INTERESTING LATE NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 123, 26 January 1915, Page 2

INTERESTING LATE NEWS.

HARNESSING SMELLS. What is the most valuable smell which you have hi New Zealand? (writes a New South Wales correspondent). No doubt the sulphurous emanations at Rotorua and other thermal centres are an asset, but can you point to a smell proved to be worth £IOOO a year on account of the work which it is made to do? Well, we can —or, rather, the town of Parramatta, can. There the sewer gas. which formerly provoked “Indignant Ratepayer". to complain bitterly of loss of comfort and health has been harnessed up to generate power for the driving of electric lighting and pumping jnari.i-' and from being a nuisance has been converted into a most useful servant of the town. The council engineer who persuaded the civic authorities to let him have a try at harnessing the sewer gas after the manner suggested by European engineers, is very proud of the success attained, although in private he admits that possibly some peculiar potency in the Parramatta gas deserves credit. He lias been able to satisfy the council in irrefutable figures that the employment of the sewer gas for the driving of engines for municipal utilities has saved the council £IOOO during the past year, in comparison with the cost of using steam power for the same work.

AN UNSAVOURY RAID. A sub-inspector and 50 constables in plain clothes made a series of raids in the Chinese quarter of Melbourne, in the vicinity of Little Bourke and Little Lonsdale Streets recently. Twelve premises were visited, and four Chinese and eleven Europeans were

arrested on various charges of sly-grog .selling About five cartloads of beer were confiscated. Later in the day a wcjtnan drove up in a taxi-cab with a magistrate and bondsman to secure bail for one of the prisoners. She was enthusiastically recced;. “Ah, madam, it was good of you to come. Do

ycu know I want -you cu six charges cf sly-grog selling,’' remarked a police officer. “Please step this way,he added, bowing graciously, and the woman, loudly protesting, was locked up. Another woman arrived at the watchhouse on a similar errand. She also was charged with five similar often-

BACKWARD CHILDREN. A new departure is about to be made by the Auckland Education Board in the direction of giving special attention to backward children. The matter was brought before the Board by the Chief Inspector (Mr E K. Mulgan), who drew attention to various matters in ckmiioaticn with training college regulations recently issued. Mr Mulgan stated that the regulation provided for a model school consisting of a class cf backward children of school age with not mere than 40 children cn the roll. This he regarded as a very essential aclditon to the pivmaxrent types of model schools, as in many schools there were backward children who required special attention. He referred not so much to pupils who owed their want of progress to faulty teaching or lack of opportunity, but rather to these whose general intelligence’ and attitude for acquisition of knowledge, though not sufficiently defective to warrant their enrolment in special scbcls already provided, was diseinct ly below those of a normal child. Such children were a source of much anxiety to teachers and a fruitful cause of weakness in the school progress. To treat them as normal children was fair neither to themselves nor to the schccl community, and yet, in most cas- 1 es, they wore sc treted,, for teachers had heretofore received little or no special training in dealing with this type of child. r l'he presence In a normal school of such a class would be a valuable additin to the machinery already in operation, and lie recommended its inclusion amongst the type of model school required by regulation. Mr Mulgan recommended that details of the matter be generally com-

pleted, so that everything may be in readiness to begin work early next year. To this end it should be possible to procure a suitable room in the vicinity of a normal school and arrange for its proper equipment The salary offered tor the work began at £230 per annum, and rose by annual increments of £lO to £250 If the Board viewed the suggestion favourably he would endeavour, whilst in England, to secure the services of someone suitably and adequately trained for the position i«i tliG Old Country. The salary named should attract a desirable teacher. Mr Mulgan was authorised to appoint a suitable teacher:. The report was then adopted.