OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 87

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS. [Conducted by Magister. to whom ill communications must be addressed.] TMaoistz* wiH be glad to receive Natum soles, marked papers containing educational •rti^es, diagrams, details of experiments, etc , of «cho!tstic interest to teachers and pupils Correspondents using * pea mm« must »lso •end name *nd address ] NEW ZEALAND AMATEUR SWIMMING ASSOCIATION. The Otago Centre has -sent out circular** to many head masters asking for co operation in teaching boys and girls to Vf imand to practise life-sa\ ing incthoos. lhe«e are such important branches of education that I am giving the movement more publicity than is obtained by means of a circular, "which may not be seen or heard of by children or by outsiders who might be filling to aid. Handbooks and charts will be sent gratis to anyone an charge ol a j-cnooi, and any information will be supplied. May "I make a sugestion to the association? The parent gymnastic clubs in Dunedin have done much to help forward the physical' training movement by P™.»<*mg Instructors, in many cases free of cjiarge. Is it possible for the association to do eomethimTsimilar? The association a-ks or suggestions, and that is why I make this CI The following are the sections which will interest boys and girls:— Provincial District Cbam.pionshipß.-O.ago school beys and girls' championships, open U,hoys or girls attending any primary school IS tfie provincial cLrtrict of Otago. lour r^tances— viz 25. 50, 75, and 100 yards— im £ swum, and '. gold championship medal will bs presented to the lad or girl scoring the highest and a silver medal tolLe girl or lad scoring the second h-ghest aggiefaie number of points in their respective fompetrtions. Points: Three for first 2 for second, and 1 for third in each event. Races of competition will be advertised. Southlend champ onships will be carried out under the supervision cf the Invercaigi 1 Cub •• Championships of the School Silver Medal Competitions.— The centre will present to any and every school in Otago ana boutaland that may apply, three silver lifebuoy design, for competition under the following conditions:— Silver medal for senior boys silver medal far junior boys, and si.yer brooch medal for g.rle, will be a^aed *he winner of a scratch race of about 50yds, three to compete or no race; no time or nge limit. Supervising teacher's certificate ol bona fides of performance required. Proficiency Certificates. — ProSciency certificates will be awarded as fol'ows.— Any boy or girl who learns to swim this season and attending a private, secondary, or primary school, who in a straight-out swim without stopping (except to turn) covers a d ; stance of 220 yd s; any boy or girl who learnt to swim last season, and attending a private, secondary, or primary school, who in a Btraight-out swim without stopping (except to turn) covers a distance at 440 yds. No time or age limits. Time and place of trial to be arranged by supervising teacher, whose certificate of fcona fides of performance is required. Life-saving and Resuscitation. — Teachers ere urged to form classes for instruction m life-saving. Advanced classes may enter for Royal Life-saving Society's awards, on page 102" of the Handbook. Certificates will be presented to boys or girls who shew proficiency in the following series of methols of life-saving aud resuscitation. If possib'e, a member of the medical profession to act as judge:— (l) Rescuer to run about 20jd=_, dive in with pants and shirt on,, swim 10yds or thereabouts, dive for dummy suiik belovr j tbe surface of the water, and bring it to land by any of the four methods 111 Royal Life-saving Society's Handbook, pages 14 to 16. (2) Rescuer to run about 2ihds. dire in -with shirt and pants on, swim 10\ds cr I thereabout, catch struggling companion and I illustrate two of the three methods of re- I lease given on pages 17 to 19 of the R L.S. Handbook, and illustrate two methods oi ' rescue in bringing to land. (3) Resuscitation j of apparently drowned person by Silverstcr method, pages 5S to 71, RL.S. Society's Handbook. Competitions for Teams of Four (two teams should arrange to work together). — A competition bronze medal will be awarded to each member of