THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1907. DISCARDED GEOGRAPHY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8515, 21 August 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1907. DISCARDED GEOGRAPHY.

The Geographical Journal for July prints as its first paper the presidential address delivered by the Right Hon. Sir George Taubman Goldie at the anniversary meeting of the Royal ■ Geographical Society. The subject, 1 "Geography and] the Civil Services," has a practical interest for the colonies. That geography has been in most cases only an optional subject, has resulted in the singular condition of things that the Colonial Office admits recruits upon its staff who have not necessarily the slightest preliminary knowledge of any facts concerning the lands with which it deals. Only the Foreign Office have ever recognised this important subject by making it compulsory, and to this Sir Ceorge attributes the happy consequence that members of ' the diplomatic and consular service have distinguished themselves in contributing modern additions to geographical lore. For geography, with its unceasing contact with an immense range of allied sciences, has an evergrowing attraction for those who have once ventured to penetrate into its sphere. There is no doubt much trutb in the remark that with every increase in the number ol geographical students, there will be found an increasing number of truly scientific geographers. But English authorities have no more regard for these larger considerations than for the possibility of small practical embarrassments. After July this year, geography ceased to be a subject which candidates for any office may even voluntarily select. And this curious reverse has happened at a moment when the science might have been rather pluming itself upon the awakening of interest in CDnditions of lands afar. Much cheap and good geographical literature, new atlases, with their far more detailed information, and

school text books of a picturesque sort undreamed of in old days, when geography was a mere stringing together of names and distances, show how the growth of the Imperial spirit has stirred up discontent with previous ignorance. This new regulation is, in fact, an anomaly that deserves the censure it has met with in many quarters, and the Royal Geographical Society, which helps to maintain the schools of geography at Cambridge and Oxtord, feels naturally aggrieved by the disparagement of an important study. "In the Indian Civil Service, the Board of Trade, and the Post Office," suggests the president mildly, "some elementary knowledge of geography amongst its subordinate members might surely be of value. I am inclined to add to this list our Education Department itself, from which—not so very long ago—was dispatched that often quoted letter addressed to 'Ottawa, Ontario, United States of America.' "