THE COST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 38, 14 February 1924, Page 3

THE COST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—To the well-to-do parents the payment of four or five pounds caen year for school books may be a trifling matter, but to many fathers and mothers this amount is a considerable tax. So much so that they gladly accompany their boys and girls to the second-hand bookshop where books may be bought for about two-thirds their marked price. It was an interesting sight on Monday afternoon to see a small bookroom packed with about 150 Grammar School pupils, struggling and scrambling to get the required books. Many got what they wanted, many went away disappointed. These books had been purchased from boys and girls who having finished their year, no longer required them. But surely some better scheme could be devised whereby the used books of one year could be passed on to the pupils of the following year.—l am etc., PATER. (To the Editor.! Sir,—There is a matter I would like to call public attention to, and that is tiie excessive cost of school books. I find it costs about 10/ a child to get the books required for the ensuing year. Surely something could be done to ■standardise the books and sell them at cost price.—l am, etc., FATHER OF EIGHT.