The Education Board, which has exercised control over the school, has grown tired of encouraging art at a loss of a few hundred pounds a year. The city council has declined to be interested in the matter and has rejected the board’s application for an assisting grant. Now the board, doubtless with a righteous sense of having done everything possible to save the institution, which it has allowed to become moribund, has decided to abandon it to its fate or rather has passed the decree involving its dissolution. The closing of the School of Art will handicap Dunedin very severely in her effort to hold her own with other centres in the development of this branch of education and in the attainment of the results that are to be desired. If New Zealand is to move forward the goal represented by the position of a distinctive art and literature of her own, truly liberal education views must prevail.
Small barque holds sailing record
The frequency with which sailing craft record passages are claimed for rapid crossing of the Pacific has been noticeable recently. Almost every old windbag that succeeds in reaching New Zealand from America, or vice versa, is alleged to have been tampering with the record trip performances of predecessors. Seamen, who have loitered back and forward across the Pacific on sailing vessels in days gone by, are often amused at modern claims for record- breaking. Occasionally these old hands pop in a few disconcerting figures. One such “pop” appeared in a recent number of Quick March, and sailormen are inclined to stand by “Lee-oh” as he writes:- I doubt whether anything afloat under sail, even in the days of the Aberdeen clippers and the racing of the wool ships ever did better than a little New Zealand-built craft of the early days. This was the Auckland barque, Novelty, 250 ton, which made a phenomenally fast voyage across the Pacific in 1861. She arrived at Auckland from San Francisco on December 28 of that year, after a passage of 29 days. She brought Californian papers up to November 25 and English dates up to October 2. This great run of a small barque is still, I believe, the record for a trans-Pacific sailing voyage.This barque, which was undoubtedly lucky in holding the tradewinds, was built in an Auckland bay in the old rough-and-ready days.
Sperm whale first in years
A sperm whale, the first in 37 years (states the Christchurch Press), was found on the beach about 3 1/2 miles above North Brighton by Mr A. Griffen on Monday morning. The whale, which was half buried in the sand when discovered, is 69ft in length, 17ft of this being taken up by the mouth. 60 pounds has been paid to the finder of it by Mr Jack Carl, and it is understood that a firm of wholesale chemists has offered the purchaser £50 per pound for any ambergris found in the carcase. A start was made to strip the carcase of its blubber and whalebone, of which there is a large quantity. The operation is being supervised by an old whaler, who is now a resident of Brighton. — ODT, 16.5.1919.
