A party of nine, including the two ladies, left Pembroke in a service car, and interest attaches to the trip because it marks only the fourth occasion on which passengers have stopped overnight and explored the east and west branches of Matukituki River.
The ladies mounted these and rode off, the settler leading. The trip was full of possibilities, and as the visitors had never been on a horse before they were on tenterhooks all the time. One in particular preferred to close her eyes and grasp the mane of her mount, and leave the rest to the animal.
The morning broke beautifully fine, and the view from the settler’s home is said to have been wonderful. No fewer than 18 miniature waterfalls could be seen pouring over the mountain, and the former presented a sight that would defy description.
The journey to Mount Aspiring was continued in the morning, and the visitors were loud in their praise of the trip and the beauty of the surroundings.
Teachers brush up
Otago teachers met for the whole of last week at convenient centres throughout the province for instruction in the New Zealand syllabus for primary schools. At Dunedin over 400 teachers met daily at Burns Hall. Mr T.R. Fleming, senior inspector of schools for Otago, opened the proceedings with an address on “English Literature and its Cultural Value.” Extracts from literature
— prose as well as poetry — should be thoroughly mastered and memorised by teacher and pupils alike, and there need be no hesitation to use in this connection stories from the Bible. Wordsworth, Tennyson, Keats, Coleridge, and Carlyle were in turn dealt with, and the speaker stressed the importance of judicious questioning as a lesson proceeded. Mr W. Martin, head
master of the Mosgiel District High School, addressed the assemblage on nature study. The importance of taking accurate readings of soil temperature at 9am and 3pm daily in the same spot six inches below the surface and correlating same with the growth and development of plant life was obviously instructive. Dr Lawson, Professor of Education, Otago University, in dealing
with literature, stated that the obvious aim of the subject was human interest, and in order to vitalise the work this aspect must be kept steadfastly in view, and it grieved him to think that “Paradise Lost” should be surrendered to parsing and analysis. In the former connection there was nothing more valuable than a good voice . Generally speaking, men did not think pictorially,
but symbolically. In the “Charge of the Light Brigade” Lord Tennyson lived, as it were, through all the details of the scene, and Dr Lawson evinced a keen appreciation in the interpretation of selected lines. For instance, the metre depicted in a wonderful manner — first the canter of the cavalry, then the gallop in the charge, and finally the limping and faltering steps of wounded
steeds returning after the historical engagement. — ODT, 5.3.1925
