Rangitikei Advocate THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1808. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9057, 23 January 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1808. EDITORIAL NOTES.

♦_ THE technical schools which have recently been erected all over the country have required the expenditure of considerable sums of public money, and have also drawn largely on the liberality of persons. It is evidently impossible to erect efficient schools in all centres, and therefore it is essential that the schools which have been built should be made to serve as large a district as possible. The new school in Marton is very well equipped with the apparatus required for teaching cookery and carpentering, but hitherto the local school has been the only one whose pupils have benefited by the instruction there. The fact that the furnishing has only recently been completed has been a sufficient excuse for this state of affairs, but during the coming school term arrangements should be made so that outlying schools should share the advantages provided by the institution. If 'this is not done the pupils of country schools will be handicapped unduly in their training, and their parents, who contribute to the revenues which support the school, will practically be taxed to supply educational facilities in the larger centres. Where provision exists it is the rule to give instruction in cooking or carpentering to all children in the fifth and sixth standards. In many education districts the children from country schools are brought in by train or coach to attend these classes, and this system should certainly be adopted in the Marton district. The ordinary lesson is for one and a half hours, but in the case of pupils from a distance two lessons can be taken on the same day, so that it is only necessary for them to visit the school once every other week. Marton is the natural centre at present, until ocher technical schools are built, for a large number of public schools. Children from as far as Turakina on the New Plymouth line and from Hunterville and Greatford on the Trunk Line ought to come in to the Marton Technical School for instruction. Other schools not served by the railway could send in pupils by coach. It is only by methods of this kind that the large expenditure on build-

ings and equipment can be made a really profitable investment. The matter rests with the Eudcation Board, and we trust that arrangements will be put in hand at once, so that next term the classes may be in full swing. It is probable also that a cooking class for adults would meet with success.

AS a producer of paradoxes Mr Bernard Shaw is quite unapproachable, and to ordinary minds it is quite impossible to judge when he is in earnest and when he is fooling. We know quite well what the average man willsay when asked his opinion on the subject of old-age pensous, but the interviewer of Mr Bernard Shaw who asked his views knew that he was dealing with a surprise packet. The result of the question produced the following answer, which, according to the taste of the reader, may be considered as pure folly or as a valuable contribution to Social Science. “My views,” said Mr Shaw, ‘ on the subject of pensions are what a very wellknown Socialist, Mr Oobden Sanderson, suggested to me the other day. I was talking of old-age pensions, and he said ‘ Why not pensions for life?’’ I favour giving every man in this country a life pension from the moment he is born. He may be as drunken and as worthless as he likes, but one thing I am determined on, he shall not be poor. Put it at £SOO a year, if you like, and then you would have no more poverty. The very first result would be to force the citizen to face the political problem of seeing that every man produced £SOO a year by his labour, and that moment the Social problem is solved. ”

A WRITER in the London Standard at the time of the recent visit of a portion of the German fleet which accompanied the Kaiser to England made very favourable comment on the efficient appearance of the Germanships and men. In concluding he added—“ Yet there is just one little thing that still marks a difference between the two navies. I have seen it during this visit, not once or twice. Round the ward-room table have been British officers and German. Together they have lifted their glasses to ‘our next merry meeting,’ or what not—the health that is incumbent on every kind of entente cordiale. And, as the hands have gone up, there have been the German ones, white and ladylike, beautifully kept, and the British ones—tanned and wrinkled, coarse and rough by comparison. Scrub he never so diligently, the hand of the man who does things, the man who can take an oar, splice a rope if need be, part a torpedo, fiddle with machinery, and what not —the hand of the man who can do things himself, bears the sign manual of his ability. The German officer’s hand can direct, the British officer’s hand can do, and often has done, the thing itself, as well as direct it to be done. The soft, white' hands and the sun-tanned, hardened one—there was something left to thank God for in that picture. Platitudes about ‘efficiency and sufficiency’ may do for the banquet hall, but in the hour of need it is the officer who can not only order but do himself all that his men can do who will bo the nation’s stand-by. It was no less a leader than old Sir Francis Drake who said, ‘I would have the gentlemen haul with the marines. 5 ”