THE YEAR BOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 6

THE YEAR BOOK.

From the point of view of business, as we remarked last v<? i. the Government Statistician would do better to get out his indispensable Year Book a week or two earlier. This year's volume i| issued at exactly (lie same date as last years, and there in irony in the appearance of such a mass of solid fact in the. care free days between Christmas and New Year. The Statistician, however, is to be congratulated on issuing this book before the beginning of the year; we take it that what has been done this year and last year will lip the rule. The book itself grows more valuable as the years pass. This volume contains «0(i page*, a hundred more than the issue for 1924. and there are several new features. There are special articles on the education system in New Zealand, the application of intelligence testa in our schools/ !>onie aspects of infantile mortality, and local government. The first and the last of these should be especially useful to those who resort to this reference book. The Director of Education traces the history of education from the very beginning of thing*, and describes the system as it is to-day. His article presents in a handy form many facts which otherwise could be got at only witli difficulty. Among other things it is shown that the expen. diture per head on education has risen from 23/ in 1914 to 4(4/* in 1924. The article on local government, which is also historical, was prepared for the information of the Uritisli Koyal Commission on this subject. We learn that, counting such things as fire and rabbit districts, there are lifi.'i local authorities in the Dominion. Here, again, a great deal of information is usefully collated from many sources. Other sections of the Year Book have been re-written or enlarged, showing that the editing is done vigilantly. This is New Zeala'ml's foremost reference book. and the Government Statistician and his stair deserve the thanks of the community for the full record of national development that they produce.