the team of either boys cr girls which establishes the fastest time ,i release and lescue woik. as described in competitions No. 1 and 2. A competition bronze medal will be awarded to each mem- : T>er of the team of either boys or girls which scores most points in competition No. ?, SilversteT method of resuscitation, held under a doctor's supervision; if judged by other than a doctor, a certificate only will he awarded. Essay. — A special prize will be given to the writer of the best essay on "Life-saving. Conditions : Open to scholars attending any school in Otago acd Southland under the age of 15 jears. Limit, 500 worts Ha.Tinarks for knowledge of life-saving and leeuscitation, and Ta!f-marks for writing, composition, originality, and completeness cf essay; supervising teacher's certificate to Le endorsed, «,nd essays to be c e'it to any <>f the undersigned before 31st March, 1908 Mr J. A. Park, chairman, Manse street Dunedin. Mr J. C. K. Sibbald. Hon. secretary. Gad- j stone road. 2ST.E. Valley. Dunedm. Mr R. M Johnson, hon. secretary I A.S. Club, Box 81, C.P.O, Invercargill A FEW HOWLERS FROM HOME. I Every year the University Correspondent gives a prize for the best 12 amusing echoolboy mistakes, and from the 6ets sent in publishes a selection. Mr H. H. Driver, bookseller, George street, sends me the December issue, containing the selection made,,_ and from it I cull the following. Anything in equare brackets is added by I myself : — Shakespeare wrote a plnv called " The Winter's Sale." The Crusaders were a wild and savajo people until F-**** the liermiw ■w;e*r >i ->d to iirem. ,

The chief crops of England are corns, Jie chief exports «re Liverpool, Southampton, a r.d the River Thames. Shakespeare is indebted to Sir Oliver Lodge for the plot of " As You Like It ' The modern name for Gaul is vinegar. Question: Annotate "Those little cates winch two ra\ens adimnisteied to the Tishbito-" Answer. "The ' es ' ending in cates has now been contracted to ' s " [Cates means food oi \ lands, and gives us the word cateier ] A volcano is a hole in the etrth's crust winch, emits la\ender [lava] and ashes. The Battle of Trafalgar was fought on the seas, therefore it is sometimes called the Battle of Water-100 " The Coaiplc te Angler " is another name for Euclid, because he" wrote all about angles. Strafford ruled the people w.th an iron bai [Rod of non' Pi bably a paiaphra=e. When a lad once failed to gne the meaning ot " arecdote," his te.ichci *aid impatienth. "Why a tale" Ou t Q pelln g wasn't given). The Teacher than asked lor a sentence with "anecdote" in it and got. "A dog has four leg» and an angedote "] The letteis of the alphabet are divided into continents and boweh. Tbe two races h\i"g in the north of Europe are Esquimaux and Archangels. The Kirg earned his sepulchre [sceptre] in ins hand. The Rhine is boarded [bounded] by wooden [ncodedj mountains In the year 1593 every pan=h was made responsible for the supply ot its own deserving poor. On the low -coast plauis of Mexico yellow fever is \er\ pcpu'ar [pre\ alent ">] During the interdict the dead were buried in uncreated [unconsecrated 9 ] giourd. Chaucer lived in the year 1300-1400. He was one of the greatest English poets afteT the Xorman? canie to England An unknown hand threw a harrow at Kufus and killed him dead on the spot. Unh.ead.ecl and bare-armed [bare-headed and ur armed] the feudal knights did their homage Aciverljs ending in " where " are somewhere, nowhere, earthenware. _V Stirling was famous for its soveieigns, who used to ba crowned there. A so\ereign is still called " a pound Stirling.'" A volcano is a burning mountain with a creature [cra,ter] in it Sir Arthur Welleslcy, son of Pitt, founded th° Wellesleyan people. The sword of Damocles was g'ven by the Lady Rcwena to the winner in the tournament. Subjects have a right to partition [petition] the king. Near the shores of the Capsian Sea. there aie asthma [naphtha 9 ] springs. The electrical [electoral] Prince of Bavaria claimed the thrane of Spain. During the Reformation every clergyman was competed to receive 39 articles A colony is a piece* of lard be-lorging to England, such as America. The Potteries are little islands at the West of England, where they make pottery, but they are not inhabited. The masculine of heroine is kipper [thinking of kippered herring ?] Some of the West Indian Islands are subject to toipedoes [tornadoes]. The Tner.mal Aci enacted that no sovereign she uld reiga for more than three years. The imperfect ten~e is used (in French) to expres-s a future action which does not take place at all. Hamburg is a free city in Germany belonging to France. Be^kct put on a came.