UNDER SOUTHERN SKIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 40025, 19 November 1929, Page 4

UNDER SOUTHERN SKIES.

AN EXCHANGE TEACHER

RETURN TO CANADA

Vancouver, October 10,

“Australians, young and old, have all .the faith in the world in Australia. Dear old Aussie is so wonderful, so splendid, that she can bear any burden placed upon her and rise above it. It is a most wonderful faith and (patriotism.’ “The New Zealand school child is .much more easily disciplined than the Australian, and I think the best brained children I have found anywhere was a family of four little ,New Zealand girls.” The above two quotations are (front the published impressions of p Canadian exchange teacher, Miss . Elizabeth M'Caffrey, who has returned from seven years’ duty in the 'Commonwealth and the Domin- . ion.

“The Australian schoolboy would be hard to beat, and he 'holds a corner all his own in my heart,” she writes. “He is as hard as nails, bright, alert, and bobs up smiling serenely after any fair punishment. He is always watching to catch you napping, but appreciates it when you hold your own. He can usually tell you how to place a shilling both ways on a winner and, if the, favourite falls down or is scratched, it’s a ‘fair c-ow,’ the worst possible name an Australian can ap,'nlv to human or beast.”

. ‘ When she produced a rubber strap used in Canadian schools, a (class of boys in Melbourne .asked , for the story of its travels to he their general information lesson that day. Wjhen she finished, one little boy commented: “I’ll bet that trip cost .a pretty penny.” AN ISLAND ENCYCLOPAEDIA. From her quarters in New Zealand Miss APCaffrey could see i Ngayruhoe and [Ruapehu, where she I had a chance to observe both Maori (and palkeha children. From there (she went to the islands, where she found the best-informed schoolboy of all her travels.

“He .was a Tongan, ami insisted on acting as guide, but jve (there were three of us, an American couple and I) said no. Then the small boy wanted to come as a friend, just ,to talk English with us. He attached himself to me. I asked him his name.

“‘William,’ he said, and asked me mine and where I belonged. When I said, ‘Canada* he said: ‘Oh, the Dominion of Canada. Ottawa is the capital.’ Then, “Where are they from?’ I said: ‘The States.’ ‘‘‘Wihieh State?’ he asked, and when toldjitowa, belaid: isj not as big as Texas, but not so far from Salt Lake City. Have you ever been in Salt Lake City.’

' “For a while he sang American (songs and then asked the American ; man about safe stocks to buy in .. New York City. Imagine a small native boy of the South Pacific Is- ; lands, and wearing none too many ! clothes, discussing New York ; stocks. His general knowledge was , surprising, and I asked him what {school he attended. He told me : the Latter .Day Saints School, in •Lifnkn, in Haapai, and his teacher was a Canadian, born in Southern ! Albert a!”