LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 June 1922, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Flags were tlown in Taranaki yesterday in honour of the 'birthday of the Prince of Wales, who was 28 years of age.

The clearing sale advertised to be held by the Farmers’ Co-op. on account of Mr. J. C. Brogden, Auroa, to-day, has been cancelled.

Only one nomination was received for the vacancy of councillor for the Rahotu riding of the Egmont County Council. Mr. Alfred Luckin was the nominee, ant! he has been declared elected.

Constable Small, who has been reliev_ ing at Mokau while Constable Rlaikie ha‘s„ been on sick leave, on Thursday arrested two men in the Awakino Valley district on charges of alleged sheepstealing. They will be brought to New Plymouth to-day.

We have received from Mr. IE Cocker the sum of £3 3s as a contribution to’ the “Save the Children Fund.” This with any other subscriptions we may receive will be handed to the Mayor for transmission to the Society of Friends. W'e will gladly acknowledge any donations sent to us for this fund.

The advent of the electric light to Eltham is looked forward to with great interest, and many enquiries are being made as to when the power will be obtainable in this town. Those who are most in touch with the movement say that it is quite possible that . Eltham will be using the power in twelve months’ time. —Argus.

The question of improving the roads in the Pariliaka district, where returned soldiers are settled, was brought before the Hon. D. H. Guthrie by Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., Mr. Smith having sent the Minister the report of the recent conference with the soldier settlers regarding road improvements and other matters. The Minister has now replied that he consulted with the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. J. G. Coates) on the question of taking steps to improve the roads in the district. In a speech at Palmerston North the Prime Minister said that at the shows he had noticed the primary and secondary industries coming together as never before. The two classes were working together as they ought to be; the one had realised that its prosperity was linked up with the prosperity of the other. New Zealand had to get out of the slump, and would do so all’ the sooner for the absence of selfislines's. The slump would go because the people were working.

Gn Tuesday next at the Workers’ Social Hall a particularly good lot of house furniture will be submitted to auction on account of a lady leaving New Plymouth. The majority of the furniture is of solid oak and in the very best of order. .Mtcgether the sale offers a great opportunity to buyers, and we are advised by Webster Bros., the auctioneers. that the articles, which are for sale entirely without reserve, will be on view on Tuesday morning. Included in the list are some very handsome carpets.

Regarding matriculation examinations, the Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister of Education) stated at the graduation ceremony at Auckland that this year there were 4000 candidates, and the examinations were getting rather unwieldly. If it was good enough for the University to have internal examinations and degrees awarded on the reports of the professors, then it was good enough foi* some system of granting passes in matriculation on the recommendation of a competent headmaster, possibly assisted by an inspector. The headmaster knew better than anyone else who was entitled to go forward to the University. This would do away with the present overlapping and unwieldly system of matriculation examinations in this country. “There have been a good many changes recently in regard to the method of examination,” said the Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister of Education)- at Auckland. This year, he continued, they would see commenced in this country a system by which professors, with independent assessors, would themselves conduct the examinations for pass degrees He considered that the old system by which the papers were sent to Great Britain, and there was a period of waiting of four or five months be fore the results were known, was quite out of date and unnecessary. He was not one of those who claimed that there should be no examination. There must be some examination and some test of the teacher and his pupil, and he believed that it was possible to find in New Zealand or Australia, if necessary, men to conduct the examination at the university colleges.

Some observations on perfect posture were recounted by Mr. H- E. Longworth, chief physical instructor in the Education Department, in the course of a lecture to Auckland teachers. He had stood, he said, for half an hour at prominent points of the four centres, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and of the individuals who passed that spot only two per cent, could be said to carry themselves well. “Isn’t it a fact that if you observe a person walking with cheat out and head in the air you turn and look at him, as at an uncommon sight? That supports my estimate.” He added that in Sweden the people had known the benefits of physical training for over eighty years, and though he was not quite so optimistic as to hope that New Zealanders would rival that population, he was confident that in ten years a distinct improvement would be noticed here, the effect of the corrective training in the schools.

A correspondent informs the Otago Daily Times of an incident last week which should serve as a warning to children who play about railway bridges. A boy. one of a number of children who were playing on the bridge over the Waipahi river, near Arthurton, got his foot wedged between two sleepers which are laid dose together, and was unable to extricate it- While lie was in this predicament a heavy goods train from Waipahi came in sight The other children had the presence of mind to run towards the train, holding up their hands to warn the driver, who, noticing them, and. taking in the situation, stopped the train, and the fireman, going along the 'bridge, released the 'boy. As if- happened, the train was on an up grade, and the driver had a good -view of the bridge. Had the train been .proceeding the other way, it would have been on a down grade, and would have emerged on the bridge from a deep cutting, so that it would have been on the bridge before the driver could see the boy, and nothing could have -saved the latter’s life.

I- Persons desiring a site for a home in New Plymouth could not do better | than inspect the property belonging to I the estate of the late Henry Putt, which is to he sold by L. A. Nolan and Co. on Friday, the 30th inst. For particulars see our auction column.