-hair. -hair shirt, and his life at once became dangerous. Arabia has many syphoons [simoons], ai-d very bad ones ; it gets mto your hair even with your mouth shut. - England has much coal beds- When it i<s fr.iehed we stall have to use our brains for fuel, and it will be scarce. A long time ago England was once a foreign country. Air usually has no weight, but when placed in a barometer it is found to weigh about 15lb to the square inch If a hole were bored in the top of a barometer tub} the mercury wou d shoot up in a column 30it high. Plams need starch to make them stiffA right angle is 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Sodium, when cut, has ar italic appearance. Soa-p is sometimes made from glycerine and cuci.mber. A cuckoo [pupa] is a thing that turns from c butterfly into a moth. Hor c e-powßr is the distance a hoise can carry lib in an hour. The earth revolves on its axis 365 times in 24 hours. This lapid motion through s-pa^e cauee3 its fide to perspire, forming dew. Fahrenheit and Centigrade are two chemicals used in making thermometers.' Magnesium is one of the salts found in the sea — at is -what makes it effeivesce when the tide comes in. A. problem is a figure which you do things with which are absurd and then sou "prove it. A cHcle is a line of no depth running round and round a dot for ever. A consul [tonsil?] is a thing you have in your th'oat. Ai'ti-toxin is a new breakfast food. A-D.C. is Anno Domino's Cioss, EC. is King., Cross ; and M.P is Member of Peace. Homogeneous means a man of genius and heterogeneous means more than usual y clever There are two kinds of minor scales, harmonic and teutonic. A kindred spirit means a dead relation. She was practising archipelagos with a thermometer [arpeggios with a metronome]. Amatory verses are those composed by aniateui-3. Double dealing is when you buy something wholesale to sell retail Income is a j'earh- tav. The dodo :a a bud that is near!}- decent [extinct 9 ] now. CORRESrO>-DE>rCE. I have boon unable to get down to the Museum. *o l.a\e not vet identified '■Rubina'*" spider, but. all being well, I'll manage it for next week. Why not dig j some ffrub3 out and keep them under obser\ation under conditions as nearly natural as po==ible? Perhaps I can ;jet '■Rubina's' 1 grut> named too. " Mabel's " letter raises a hip; question, which may set readers thinking. I should like a good collection of Nature reference books in every eohool, and one series would be the Xature Series published by the Macmillans. One of this 6et — " Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves." by Lord Aveburv, better known perhaps as Sir John Lubbock — has two or three chapters on the dispersal of seeds, and from it I'll make an extract or two next week. It will be interesting to watch the dispersal of seeds just now and onwards to see what » variety ' of ways Nature ha 6 evolved to scatter fruits ! — that ie, seeds. Take the poppy, thistle, sweetbriar. clematis, and pea as examples. \Vlia± weed h-a« *•"!« haj^tinii lw >N aokfi !••

whatever touches them' JuM look about you and note down what piteiests sou. A correspondent whe-e lcliei I ha\e misplaced sends tv. o plants for identification, j Mr G. M. Thomson, F.L S . t.ays of them : ' One is Si'onc an^lica, a common plant m Britain, Western Europe, etc.; the other is , Silene quinqne\ulneru, a clo^cl\ -allied 1 6pccies, treated by Sir J. Hookci a* a ' variety of the above — so named fiom the blood-red spots on the fi\e petals." Peri haps this correspondent will take an opportunity of looking at the petals and observing I the reibon for the name. j G. S. T.s letter, chronic-ling obsenations of geneial interest, is one of many I should , like to get. Is the hu;a a hone-i -cater .' It belongs to the starlmsr family. Has any reason been gi\en for the extia long and cur\cd beak of the female huia? 1 have tried to got " Schoolgirl's "' specim ens named, but