NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1673, 13 February 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

We have been much interested in the anxiety of some of the antiRcforrri journals to retreat from the position'which—perhaps a little^unbalanced by- their exorcises in the servioc of the Federation of Labour— they were'unwise' chough to' take up when a'. brief reference 'to 'Me. Allen's observations upriri an .-ex J peditionary force was cabled from London. One'of thesd newspapers) which cither had forgottenj;or hoped, that its readers had forgotten, tho very full speech...of Mr. Allen in Wellington -last ; December upon the Government's military and naval intentions and hope's, went so far as'td say thit Me. Allen had illustrated the danger of going to London, without giving the New Zealand public even ah '.'inkling" of the Government's position ! On second thoughts, we, are glad to see, this impetuous critic has decided to' retreat by easy stages to'safety.' It,still says, al-' though it has admitted that Me.' Allen may not really have said what .ho < was alleged by his critics to have said, that his utterances in London were "rather indiscreet.". At the same time, it explains that it "did not assume thai the Minister for Defence had used the exact words that were attributed to him, or even thai he had said more, than ho waS justified in saying" by the ciause of-the Act bearing on the matter of volunteers for abroad. Nobody knows or cares what this_ critic, "assumed": but as to what it said, there. 'is no doubt that it lent its little assistance to the burst of misrepresentation that culminated iri a silly message of protest by .the two gentlemen who have assumed the functions of the whole Labour party. .But the point is; that some of our contemporaries arc steadily retreating. We shall libt be surprised if by the time the full report of Mb. Allen's remarks reach this country, these too impetuous anti-Reformers have persuaded themselves that they never said a word more against Mr. Allen than they did in December (when, of course, Me; Allen was on the spot and his remarks were printed too' fully for misrepresentation to have a chance). Perhaps the saner of his present critics will theh lend themselves to discouraging their less sane allies from hitting wildly at anything and anybody for party purposes.

Contemplating with feelings of the profoundesfc respect and admiration the fortitude and manliness of spirit that cnobled the deatli of Captain Scott and those 'of his expedition who ncrished with him in the frozen South, one is impelled to especially honour the memory of the late Captain Oates, who died from exposure some days before the others. We are told that "ho had bnnm intense suffering for weeks without .:omplainfc."

On .March 1G his comrades knew that his, end was approaching.

"Ik whs o bruvc soul," ivrnte Captain Scott in his diary. "He slept throtiKii the night honing not to .wike, but awoke in the morjiini;. It was blowing a blizzard. Captain Oaiss said: 'I am jiisl goingoutside, and mny. l>s some time.' He went out into the*blizzard, and we have not .=?en him since. We knew that Oatos was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissaude him v.'e know it was tho act of n brave mnn and an English gen'tleinai'i."

Tlie inference is pathetically clear. Oat'es knew that he was ■doomed, and felt that the prolongation of his life was not only a misery to himself, but a serious burden to his comrades. There were no heroics, no regrets. "I am just going outside," he said, and so saying, he'walked out to his death. His companions understood. It.is a subject for pride and thankfulness that the spirit of self-sacrifice and unflinching fortitude which has adorned the noblest traditions of British heroism 'still lives in the race. .

The triennial conference of school inspectors, principals of training colleges, arid officers of the Central Department, opened yesterday by the Inspector-General of Schools- (Mr. Geo. Hogben) affords a valuable opportunity for the ventilation of various matters touching the development 'of public : education in New Zealand, and should sc'rvo_ a very useful purpose in establishing some community of aim amongst those who aro charged with the general supervision of State education; some unanimity of .thought with regard to what shall be taught, and' the manner of; teaching it.- It is one thing to propound a theory, and. another thing~to give effect to it. The inspectors' conference, therefore, provides a common ground for the testing of principles and .-a... comparison , of theories with results/ The weight,of Departmental opinion, which is liable to get. out of touch with the practical side of education, is, or should be, effectively balanced by evidence of tho schools,- obtained at first hand by the inspectors. The primary school syllabus furnishes a case in point,-arid, in fact, was originallythe ,raison d'etre of these; trienninl, conferences. The syllabus was e'd.b'jr the Education, Department, but in the several education districts various interpretations were place;) upon it,- arid a good.deal of confusion arose, threatening' the efficiency of the schools. - A .common urid6rstnndfng'as to the principles uj)on ■which 1 the syllabus was designed, and thVbest means of giving effect to these, could only have'been'reached by such a conference as that which is now sitting in Wellington.- In his inaugural address to the conference yesterday, Me. . .that', so far as the methods 'of i education were concerned, the .factors which -would.determine those, methods were the; -tendencies 1 of—(a) modern science, (b) modern' industrial activity, and (c; modern social relations: These truths are so obvious and so essentially, the basis of effi-' cient .education .that their, reiteration is almost a platitude. "Sow often," asked Mn..Hogben, "did pro-. grc'ssivc New Zealrtnd cxbeci from-a boy an accuracy and skill not far removed from the ready, penmanship, of the practised 9icr,kl"'"i.M.u..'.'Jrlofl%i».. has rather over-strained the point ProgrcssiMb;-Now. ■Zealand does not exn-ct from a boy that 'dc'irrce,' of ckill indicated.- hufi wli.at <>x. pert, nr'd whrft it.-has' been unab'». to obtain- froh' the school, product of to-Aiy, that rleirree of accuracy in arithmetic and,other exact know-Wls-e which \i'as characteristic of the State school product of 20 vcars ago.