CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 197, 29 November 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE SHOW. Tliore is every indication that the Taranaki Show of 1910, which takes place tomorrow and Thursday, will be a greater success than any of its predecessors, notwithstanding the fact that Stratford this year is holding a show of its own of no small proportions. It is true that the list of entries shuws a slight falling-off, but the decrease is without significance, being accounted for by the dog class entries, which last year were 88 and this year 60. The classes that interest the public are those devoted 'to cattle, horses and sheep. These are again well filled. Cattle show an increase of eight, | the figures being (1909) 100 and (1010) 198. "Not only are the numbers large, but the quality of the exhibits will be of an unusually high order. North Taranaki is particularly strong in pedigree milch animals, and its show has always been noted for the excellence of its showing of them. In Jerseys last year it was second to none among the shows of the Dominion, and it looks as if the same will be the case this year. The horse entries, though not so large as last year, will make a good and interesting showing, especially in the lighter classes. The "side shows," without which an agricultural show nowadays would hardly be a show, promise to be even more numerous than last year, and no doubt will add to the attractiveness of the gathering;. These "side shows/' we might add in passing, are making our shows more like the county fairs of the Old Country every year, 'and cannot now be despised by show managements. The ring events will be an important feature, as they ever 'have been, of the show. The entries are large, and the jumpers competing the best in the province. The sheep entries exhibit a substantial increase, there being 81 as against 42 last year. Some of Taranaki's best known breeders are exhibiting. The arrangements in connection with the function are very well forward, thanks to the indefatigable efforts of the executive, and particularly the president and secretary. Given fine weather—and it looks as if we are in for another fine spell—this year's show should be a credit to the district, of considerable value to dairymen, and a source of pleasure to its patrons.

REMOTE SCHOOLS. The advance of settlement in New Zealand means the setting up of schools. Under a free secular and compulsory system, it is as necessary and reasonable to educate the child of the remote pioneer as it is to teach the child of the city business man. The report of the Parliamentary Committee on Education recently issued shows that remote schools are, on the whole, well served, even though it is impossible in all cases to supply certificated teachers. As it is impossible to obtain a sufficiency of "duly qualified" teachers for remote schools, it follows that although education is compulsory for every child in New Zealand there is no uniformity in its value. We do not believe that the possession of a certificate is any indication of a person's ability to teach, but we do know that the backblocks teacher, whether certificated or not, is as worthy of adequate remuneration as the town teacher, simply, because his work is infinitely harder and the conditions of his service particularly exacting. It is to be remembered, also, that many uncertificated teachers in New Zealand to-day hold excellent positions, but that under the present regime the uncertificated teacher is merely a stopgap, his service being necessary only because certificated teachers are not plentiful enough. The teacher who "scores'" is the one who is closest to the eye of the controlling bodies. If an uncertificated teacher is fit for employment, it is an indication that the authorities consider him fit to impart the same kind of education which Statute provides shall be available for all children in New Zealand. If uncertificated teachers are not capable of giving backblocks children as good an education as the children of the towns receive, the backblocks child is being unfairly treated. If uncertificated teachers are not up to the standard required it is the duty of the Government, which is pledged to uniform education treatment of all children, to give these uncertificated teachers a chance to become certificated (if the winning of certificates improves their ability}. There is at present no comparison in the lives of a town teacher and one who carves out his crust in one (or two) remote schools, and if the authorities believe in the justice of uniform education for all youngsters, they should certainly plump for uniform benefits for all teachers, whether certificated or not.

THE CHOLERA SCOURGE. If a cholera scourge as virulent as that which has visited Europe had raged solely in New Zealand, it is possible that it would have entirely depopulated this country. New Zealand has much to be grateful for in its comparative immunity from dreaded pestilence, due largely to healthy conditions, fresh air, a small popopulation, plenty of space, and the devoted attention of medical science in attacking and segregating individual cases of epidemic disease. It is difficult for the people of the healthiest country in the world to conceive the condition of a country given over to the pestilence. A writer in the London Chronicle paints a word picture of the terrors of the dread invasion of Russia. He says: Black horror is brooding over thousands of square miles of territory, where peasants are dying like flies under conditions brought about by their own ignorance and superstition. The streets and houses have been plastered with instructions to the people to drink no unboiled water, wash often, avoid the excessive use of alcohol and prevent fouling of the streets, but the doctors find that they are fighting against an almost universal failure to observe the most elementary laws of sanitation. The sovereign remedy is "holy water," and this is taken from the ordinary wells and streams by the peasant priests and distributed without being filtered or boiled. The liquid often is reeking with dirt and disease, but it is used, as though it were a precious disinfectant. "One may see the unhappy people in the churches," says the writer, "crossing themselves with it, washing in it, drinking it. If someone gets ill he drinks it as a medicine. It is sprayed on the walls and floors, and even upon babes as they sleep at "night. The peasants fear the cholera not so much because they may die a loathsome and painful death, but because the holy rites of the Church burial will be denied them after death. It is not allowed to take the infected bodies into the churches, and the dead are taken and buried in remote places. To be denied the pomp of burial and to be shut outside the ancestral graveyards is to go evidently post haste to hell." It has been a common occurrence for doctors .to be attacked with scythes and spades when they have attempted to remove cholera patients to the hospitals, and the authorities have failed almost completely to stem the awful visitation.