NOTES OP THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 730, 1 February 1910, Page 4

NOTES OP THE DAY.

: The Minister for Education has a most unfortunate knack, of irritating the-.people, with whom,;' if. the. coun-. 1 try is to have; the. Education Depart-, ment; 'efficiently;., administered, --..he. should be zealous ,to cultivate irank and: friendly /reEtions. From nearly 'e.TCry; Education Board in the colony, are 'coming stiarp: protests ! against the cutting-down- of : the . building grants..'■ The Minister'has, issued,a reply, , .,wh!ich'does;not,strike us : as being, either.' very , , candid or ;■ ,'very clear. /All that has been cut!down, he says,'is'''the allowance' "for: the purpose of; rebuilding old schools that are worn but" He implies that the: reduction of the "grant has for its object tb.e rebuking of the Boards, everyone of; which, he suggests, '• has. spent, so much'.'.less' on /"rebuilding .worn-out.schools":■ that. a 'total sum; of £89,000 granted for this purpose 1 has disappeared in five or six years. Our -Napier, coriespondent. sends, us statement t>y' Sia Wμ.: Rtjssbll,, chairman, of the : Hawke's Bay Education Board, in reply to Mn. Fowlds.. In the course of hie statement Sib William says:—■ ;' '. '.".

Mr. Fowldsgoes on to say that in the : last .five or six years specific grants. for that purpose amounted -to about £89,000 more than the Boards to whom the grants wero made spent The answer to that is that necessarily and naturally they, should not have spent all that the Government allowed them during the past few years, for the reason that numbers of schools for which grants have been • made have not been burned down or do not yot.require rebuilding; but the/grant which has l)een allotted us is for providing against the possible contingency of destruction by fire or rebuilding at the end of a certain indefinite number of years. Therefore,\to eny that no Board has spent more in rebuilding than had been allotted to it is begging tho. question, absolutely and.entirely. ;" ;■..'■;; , .'■.'.". '■.■ '-••■■■ ■•■ ■■■..•■•. This statement, will, help- to ' clear away <io confusion that the Minis-, ter has 6pread;about- the issue.: The ! essence of the situation. is contained I in "the fact that the grant "for gen-, eral maintenance of school buildings; and for additions to buildings, ■: alterations, ■ rebuilding, furniture, fittings, fencing,' rents, _ additions, and improvements of ; sites,. etc.," was, £38j600 in the Estimates,'-, as against a.vota'of'.£s9,ooo for,: 1908-9. ; -The' actual expenditure in 1908-9' under this head ..was (£62,419. If. Mb. Fowlds wcro quite candid,-he would admit that the explanation of :■ the: trouble is the Government's decision to assist its "retrenchment" scheme by keeping down the expenditure on education. As it is, he has chosen to make a reply which _has produced a general public dissatisfaction with him and his Department.. -.;:. : .•':■•■";■

Ctotoeb .is more likely to be injured than ' digestions to ;be helped by the ' decision _of the Senate to raise domestic science to the'dignity, of a .subject for theB.Sc. degree. Aβ a general principle we cannot approve of tampering with degrees so';,as-, to allow purely utilitarian courses to take the place of educational subjects, in the old meaning of the term... If, as Me. Hoqben stated, there is a comparatively large demand in New Zealand for well-qualified teachers of domestic science) the Senate has somo little" excuse for taking steps to meet .this demand.- -:\Vo. are not at all impressed, however, with tho Bgv...Mr.- Cameron's argument that if the Senate did not adopt domestio science as a subject for the degree, "it would confirm people: in theii opinion that ,the University wae morcly concerned '-about ideals." What .the University . .wants is to . be more, not less, concerned about ideals. .;'. Wo think also that De. Collins is hoping too much, when he suggests that tte thorough Imowledge of domestic science 'willholß us to escape, diseasee

for which surgical operations are now required, and add to the longevity of the race. Not many graduates of tho domestic science course will he able to detect in a husband an incipient tendency, say, to appendicitis, and arrange a-preventive diet for him, and ■ still fewer.. husbands will submit to an immediate restricted diet because of the distant apprehensions of a diplomaed, but yet fallible, wife. A husband might Jβ disposed to mortify ; himself a littlo who had also taken domestic science for a B.Sc. degree—which it ,1s amusingly stated, men students will.be' able to do—assuming that his own diagnosis of his physical ment coincided, with nis But doctors have a trick of differing, and on the whole it will be necessary, before Dr. Oolmns's results can be achieved, to educate , people's appetites and bodies, ae ; . well as minds'. ,The longevity of > the race is .not. so easily increased.. Is there even, a possibility that the Senate's action will, "go in the; direction, of .niaking good.; cookery" common throughout the Dominion?; We are afraid that the..Senate will merely spoil the University■'■ without (.improving the public's digestion'.. .;

