NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 September 1923, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

"I earn £4 10s per week,” said witness in the course of a maintenance case a£ YVellingtori recently. YYhat do you do with that? was the magistrate’s query. “1 pay £2 10 a loan company.” "Y'our wife and child come before any loan company,” was the magistrate’s comment, “and you will have to support them.”

“Go and buy a borne for your wile, and keep her,” said His Worship to a witness, in the course of a maintenance case at Wellington. “I cannot buy a home, sir,” was the reply; “it would cost more than I could afford.” “Buy a cottage, then; other men can support their wives, and there is no reason whv vou should not.”

The word “snip” was used in a civil ease heard at the Supreme Court at Wanganui. “YYhat do you call a snip?” asked His Honour, Mr Justice Hosking. “Is it something got from somebody who does not know the value of it?” “A snip is supposed to be a bargain,” explained counsel.

Yloro than one or two dairy farmers at a big meeting in Feilding admitted they had been caught napping by the season. The cows have been coming to profit very rapidly, but there is a shortage of feed, the late spring having kept hack the growth of grass. Farmers generally have not prepared for feed crops for their herds in the autumn, and early spring, and consequently the stock are not doing so well.

The saving sense of humour conies to the surface, apparently, in even the dull monotony of stone-breaking (states the Waimate “Advertiser”). Pedestrians in Manse Street, oil which for some days men have been engaged in breaking up the newlv-laid shingle, have been amused to notice a big awkward looking stone, laid by the side of the road, and on which appears the ink-'pencillcd inscription, “unbreakable,” followed by the signature of one of the stone-breakers.

Tbe Wanganui Maori dearly loves his Wanganui, even at football (remarks the "Chronicle”). At a recent big match early in tlie game a native on tlic hillside, of robust physique, and strenuous voice, happened to differ with the referee’s ruling, and exclaimed: “What’s matter with whistle, Willie ?” Thou, after a moment of suspense to cap it all, he answered his own question, “I think you must have the ’flu,’ you like the blow.” Tho native’s witticism created no little amusement in his immediate vicinity.

In the course of her last report to the Southland Education Board, Dr Collier commenotd upon the excellent state of the teeth of tile children attending Hie Wendon Valley, OJiatton North anil Grecnvale schools. Tho teeth of the children attending these schools compared more than favourably with tlie teeth of children atending other country schools, and was in striking contrast to those attending town schools. She attributed this satisfactory stale of affairs to tho absence of sweet shops in the three districts referred to.—(“Southland Times.”)

A big effort is to be made (states tho YYanganui “Chronicle”) to organise boys’ and girls’ agricultural clubs in the district with a view to having experimental plots at the various schools aiul competitions. It is proposed to follow the successful methods employed in the Manawatu district, and have a committee of farmers and teachers. It is hoped to have clubs in connection with at least 20 schools, in addition to the Wangaehu, Brunswick, and Maxwclltown schools, where similar clubs arc already in existence.

“Love will find a way,” At the meeting of the YVest End School Committee (Palmerston North), the headmaster related how the teachers’ room was proving popular among couples of the town. He stated that a young man was seen one evening entering a front window, anil his lady friend wandered round the hack to the door, which was then opened by her swain. “There is a settee in the teachers’ room,” added the speaker.

The following paragraph from the annual report of an English school medical officer, suggests a new method of treating squint“Tn the course of a perusal of the school mc.'icat reports from other local authorities wo have noticed that a method of treating squint, accessory to that by glasses, is frequently resorted to. This method consists in putting the good eye out of action hy covering It. Tn cases of squint, children gradually cease lo use the affected eye. But if ahe good eye is covered, they are compelled to exert the extra necessary efiort involved in the use of tho squinting eye, and thus loss of vision in this eye is prevented.”

How little the schoolboy in tho times of ARises and Tutankhamen differed from the schoolboy of to-day was shown by Miss Margaret Murray, lecturer on Egyptology at University College, London, in a recent lecture on “Egyptian Domestic Life,” at tho AA'oineii’s Institute, A'ietoria Street, recently. “The principal methods for punishing idle boys in those days were impositions and catlings, just as they are to-day,” said Miss Murray. “The two ways of making a boy learn have never altered. The priests wore fond of coining maxims at the expense of tho hoys. One was ‘The ears, of a boy are on his back. He hears only when ho is beaten.’ Every hoy had to do copy, composition and multiplication, at the last of which he was hopelesslv bad. He also had to learn one foreign language—Babylonian—and he was set problems about the area of fiolds vert much like the problems that aro tho torment of the modern hoy.”

Professor John Barnett, of St. Andrews University, is very pessimistic about the intelligence of the nineteenth century youth. Delivering tho Romanes lecture at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, on the subject of ignorance, bo said that the recent enormous growth of potential knowledge had been accompanied by a corresponding growth of actual ignorance. He had no doubt that tho young men of the present, day were on tile whole healthier in body and mind, and more intelligent than those of his own generation. On the other hand, he was certain that the young men of to-day were absolutely and relatively more ignorant than those of forty years ago, and, what was worse, that tliev had less curiosity and intellectual independence. Tho Professor tlien proceeded to show .that, with the exception of the physical and natural sciences, tho standard of teaching in the several departments had been progressively lowered for the past thirty years.