WITH THE .... SEASON'S GREETINGS TO OUR READERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND OVER SEAS.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 3, 2 January 1907, Page 83

WITH THE .... SEASON'S GREETINGS TO OUR READERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND OVER SEAS.

Training of the People. It is the leading, if unwritten, axiom of all the nations engaged in the industiial war of this era of unregulated production, that nations without education degenerate into unorganised bands of hewers of wood and drawers of water. Now, the hewers and the drawers are the serfs of the world. In nothing do they prevail. Manufacturing supremacy, and its logical follower, trade advantage, are to them whose brains, eyes, and hands are trained, whose minds are filled with the most useful of things knowable. At the same time it is evident that there must be the healthy body as well as the healthy mind, otherwise in the day of enterprise there will be no effort, and in the hour of defence neither courage nor endurance. The nation that holds its own must have not only a full head and a skilled hand, but also, and indispensably, a strong constitution. Education that 'aims at that trinity of development is supplied in this country in full measure. The primary school, the secondary school, and the university college form the education pyramid, with a cohesion and a homogeneity which may leave some room for improvement, but are essentially improving. In addition, there is a system of technical instruction which was but yesterday in its infancy, and to-day is vigorously at work on a wide scale, and is clamorously

demanding increase all along the line. Its practical benefits are many : it offers a great help to the existing apprentice system, and it bids fair to advance the status of the expert in every department of skill from day to day in a surprising manner. It is now, in fact, an integral and increasing part of the State system of education. The State, recognising the value of its system, has made primary education compulsory and requires education tests for entrance of young people into the Civil Service of the country and, of course, the learned professions ; and the private employer often co-operates by insisting on a Fourth Standard certificate before the admission of a candidate to ship or counting-house. The great question, of course, under these circumstances is whether young New Zealand appreciates these advantages of provision and compulsion. Many people believe that the young horse, when brought after all this trouble to the wholesome water of learning and practical advancement, refuses to drink, preferring the poisonous flow of gambling and the stagnant pool of over-athleticism. They prophesy a race of " flannelled fools and mudded oafs." It is comfortable to know that these prophets of evil are wrong in the extreme. Young New Zealand does, it is true, indulge in sports of all kinds ; but there are two things to be noted about this indulgence. In the first place he is an accurate observer and organiser beyond comparison, a student of perfection in every detail of his sport. Secondly, he subordinates it in nearly every instance to the more serious work of life before him. The great thing to know for those who are anxious watchers over his welfare is the way in which young New Zealand co-operates with the State in the things provided by the State for his advantage and the advantage of the race. The gauge is to be seen in the matriculation lists of the University and in the examination lists of the Education Department which has the supervising of all the examination cutside of the university series. These latter comprise the Civil Service examinations, the various scholarship examinations, and the examinations that count for the admission to the free places which constitute so large a proportion of the secondary education of the colonial youth. To take the latter first, the numbers of applications for all the examinations this year reach the handsome figure of 2243. It would be interestnig to have a series of the numbers of annual applications before one for the purpose of comparison and the ascertainment of the rate of progress. But there are so many new things in the education

world in the way of technical examinations, examinations for free places and the rest, less than two years old, that the compilation of such a series would at the present be quite useless. It is a great thing, however, that the numbers have reached go soon up to 2243. The figures for the matriculation examinations are more clear so far as they relate to a number of years. The table for the last five years is as under :—: —

The satisfactory and suggestive feature of these figures is that the last increase (1906) is vastly greater than any of the previous incieases. It is of 240 against the previous largest increase of 132. Moreover, the increases of the previous years evidently were not at all regular, the series in fact being remarkable for a break. The details are not too full, but there is the certainty that the application of young New Zealand for the privilege of matriculation at the hand of the University is increasing at a greatly augmenting rate of progress. Therefore it is safe to regard the combination of all the examinations of the present year as most satisfactory. With 1180 matriculation students and 2343 going up for all the other examinations which distinguish this part of the year from the rest, we have a total of 3423 young people co-operating with all their might in the educational advantages offered them by the State. All of these may not be bent on immediate profit. But the fact cannot be gainsaid that in the education department of the national life the activity is such as to convince the most sceptical that the efforts of the State to find good education for all are not likely to be wasted for want of the co-operation of the intended beneficiaries. The conclusion is fortified by a glance at the achievements of students of the past. The name of Rutherford, the great scientist of Canada, of Reeves, the High Commissioner of New Zealand, who obtained the whole of his education in his native country — of whom it was said that he paid for his own education by the number of scholarships that he won — and of Robertson, the latest of the Rhodes Scholars from this country, are a sort of guarantee that New Zealand will not throw away her opportunities. Who doubts let him cast his eye

*An apparent leduction only : the difference being due to technical rearrangement.

around the colony and mark the many successful men in every walk of life who owe the whole of their training to the educational facilities afforded by their own country. In Law, in Medicine, in the Church, in Commerce and in Invention the Young New Zealander is able to challenge comparison with the rest of the world. Nor is he behind in physical development. The tour of the "All Blacks " is fresh yet in the public mind ; the success of a New Zealander in winning the Australian cycling championship, the good records put up on every convincing ground in the country, all make excellent reading for the New Zealander. The intelligence, it is clear, and the bodily strength of the nation are both advancing at satisfactory rates, for the simple reason that Young New Zealand has thrown itself with characteristic healthy energy into the work of co-operation, without which the provision for education, admirable as it is, must necessarily fail.

