GENERAL NOTES. 513 
the average run of primary school teachers leads us to believe 
that the work will not prove of such value to them as all in- 
terested in science teaching would wish. In saying this, we do 
not desire to disparage an intelligent and generally enthusiastic 
body of men and women, but the fact remains that only a 
minority of them possess such a sound grounding in the princi- 
ples of physical science as to enable them to avail themselves of 
Professor Bickerton’s lessons. A glance over the two hundred 
and seventy experiments suggested—we can hardly say de- 
scribed—leads us to the belief that the author has failed to some 
extent to realise the qualifications of his readers. If the teachers 
have no previous knowledge of the subjects referred to, they will 
not be able—with the slender materials put before them—to 
teach elementary science ; if they do possess a thorough ground- 
ing in these departments of science, then they hardly require the 
assistance of the diagrams at the end. Our conviction is, how- 
ever, that they do not as aclass possess the necessary knowledge, 
and that it will be long before they do. Even in England, after 
all the work done by the Science and Art Department, the num- 
ber of teachers who are certificated to teach science is small, and 
of those oxly a small portion can teach. In New Zealand, those who 
can teach science subjects are probably very few in number, and 
of the rest they would require to have the experiments more 
fully explained to them than is done. It is always a difficult 
matter for an expert in any subject to bring himself down to the 
level of those who have not devoted so much special work to 
that subject, and this is what appears to us the weak part of 
these “lessons.” Professor Bickerton assumes that those ad- 
dressed are possessed of an amount of knowledge and capability 
of imparting that knowledge, of which the majority are—alas— 
ignorant. But while thus inclined to be critical with regard to 
the results which will accrue from the present publication, we 
recognise the fact that those who wish to see science-teaching 
take its proper place in our educational curriculum must 
spread the knowledge of it in every way in their power. They 
must sow beside all waters, and leave others to reap the harvest 
after many days.—ED. 
TIDAL WAVES.—A remarkable disturbance of the ocean on 
the east coast of New Zealand occurred on the night of the 28th, 
and during 29th and 30th August. It appears to have been first 
observed about Io p.m. on the night of the 28th at Mongonui, 
but it attained its maximum there between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. 
of the 29th, and continued to manifest itself throughout the 3oth. 
It was also recorded from Russel, Auckland, Gisborne, Lyttelton, 
and Port Chalmers, but though of such an evidently wide-spread 
nature, it does not appear to have been noticed to any extent at 
other ports. The movements appear to have been of an irregu- 
lar nature, rises of 3 or 4 feet occurring rather suddenly in some 
places, with as rapid a recession of the wave. In Lyttelton har- 
-bour the water fell as much as 6 feet below usual low-water level. 
