THAT TAX ON LEARNING

NZ Truth, 15 March 1924, Page 2

THAT TAX ON LEARNING

Shilling'sworth For Half-A-Crown "Free" Places for Children of Workers. (From "Truth's" Auckland Rep.) (1) Suppose we put a tax upon learning:. (2) Learning, it is true, is a useless commodity, but I think we had better lay it on ignorance; for learningbeing the property but of a very few, and those poor ones too, I am afraid we can get little amongst them; whereas ignorance will take m most of the great fortunes m the kingdom. — Fielding. One hardy annual which is always thrown up at our "free" system of education is the cost to the parents of the annual "remove" of children attending school to higher standards, or from primary schools to "free" places m the secondary school. When this annual shift comes along father has to 3hift to dig out a tidy sum for new books and equipment. The suggestion has often been made that the books m the State schools should be printed by the Government Printer and issued at cost — or even free, but vested interests have proved too strong and the old catchpenny game goes on. In some cases a saving is possible by the kids buying their books off those promoted ahead of them, or digging out secondhand ones from the bins of old bookshops. The Education Department makes a feeble effort to ease the pressure with the "School Journal," but m most cases father pays about double the published prices of the imported school-books and tries to look pleasant. But when .the workers* child passes from the primary school to a "free" place m a secondary one the position becomes more serious. Then a brand new "uniform" has to be bought of the standard pattern from stockings to hata and caps, and the list of books to be bought, equipment, fees for games, and other extras makeß a hole In a fiver and father reckons the game is not too "free." The secondary Seddon Technical College, Auckland, is one of these institutions, and the books required vary from a six bob cookery book tea "shilling" arithmetic at half a crown. In this case parents are noti.fied by the director that the books must be bought at the College, and on his typed list is "A Shilling Arithmetic" published by Macmillan's at that modest figure In London, and for which the director wants 2/6 from the parent — 150 per cent, rise m cost. It Is a modest limp- covered bob's worth which could be posted from London to Auckland for about 2%d by book-post, yet the Seddon College authorities want two and a half times what it is worth! Whaffor? Among the Governors on the Board controlling the College we find Comrade Tom Bloodworth, ox-president of the Federation of Labor,_ and general pooh-bah of professional Laborites ln the Auckland Trades Hall. Could Comrade Tom tell his 'brothers among the • downtrodden proletariat m the Queen, City just by what economic process a "Shilling Arithmetic" sold by a Poplar bookseller new for a bob, presumably at a profit, becomes a halfcrown publication when sold by his brother Governors at the Seddon "Tec." m Auckland? Karl Marx, Adam Smith or Jimmy McCombs could probably describe the theory, but it would do if Tom will tell us m a few words what the "Shilling" Arithmetics cost wholesale from Macmillan's m London, and what a gross, say, cost landed here. It smells strongly of gross profiteering and if that is going on at the Auckland "Tec." the revered and respected name of "Seddon" should be chipped off its portals and his effigy removed, otherwise It would stand a degradation to the memory of the gi^atest friend and leader the workers of New Zealand ever had. Failing an explanation from Governor Tom Bloodworth, perhaps Comrade Jimmy Parr, C.M'-.G.," could oblige.