Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 23 July 1908, Page 22

Notes

Teachers and Child-famine ■ At the post-mortem examination on Puritan New England one of these days, the sociologist jury will return a verdict of ' Death by race-suicide.' A similar verdict awaits the nativeborn population of ' God's own country ' unless it experiences a change of heart and manifests.in domestic life, a greater respect for God's own law. Meantime, 'the vice of the twentieth century' (as was shown in the recently-published report of the Department of Labor) seriously threatens the prosperity of our manufacturing industries. And at last week's annual meeting of the Otago Educational Institute, it was made clear that racesuicide is hitting the teaching profession a heavy blow. • I wonder,' said a head-master (Mr. A. W. Tyndall), ' whether people have yet realised that there is a lack of children in this fair Dominion, where one might think it was quite a privilege to pass one's childhood. The Hon. Mr. Millar has expressed amazement at the disclosures laid bare to him by a perusal of the latest educational returns. If he had been a teacher the ugly fact would have been brought home to him long ago by a serious deficiency in his bank account. . a A race-suicide means gradual starvation for the teacher.' * The speaker then became statistical. The average attendance in the public schools of Otago (said he) attained its maximum in 1895. It then, stood at 19,607. -In 1907 it had reduced to 17,152— a decrease of 12* per cent. In Dunedin themaximum average attendance (4148) "was reached in 1887. Last year it had fallen to 2882— a woful drop of 30' per cent - ' Yet ' continued Mr. ' Tyndall, ' during- this child-famine period, so httle alive were the authorities to what was going on, that three handsome new " schools were erected for' the accommodation .of the^disappearing flock of pupils. ' The cost of-these buildings would have been more justly spent in compensating teachers for the loss of salary .suffered by the fall in the average attendance.' • " 6 We. hear much about the 'yellow peril.' But our real yellow peril' is not in the Far East-; like Artemus Ward's krysis,' 'she is hear; she's bin hear for some time, and Goodness nose how long she'lTstay.'

Education: New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland Comparisons are not always ' odorous ' (as Mrs. Malaprop puts it). They are very often helpful -and' stimulating. Of this kind were the comparisons instituted at the "Dunedin Technical School, <5n last Saturday, by Mr. Hogben (Inspector-General of Schools), in the course of a lecture detailing his impressions of- the educational systems of Europe and America. ' According to his figures,' says the ' Evening Star ' report, ' primary education in New Zealand costs approximately the same amount per head as in Europe, Italy and Switzerland being the two countries he selected for comparison with New Zealand. As to .secondary education, however, Mr. Hogben demonstrated r the. fact that there is a great difference between the amount expended under this branch, New Zealand only spending one-third per- head -of the amount spent by Italy and Switzerland. . In the case of technical and continuation education the disparity was even greater, New Zealand spending 4d as against is nd per head. Somewhat contrary to the generally accepted belief, Mr. Hogben maintained that the secondary schools of Italy and Switzerland (especially the former) were the best he had visited. He emphasised the fact that although the Germans had the name,the Italians had the secondary schools. The feature of . the whole of the school work of Italy was their system, and the lecturer expressed himself as pleasurably disappointed at the _ facility with which the pupils could express their thoughts and give a -lucid and clear account of their observations.' '"Worship * and « Adoration ' There was an ugly look about some passages in a lecture delivered in Timaru last week by the Yen. Archdeacon Harper. The Archdeacon's lecture was (as reported) a crude restatement of the late-born and unhisloric fable of the ' continuity ' ' of the Protestant religion of the Thirty-nine Articles (the ' forty stripes save one ') with the old Catholic Church of England. According to this recent legend, nothing particular happened at the Reformation — the divorce of Henry VIII. is not so much as mentioned ; and the new Church created by Act of Parliament merely shook off two or three incumbrances, those specified in the report being ' the actual worship of the Virgin Mary ' and ' the adoration of relics of saints.' A mild but firm remonstrance from Father Tubman resulted in a repudiation by the lecturer of the words ' worship ' and ' adoration ' attributed to him by the newspaper report, and the substitution therefor of the term ' veneration.' 'In any matter of difference which keeps us apart,' added the Yen. Archdeacon, ' I ,endeavor always to allow for the difficulty of putting oneself in the position of those who belong to another communion, and of seeing things from their point of view. I have also too sincere a regard for the great work done by the Roman Catholic Church in the past, and in the present, throughout the world ever to speak lightly of her. On this account I have always endeavored to avoid controversy, as I intended to do on this occasion.' ■w The ' continuity ' theory reminds us of the sort of ' histh'ry : that Hogan spun to ' Mr. Dooley.' ' Wan iv' th' first things,' said Hogan, ' man done afther he'd lamed to kill his neighborin' animals, an' make a meal iv wan part iv thim an' a vest iv another, was to begin to manyf aether lithrachoor, an' it's been goin' on up to th' prisint day.' Legend constituted the vast bulk of the old red sandstone ' lithrachoor ' referred to by Hogan. In the recently-published ' Lectures ' of the Archbishop of Melbourne, inquiring Timaruvians will find a lengthy and detailed statement of what Protestant historians of the first rank have to say about the ' continuity ' fable. ~~-