A general discussion took place on the subject. Mr Brugh mentioned that 92 pupils at the Otago Boys' High School had placed their services at the disposal of the Efficiency Board for work on Farms, and only four had been accepted. In effect, what the association wanted was that pupils should be allowed to absent themselves from school during February.
Mr Wilkinson said that young children were being exploited by newspaper runners and milk vendors, and, while he had no desire to hamper anyone, he thought the board was the guardian of the education of the children, and as such should not enter into anything which would interfere with their education.
It was eventually decided to inform the association that school committees had power under regulation in the way of arranging the school holidays to suit local condition.
Farm labour short
The scarcity of farm labour is becoming more acute every day, according to the statements of numbers of reservists who appealed in Palmerston North last week (says the Manawatu Standard). One man stated that he had to rise at 3.30 in order to get his milking done to enable him to attend the Appeal Board. Another appellant said that two teams on his farm had not been worked for three months, while teams on an adjoining farm were also idle owning to the shortage of labour.
Australian aviation
Aviation affairs have been rather frequently before the Australian public recently. The establishment of a flying school at Richmond, near Sydney, by the New South Wales State authorities, stimulated interest in the matter, which was not detracted from by the sight of young aviators occasionally doing ``stunts''.
Then recently Lieutenant Stutt of the Richmond staff, flew in a biplane from Sydney to Melbourne, and back again, demonstrating the practicability and the speed of this means of communication.
Woman doctor rejected
Our London representative states that a Glasgow correspondent, writing to the New Statesman, draws attention to the case of a qualified lady surgeon from New Zealand, who came at her own expense to offer her services at the beginning of the war. ``The Army Medical Department excused itself on the ground that men doctors would not work with women. At that time also a hospital for New Zealand wounded was being opened in the neighbourhood of London.
This lady offered herself as a resident-surgeon, where she would have been, I believe, the only practising New Zealander, the others ex-colonials or strangers. Her offer was refused - London consultants would not work with a woman.
Anti-German feeling
Interest centred round the appointment of a medical superintendent at Kawa Kawa. The members returned have pledged themselves to oppose the appointment of doctors to hospitals when the applicants bear German names.
- ODT, 29.11.17
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