves, and the science of eugenics recognised the poteift influence of educating the minds ■of the people to dread the disease. By means of education marriage into consumptive families would be diminished, and in time the disease would lesson ■also. Personal sacritVes, therefore, would have to take the place of the la wof natural select inn. Nature was constantly endeavouring to improve the race *hv ending the diseased stock, and the e forts of man wore in many instances directed towards the preservation of the tainted stock, and consequently towards the propagation of disease. These efforts were the outcome of sentiment and ignorance, and it seemed that the science of eugenics had come into being with the main object of educating people to think seriously about improving themseUes physically, morally, and in every possible way, and also that their offspring should ibe the better equipped to pass on to posterity a healthier and <a stronger race. ]t- was often noticed that an hereditary disease m the ancestors was missed for one or more generations, and then, pel - haps under the best environment, it suddenly showed itself again' in all its hideous qualities. This clearly showed that heredity told in the end, no matter how good the environment might, be. As legislation now stood man. with all his sympathy for suffering humanity, tended to override Nature’s laws in its eliminating process, and to prolong the unlit in the land to propagate their .species, trusting to environment to work The Influence of Heredity. The question as to how far medicine tends to preserve the lives of the unfit is, of course, an old one. History is full of records of attempts to secure a ra.-«» that should be physically sound. Tim exposure of infants to climatic hardships was the primitive way of securing the survival of the fittest. Plato, in the third book of his Republic, contended that the science of medicine was of very disputable advantage*. lie thought that it should never be employed to prolong tin* lives of those who find Lad constitutions. The sooner the weaklings died the belter for the nice. Bacon, on the other hand, thought that it was a great thing to bring comfort to the invalid and to cheer tho sufferer. It is curious to find Macau-

lay, the arch-apostle of British Philistinism, supporting Bacon against Plato in this matter, and denouncing Plato's views as impractical while ‘‘Bacon fixed his eye on a mark which was placed on the earth, ami within bow shot, and hit it in the white.’’ As long as doctors differ as they do on the laws of health, and ns long as Nature, defies our most cherished theories, we can never regard eugenics as an exact science. Athletes, “as sound as a bell,’’ are seldom longlived. ♦Scholars, with bent shoulders, far more often attain longevity. A master of a college at Oxford or Cambridge is young at seventy. Gerald Massey came of a weak stock. His parents were chronic invalids—poor, underfed, undersized, The family never had more than ton shillings a week amongst them, ami they lived in the damp, insanitary fuir roundings of the English marshes. Mas spy left school when ho was eight,a puny weakling, and worked as an errand boy. At twenty-one he produced a book of Verse, which La nd or described as equal to anything lie knew in literature, and which won unqualified praise from Bus kin. Massey lived to be nearly ninety and enjoyed good health to the end. Lord Houghton came of a thoroughly healthy stock. His parents on both sides belonged to families noted for longevity, and not devoid of intellect. He was edu fated with every care. Yet. lip died at a comparatively early ago; he was always more or less of an invalid, and he produced nothing in the way of verse equal io Massey’s lyrics. We find in the same family children I hat are healthy and chil dren that are weak; we find the intellectually brilliant and !'•' mentally de feotive. (hallos Limb was one of our most charming essayists; his sister had to bo confined in an asylum. Heredity doubtless counts for much; environment, perhaps, counts for more; but Nature lias nn uncomfortable way of trumping our boat card. «3t Daylight Saving. Joshua lias his imitators in (bp advo cates of the Daylight Saving B»ill. The idea is to put forward the hands of th*' clock in the suihiik r si» that when tho clock points to 7 it will !»• in reality "1115 six. By this means lazy people will be cheated into getting up earlier. Tho farming community does not seem ch thusinstic in its support of tho irenoin•>. "Farmers contend that they get up quite Carly enough as it is. and Hint they are often astir at three in the morning. Sir Joseph Ward thought that it would be an excellent thing if Parliament sat in tho daytime and rose at G pin. Mr. Witty thought wo ought to got the sun 4o fall in with the b iLiiig at

hour earlier. Thia however, could only be done by an order uf the Governor-in* (Council, and the sun 'might appeal to the Privy Council. Mr. Witty's amendment lapsed for want of a seconder. Mr. Anderson thought that the bill would interfere with many young couples who like to indulge in courting in the twilight. It would, undoubtedly, be a good thing if people started work earlier in the summer and so had more leisure for recreation in the afternoon. There would also be a considerable saving effected in tlie use of artificial light. The alteration would also be beneficial as regards the public health. Our legislators did not seem inclined to take the bill seriously, but in England there is a strong body of public opinion in favour of the proposal, and there seems every prospect that the scheme will grow in favour a w it becomes better understood

The Straight Line. A writer in the “London Observer” says that of the many designs imputed to Germany in West Africa none strikes the fancy like that which embodies her “desire merely to ex pa ml the boundary of the . Cameroon* eastward, so that ’t will have a regular formation instead of the present ragged shape.” The theory of the rectification of frontiers has never before been pushed quite to the point of rpctangularity. Have we really reached tbo point when the symmetrical German nnhwl •cannot bear to be divided front France by anything hut a straight line? As a matter of fact, the straight line, abhorred, by. nature, plays an inconsiderable part in geography, ami that only in the newer countries. Who can detect one in the map of Europe? In this bloodstained continent every inch of frontier land has had to he fought for, time ami again: hence its geography of unconscionable raggedness. In that configuration of the Australian and the North American Slates, on the other hand, high regard has been paid to the claims of geometry. The northern boundary of Victoria is the only “irregular’’' one in all Australia: and many of the United States achieve what vve must presume to he the Teutonic ideal of the rectangle (a.s much as a rectangle as is compatible with surface). In both eases the coast line, unfortunately, remains incurably erratic. Meantime, the passion •for the Straight Line need not he. con fined to geography. It is an excellent model for diplomacy.

