With a view to bringing under the notice of the public the valuable work carried on by the Industrial and Special Schools branch of the Education Department, and in order to remove the erroneous impression which appears to exist in the minds of the majority of the people to the accommodation, class of instruction and environment, etc., the Minister of Education (the Hon. J. A. Hanan) is arranging for kinematograph pictures to be taken, and it is understood that Messrs Fuller and Hayward, who have been approached on the subject, readily intimated their willingness to undertake this work gratuitously (says the Southland News).
The pictures will be screened at the various towns throughout New Zealand.
From week to week numerous requests are received and representations made for the release of boys and girls committed to these institutions, and the Minister states that if those who so strongly agitate in this direction possessed a knowledge of the conditions under which these children are brought up and of the care and attention that are exercised to improve them morally, physically, and intellectually, these demands would not be so numerous.
There was no doubt, said Mr Hanan, that the removal of many boys from unwholesome surroundings and undesirable companionship to these institutions, and the training received there, had been the salvation of large numbers.
The habits and training and the general care and comfort of the children were very much better in these institutions than in many homes in this country.
The principal features of the pictures, said the Minister, would be the general surroundings, buildings, accommodation, and facilities and equipment for physical exercises, and they would also depict the activities entered into by the inmates, including farming, dairying, gardening, boot repairing, and carpentering.
■It is not expected that the Antarctic exploration steamer Aurora will reach Port Chalmers before tomorrow, and it is quite possible that she will not arrive until Sunday. Some parcels of ‘‘comforts'' for the members of the expedition on board the steamer were, in accordance with the suggestion in these columns, left at the harbour master's office yesterday.
As there is still a clear day before the arrival of the vessel, it may be anticipated that additional gifts in the form of fruit, cigarettes, and the like will be provided today for the benefit of the men who have been absent in the frozen South for over 15 months.
Any gifts that are left for them at the harbour master's office will be forwarded to the Aurora by the tug Dunedin, which is to bring her into port. A Press Association message from Wellington states that on Wednesday night Mr Massey received the following wireless message from Lieutenant Stenhouse: - ‘‘The position of the Aurora at 8 p.m. was latitude 49.40 degrees south, longitude 164 degrees; making a north-east course: speed, 2 knots.''
Mr Massey said he had communicated this to the Otago Harbour Board, to enable it to make arrangements to meet the Aurora with a tug.
■Balclutha retailers find that separator butter is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain (says the Free Press). Farmers who have separators now find that it pays better to sell their butter fat to the creameries, which are offering as much as 1s 5d a lb, than to make butter, which sells at from 1s to 1s 2d a lb to the dealers.
In fact, the time is probably approaching when there will be nothing but factory butter obtainable. The local retail price of the latter article is at present 1s 7d a lb.
- ODT, 31.3.1916.
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