Mr Thom-on. whom I place such unreserved confidence in in nn\t- ' teit> botanical, has been absent in Welhng- ' ton presiding o\er the annual meeting of , the New Zealand Institute. All borne well, I'll ha\e them identified by next week. I A corr< ic pondent whoso communication I \iihi3 veiv highly t,ufcsre=ts that when | naming "bea«ts" or botanical specimens I should give some interesting details, as well as tho name and a general description. I ' shall be glad to do so when I am able, I but my krow leds;o of these subject's is limited, and in many cases there is little to bo said; but I'll do mv best, and ask I readers ro help me. Dr Benham. Mr Thomson. " OrnithoLogi'-t," and " Old Bo\ " are ' always willing to help any really earnest inquirer through the-e columns, so we i ought to manage fairly well. It must be ' remembered that no other paper in Australia has made Nature notes so prominent and evidently appreciated a feature. , though many are gradually increasing the > amount of ?r-ace deioted to scientific «;übi jeots. The change is more noticeable in ! magazines, hardly a number of which does I not contain an article of some kind on some plant or animal 6tudy. Clerham. January 23 Dear " Magister,"— l am forwarding "ou two specimens— ore a spder and the other ' a grub I tried to send the spider alive, but it died before I packed it. You wi.l ' notice what very long, slender legs it. has. It is not very common here, but it looks a I peculiar little object when taking a walk. j There is an old grandmother's story that , if you kill a spider it will rain, but there 1 is no need to kill this spider, far we invariably have rain when we see this long1 legged creature walking across the shed floor Tne one I send for identification is black, but theie are also brown ones of j much the same nature. Notice, too, the ■ two '" feelers" which stand erect in the forej part of the head. They each have a joint ' or hinge in the middle, from which eacli j feeler, which is seriated, and which j terminates in a kind of pincers, folds back. 1 The grub is an ugly but iHtere»tmg ■'lung, j living in small holes abrut as b:g as shot holes, in banks or any warm place whu-h , flies frequent. Its little flat head, which is j always smeared with the same-coloured soil [ as its home, is placed even with the bank, 1 and is almost unnoticeable. The unwaiy fly or daddy longlegs settles over us hole fur ,i second, but is soon held fapt by two stiong I jaws, and destroyed. In summer or wm'er j we have never found them in any otber i state but the grub. I could send more specimens of both if you des:re — I am, etc., Bubika. Ha'.dane School, January 2! Dear " Magister," — I am encasing some clematis in feed form. Can you tell me j why the seed has the long curbed, feather- ' like appendage? Is it to assist the seel I in flying off or is it for a protection to 'be young seed ;; — I am. etc., j Mabel Weir I Dunedin. February j. Dear " Magister." — An interesting subject for study in a newly-settled country euca as New Zealand is affoided by the observation of changes in the habits of introduce! plants and animals when brought into a new enviionment, and also m the habits of I native birds, etc , when they ha%e to face new conditions brought about by settlement. During the past few days I have noticed a case in point, which I think has not been previous'y recorded. A number of starlings I have been observed regularly for some time pa^t to visit a large c'ump cf flax (Phormiu^) t and to sip the honey from the flowers wu'i evident lehsh. The usual food of the sterling consists of insects and fruit, but it has now also developed a taste for honey, a habit probably learned from our New Z*li- | land hoiiey-eaters, the tui and korimako. Tk> I far as my knowledge gees, the honey-eating birds are a small and distinct ela=;s m therut selves, provided with a long extensile an.l 1 somewhat brushy tongue specially adapted I for sucking honey, and it is curious to find ( the starling, which has a shoit, thick tongue, imitating them in this way. .Perhaps same of your readers maj have similar cases -to record. The sheep-killing tendencies of the kea which seem, now to be thoroughly authenticated, are a conspicuous example oS a change in the habits of a native bird -— I am, etc., GST