■ Whether .Mars -is inhabited l is still an unsolved problem that possesses a fascination, for many .minds. Those peoplewho dream vaguely of future communications between this earth ■ arid Mars forget .usually.' that the question is , complicated by. the consideration .that the .■inhabitants of Mars, assuming any: to exist, need not be "forked animals" of': five senses answering to the description of mail. It jis said, that "a monstrous eft, was. of old the lord and ruler of men," and it may be; that the dominant beings upon Mars are efte, with whonv we should', not .think, of' exchanging confidences even ■■ if they were able- to -understand. But even, supposing-that the assumed Martians are men .or super-men,, a .-German scientist, Phofessor vMiethev who is the latest expert to investigate this problem, finds tremendous. difficulties in the way of merely, attracting their attention. To: signal electric; ally,' he says, would require a. generating apparatus many millions of times .as ; : strong. as anything in use ; on the earth—a machine which would bo to the strongest , now in use what' the. strongest; now in. use is to 'the twitching legs of Galyani's frogs. 'A light-signal "■ to "be ;seen : with;.the naked (human) eye on Mars', would have to be .about 4,000;000,000,000 candle-power; If, however, the Mar-, tians : had a 1 telescope magnifying 10,000 times,',the light-signal,, to.be seen as a point, would need to'be only. 360,000,000 : candle-power.. 'To' work ,sucb. a lamp would: cost £900 an hour. : To illuminate an illuminated geometrical' symbol .discernible to the Martians would cover an area of 20,000 square kilometres.; ; Apparently .! it will, be : a .long, time , yet; before science knows any more about tho Martians than: does'.Mr..-' H.Gv Wells;'; for when' -it perfects." its. huge signalling machines, the ,Mar- ; tians may- not. be':on' the look-out. .

/Ai/thotfqh the British is over, we.'must.'^wait; a little .before: we/.can.: gather; from the. welter.' of ■ cbmmente that: will be called; forth; a hint of what: the/course ,of;' events, will be when. Parliament; reaßsembles' this .'■ month... : TEe" most/; interest , . • a<>taches, ,; of - course,'. to ..the. . Govern-. ment's move against. the House ofLords. It''is : difficult to believe that anybody desires,. or that, the Government ; can possibly -hope;. t0,.-. accbm-' plish, the destruction of the Lords' power :of veto ■'■.■'Oγ..' .amendment. I Nearly everyone,: however, is agreed, upon.the' necessity for somp.'reforih of'the./Upper/House. ■'.The" wisest of 7 !the'. : Peers.: have'. themselves'/; advocated:'/a- .changed that: r will. make, the Housenot merely; worthy of the esteem'and confidence of the/nation; but also, above /even', the suspicion that'it is;a partisan'.assembly; f ..The Earl of Derby is "reported: to-day as having said that '-whatever "party is in' power the ■ House of Lords '■ must undergo'!':.some; chan'goi";'."Personally,": he added, A'he -was _ : without regret .in the- matter.",.,' This ;is the view of most of the leading ;me_ni-: hers of the House. The Prime Ministerj although. he:'wishes. to destroy the Peers as .an: active ; legislative!: institution,: professes belief in. the' bi-cameral i system. .•Aβ the London Times puts : it, "Mn. Asquith says that ,'he, is in favour.; of a; Second. Chamber: as: defined by himself; that is to; say, a Chamber whose consent j is not required, to pass ,a measure i into' law.',' But he-is obviously: opposed to/ahy reform of a .Chamber retaining-; any : real control over legislation, while, a- Chamber.that has not. is not^,worth;reforming." ..■' "A pliant :p_hant6m"— Lokd; Eosebbet's phrase—is "certainly! what; the ernment has led, us .all l 'to believe' that'it■'desires.'-v' For the Government has.never r encouraged the idea of a ■reformed Upper House, .obviously; because a .reformed Upper : House: would be'a strong Upper House, and one, immune : from' 'denunciations whenever I :it rejected Radical. Bills; It is-quite true,- 'as Lord .Ceoiter said the other/day,' and/.as ;every Peer iwhoso: opinions are. .valued would also say, that "the/time , has gone by,,when a man ought to be allowed :to :■, sit-in a/Second Cham-. , her merely because; he is the. son.of his father." . But,!that'.does . hot mean, -and ,the"■ .Government: prob-. ably suspects that the public does not. believe, that the time : has cpme when .the House ■/ of ..Lords' must abandon. its functions of, revision. ••';.