NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 23 December 1912, Page 4

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

The affirmations of tlio National Education Defence Leagu'e, which should interest friends of.the "free, secular and compulsory" system iu Masterton, aro as follows: (1) That education being a recognised duty and a function of the State, t!io. system nuist of necessity be free, secular and compulsory. (2) That the introduction of a scriptural text book and the granting of the right of entry to religious teachers during .scliool hours would violate the essential principles of our national system of e'dxicat ion. . (3) That- the introduction of religious text books would impose upon teachers a duty tor which they aro not necessarily qualified, and would coiu'titute a religious te_st for an offico under the State. • (4) Any proposal to grant State aid to either primary or secondary schools, owned or controlled by private institutions or religious denominations conytitute-s a direct menace to our present national -system of education, and the demands being made by the Bible-in-Schools League, if acceded to. -will inevitably open tho way to such proposals. THE '.'WOWSER."

The definitions of the New Zealand variety of'"wowser" have beon numerous and varied. That of Mr George Hutchison. of Wa.nga.nui, was original, though hardly appropriate. He ventured the opinion that a wowser wap it person who developed warts on his chest through standing at a. hotel bar. If this description were correct, Masterton would be minus the genus wowser. 'Messrs Macmillan, of London, have settled the question. They have issued a new dictionary, in which they give an appendix . iof Australasian words and phrases. The meaning of the. wowser is here given as "one who pretends to bo a great deal better than he really is." Tn other words, the wowser is' a hypocrite pure and simple ! How many wowsers, then, have we in Masterton? Of counse, we have nono!