New Zealand Iron. We have all of us believed, since the days when they took to making hematite paint at Para % Para, that this country possesses everything necessary for the production of iron on an immense scale. When the protraction of the negotiations for the establishment of the industry in a large way (per the Cadman-Smith combination) became disheartening, we all regretted the non-success of the New Zealand combine. When it was announced the other day that Mr. Witheford was on the eve of arranging everything, we all hoped soon to read the accounts of roaring furnaces, and to see, in due course, our own iron on our own railways and in our own foundries ; to say nothing of the preparations we hoped to mark for an attack on the markets of Australia and the Western coasts of the American continent. Some of us were just a little afraid that we might be nursing a monopoly of dangerous proclivities. These, as well as the rest of the population, will be glad to hear of the appearance of a rival to the original prospectors of the iron fields of the colony. They will be pleased to reflect that if the supply of ore is immense, the number of exploiters is not altogether limited . In short, they will read with interest the following by a correspondent from Nelson, which is at the threshold ot the Para Para paradise, so to speak.: —

The Onakaka Deposits. " The vast deposits of hematite iron ore in the Collingwood district are evidently to be worked by more than one company On the 26th October, the Hon. the Minister of Mines granted to Mr. Thomas A. Turnbull, of Nelson, formerly of Timaru, and eldest son of the late M.H.R., a mineral prospecting license over 860 acres of iron and lime-stone-bearing country at Onakaka, immediately south of the Cadman block at Para Para. Messrs. Wayne & Jones, ironmasters, of South Wales, who are associated with Mr. Turnbull in this enterprise, visited the locality last August, and spent ten days there investigating the ore deposits and local conditions. Since the license has been granted, a complete and exhaustive examination of the area will be made. The country is densely covered with bush, but so far as can be seen at present, their area, which has a length of two miles, carries ore throughout its extent, and the hematite has a width of from 500 to 1200 ft., and running from 200 ft. above the sea at its northern end to 3000 ft. at the south. One face examined has a

height of 600 ft., from Ironstone Creek to the top of the ridge, and the ore there assays 81 per cent, of ferric oxide, equal to nearly 57 per cent, of metallic iron, and it carries just sufficient titanium oxide to produce steel of the finest quality. When the complete examination of the area has been made a lease will be applied for and works erected. Since August Messrs. Wayne & Jones have been busy in Sydney with plans and specifications and detail drawings, and these are almost complete. Arrangements are being made at Home and in the United States, America, for machinery. The works are to be most complete and up-to-date, and for a start are calculated to produce 100 tons of pig iron per diem, but this will be increased later on. The furnaces, converters, and rolling mills will cover a space of thirty acres. " As soon as Messrs. Wayne & Jones arrive a start will be made with the construction of a deep-water wharf for which preliminary soundings have been taken. The two miles of rail to the furnace site will be put in hand as soon as possible and rapidly pushed to completion. When this is finished the firm hope to have their ship alongside the wharf with the plant and machinery read\ to send up to the prepared site of the works." " Mr. Turnbull has been making inquiries at this end with regard to the supply of firebricks and fuel. The firm will probably do their own coking, and the small coal for this will be obtained in New Zealand. Their pay-sheet for a start will exceed £30,000 for the first year, and necessarily grow as the capacity of the works is increased. " At present we import £300,000 worth of iron and steel, all of which Messrs. Wayne and Jones claim that they can produce here, as well as securing a certain foreign market for their excess over this. If such be the case, sleepy Nelson must become one of the most prosperous places in New Zealand."

The subject of this month's cover is Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, which arose with Chrysaor from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, when she was slain by Perseus. He is said to have received his name because he first made his appearance beside the springs (pegai) of Oceanus. He afterwards ascended to heaven to carry the thunder and lightning of Zeus. Some later authors make him the horse of Eos. Bellerophon had in vain thought to catch Pegasus for his combat with the Chimsera, but at length was advised by the seer Polyidus of Corinth to sleep in the temple of Minerva. The goddess appeared to him in his sleep, and gave him a golden bridle with which he caught Pegasus, and by his aid overcame the Chimsera. Modern writers ignorant of mythology make Pegasus the horse of the Muses,, with whom, however, be had nothing to do beyond having by a kick of his hoof made spring up the inspiring fountain of Hippocrene.

London seems to like motor 'buses. I. here are now in that colossal city 700 of these vehicles owned by London companies, of which number there were in actual running work during the first week of October last 469, the balance being m the hands of the repairers. Manchester, on the other hand, is remarkable for the success of the long agitation for the banishment of the motor 'bus from the streets of the great cotton metropolis. In consequence, the Hackney Carriage Committee of the City Council has decided to recommend that the licenses shall not be renewed of these vehicles The reasons for the decision are that " they create a nuisance in the suburbs and that, as at present built, they are not fit to uin on the toads."

902 903 904 905 .Hxammed 732 870 830* 940 Increasi 132 110 906 1180 240