The degree course, it will be noted, covers three years' study of a comprehensive character, including practical work in practical features of household management. The Inspector-general of Schools has observed that it would be an immense advantage to the country if a large proportion of the women teachers in our primary and secondary schools received a sound training in Home Science such as is being provided at Otago University. There is no difficulty in hailing these as words of discretion, and there seems no particular reason why a fair proportion of those women teachers who annually take up the University Arts course, with the intention of taking a degree therein, should not in future find solid grounds for preferring the new opportunities offered in the provision made for a degree in Home Science.
As means to an intermediate goal, as the syllabus shows, is provided the diploma course, extending over two years, planned to meet specially the needs of those who intend to take up home duties and desire to become really efficient in home management, and of those who propose to become teachers but wish for a more general education than that provided for specialists in the degree course, and at the same time to gain a thorough and practical knowledge of the domestic arts together with the scientific principles underlying them.
We think it will be agreed that the syllabus speaks very well for itself. It suggests a breadth of utility in the higher education of women in this community that appeals distinctly to the reflective mind.
Rome was not built in a day, and Otago University cannot hope immediately, because of the peculiar opportunities it offers, to become the Mecca for women students in the Dominion who are desirous of studying home science and the domestic arts. It is gratifying, however, to learn that a growing interest is being manifested in this particular branch of local University work, and the augury for the session which opens shortly seems a fair one in its promise of a large demand upon the energies and activities of Professor Boys Smith and her teaching associates. We hope before long to have very practical assurance that Home Science as a feature of local University life is quite past the stage which is described as experimental.
• Our Greymouth correspondent informs us that a road has been opened through to the West Coast from Mount Cook. A foot-bridge has been thrown over the Huka River, and huts have been built and tracks cut to connect the Hermitage with the western system of roads. This will enable the more venturesome tourists to cross right through from Mount Cook to the West Coast. They will be able to see the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, and they will then have 110 miles of road to travel through beautiful scenery to Hokitika. - ODT, 16.3.1912.
