A LIBERAL EDUCATION.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 285, 7 May 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

A LIBERAL EDUCATION.

No person who has not been a colonial country teacher can claim to bo liberally educated. He may be an ox pert in tongues, triangles, and even theology ; but, not having taiight a bush school, bis knowledge of human nature —tho beginning, middle, and end of all wisdom-is necessarily imperfect. A fow days ago a pedagogue in the Hunter River Valley sent a lad homo with the fallowing teaser to bo ciphered out before morning :—" If five men working 10 hours a day with 45 minutes f>r dinner end 15 for a smoke can build a wall of 60 by 20 by 5 feet in length, height, and thickness in a leap year Febraarr, how many men wording, eight hours a day during January with 30 minutes for meals and no pipes would be required to erect a wall 70 x -10 x G, leaving a gateway in the centre and putting glass on top ?" The boy went to bed when he reached hdme and is there still, with but slight hopes of pulling throagh. His father sent an open letter to the schoolmaster :—" Sur, I refuse to let Jim do his sum you gov 'ira Ltrst nitfi has it l«uks to me to bo a slur on the 8-hour sistoui, enuy sum not moron 8hours he is welcum to, but not more.'' The mother buys her groceries at 11 p.m. on Saturday, while her husband hammers at the butcher's for a steak at G a.m. on Monday. All things considered, it will be readily concedel that the parents, the teacher, and Jim are on the high road to immortality.—J.O.B. in Sydney Mail.