The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, June 9, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1256, 9 June 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, June 9, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Dr. Eleanor Baker, Medical Inspector of Schools, in a report to the South Canterbury Board of Education, states that she had examined 491 children in 17 schools, of whom 151 were special cases. The average physical state of the children varied greatly in different schools. Many are overcrowded. Taken all round, the schools were very dirty according to the domestic standard. The playgrounds were often bare, desolute and untidy. Of the number of children examined, 346 bad no defects other than dental, 273 showed evidence of malnutrition, 78 (14 bad) obstructed breathing, Ixs enlarged glands, 231 showed diseases of the skin, 7 of the eye, 5 of the ear, 2 showed defective circulation, 41 defective respiration, 4 (and 6 doubtful) defective teeth, 269 delects of vision, 40 of hearing, 21 of speech, 3 mental (2 backward), 6 deformities of the shoulders, 23 curvature, 42 flat chests, 18 pigeon breast, and 21 other diseases. There was special mention in the report of nine girls out of 235 suffering in a more or less marked degree, and many ' it her children showed a suspicious hlncss of the nv:k which the inspector thought may be due to the well water that was used for drinking. This report, which may be takcu to apply generally to our schools is evidence not only of parental ignorance, hut of past carelessness on the part of the Department and indifference on the part of local committees and teachers who are in close touch with the children. Unfortunately committees have not a proper conception of their powers, which they believe begin and end in the careful expenditure of the limited capitation grant lor school cleaning, whereas the Act distinctly makes them responsible for education in the locality. Upon them devolves the important duty of electing suitable representatives to the Board and to keep an eye on the qualifications and conduct of teachers, and to see that the school environment is conducive to the health and happiness of the children. Not one committee in a hundred is seized with a proper sense of their responsibilities, and as a result are pooh-poohed by teachers and tolerated by Boards. A movement is afoot now to curtail committees powers, and no wonder. The Educational Institute is a grandmotherly kind of organisation with its eye on the main chance. It screeches for higher salaries —like any other union—and with some justification, but it does absolutely nothing to improve the profession by getting into the hinterland of qualification. _ As a result we,have hundreds of individuals in the service who have as much idea of the essentials required for such important work as the infants they mechanically teach. The whole question of education requires looking into by expert commissioners, and amending legislation passed to justify the immense amount of money spent by the Slate in this connection.

A point of interest to landlords and teuarh , cropped up at the hearing of a case in the recent sitting of the Supreme Court at Palmerston, when his Honour Mr Jnsdc Edwards said that many, even among the legal fraternity, were of opinion that if a tenant paid rent by the week he was only entitled to a week’s notice, but that was not the law, Unless there was a special agreement as to what length of notice was required a tenant was entitled to a month’s written notice. The case .was on» in which a landlord, wishing to rebuild, gave a tenant a week’s notice to vacate a house, but the latter claimed that he was entitled to a month’s notice. The landlord thereupon pulled down two chimneys and the verandah, and the tenant, entering a suit, received ,£SO damages. A somewhat similar case was settled in Masterton some time since, when an attempt was made to hustle a business tenant out of his shop before reasonable time was afforded to find other premises.