A Novel Strike. The latest form of strike is a strike of candidates for examinations. Tn an . examination for the B.A. degree in Paris the candidates’ struck against their examiners on the ground that the Latin prose paper was too dillirull. All the m<Ve. candidates refused to tackle th? paper as it was set, but two girl candidates did not join in the strike, and they endea \ ourrd to turn a passage of very inbi.efn French into tie- das- • phraseology of Tully. 'ria l 1. '-•■i-rib to ha\e been, however, bey mid linen, as they the whole afternoon in producing a few lines. Though the ostensible reason for the demonstration was to protest against the difficulty of the Latin prose - originally set for the “license,” a much stiller examination —then. 1 vas a deeper meaning behind it. ' It was really one of a series of battles being fought between flu l forces nf classicism ami modernism. A certain nunil»er of the at the Sorbonne are ojkposeii to the teaching of the dead languages, except as a supplementary subject. whilst the old and conservative section adheres to the llumAnitie*. But for 6nce the “no Latin and less Greek” school got the upper hand, and they hit. u]M>n the plan—so it is alleged of screwing up the Latin so as tn disgust the student. Th is Wfi have all the elements of a lock-out 3n the part of the examiners, and a •trike on the part of the students intro? dueed into the cloister-like calm uf the examination hall. Art and Engineering. Phe London “Times,** in discussing the iiideous monstrosities that pass as p.uiblio 'buildings, Aayg that the blame rests with the people themselves. Art. like politic*, is everyone's eonKerp. We' can no more throw the whole responsibility of art upon our artists than we can throw the whole roMponsibrlity of our polities upon cur politician*. It is a general lack of energy and ideals that produces corrupin both; and it is because we sulle*

from a signal lack of energy and ideals in all matters of art that we have failed so abjectly to turn our modern engineering triumphs into triumphs of architecture. The business of engineering is to solve a material problem, and that we can do as it has never been done ‘before. But engineering only becomes fine architecture when it expresses some emotion relevant to the material problem which it solves; and that kind of expression we cannot achieve, for our engineering has no imaginative significance for us. Thus, when we makfe a bridge ami wish to adorn it, since the bridge itself means nothing to us, we can only adorn it with ornament that has been developed in the solution of some other problem, and is therefore irrelevant to this one. We try to make the Tower Bridge look like the drawbridge of a medieval castle, because we take no imaginative delight in its real purpose or in the modern power and skill with which it performs that purpose.

British Sport. Mr. P. A. Vaile has contributed to an English journal an outspoken article on British, sport. He deplores the “slow intelligence. heavy thinking, and dulled imagination”, of. the . .Englishman. New Zealanders, he says, are full of brains, individuality, strength, resourcefulness; ami fine ■ sportsmanship. Mr. Vaile thinks that not only is the.’ Englishman’s mind.sluggish, but his knowledge is Jess scientific and extensive than that of our own people. This applies to other things than’ sport. In every walk of life - the New. Zealander shows more alertness than the Englishman. Mr. Vaile thinks that not only are the English too slow in thought, 'but they are also too slow in taking advantage of the th might of New Zealanders whose mental alertne-s is

eo far above their own. Following up Mr Vaile’s trenchant criticism of British sport, we can only add that we are ourselves to blame to a great extent. We lack the missionary spirit. ft is true that we send home a few Rhodes’ scholars. to stimulate the mental activities of the fossilised English don. and we have recently allowed our Premier to shake up the comatose Home politicians. But we ought to.do more than this-df we really love our Motherland. At any cost to ourselves, we should see to it that our immense superiority in brains, individuality. strength, resourcefulness and fine sportsmanship is used for the benefit of the Empire at large ami not merely for our own corner if it. Only thus can we be real Imperialists. Even if Britain can build our Dreadnoughts, create the “Glyiqpic.” ami manufacture many of our requirements, we still have Air Vaile's assurance of our immen-e mental superiority.

Women on the Bench. The French Senate has decided in la our of women magistrates for children’s courts. At first sight this may s?e;n r rex ohitionary proposal, hut laying aside all prejudice, we would ask what could be more appropriate than a woman on the Bemh in a children's court? By common consent ami universal experience women are the right people for the nursing, educating. and governing of young people. Our pieparatory and public elementary schools are all largely managed by women. Why are naughty children not brought before women to be judged? In many countries children's courts were set up so that troublesome boys and girls who fall into the hands of the police might be dealt with not as criminals or grave offenders, but as disobedient children, and so escape the taint of crime. The atmosphere of the children's courts would be freer still from all influence of criminal jurisdiction were women on the Bench, ami juvenile offenders could bp judged and punished without feeling they had incurred more than the displeasure of school or home authority. Women magistrates would help to kill that romantic notion of crime which is so strong an incentive In youth. Who could hope to become a Jack Shepherd or a Dick Turpin after being made to stand in a corner by order nf some old lady on the'Bench? There would l>e nothing un-English in women magistrates, for the lady of the manor iii earlier centuries ruled her domain* with the same sovereignty that the lord of the manor possessed. Readers of Scott's “ Peveril of the Peak ” will read lly recall the autocratic way the stern old Countess of Derby ' governed her lands.