SCHOOL REQUISITES

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 157, 5 July 1926, Page 13

SCHOOL REQUISITES

i iUe Euitor.> ! Sii, —In your ;?iUt oi June IS appears | I a letter uy one acu-styled, "Faupiay," ! 1 •.!! live iiud let. live. The saul letter j implies that teachers are trading for prutit, in ouoks and school roquibites in : tv .-hopkeepers. 1 think ' ; i...v is a sweiping atatv-nieut fur which ; liiu fcelf-atyjeu "fair I'iay' , should be' cumpeiled to produce the [■roof. My i knowledge of teachers iv this re.-pect is ■ that some of them do handle these goods, j I but :or the benelit of their pupils and ' more often than not at a loss to them- ' , selves. This applies particularly to I fumale teachers of the infant classes, and . I 1 believe to other teachers- generally in a greater or k-ss degree. There are I numerous ether things which teachers ! often feel called upon to supply to pupils j I who are in such circumstances that they cannot get them for themselves, and, > sir, these ca..-es are many and I venture to say that in some instances the tc-achers' purses are well strained. 1 know of two where teacher* have gone without things required for themselves, to enable them to supply pupils with tliinss that they deemed necessarj fT the children. My attitude to this question <x r-chool requisites. i=i that I ] will use every means in my power to have the pupils of the public schools of this Dominion supplied with the requirements for their education at the lowest possible cost, irrespective of the into r of any or every private firm or individual who micht be tradinrr in such ™oods. The- plaint of "Fair Play" i? obviously monetary profit, and my advice is look for another source of supply, bpcaii«f the tim<= i> ripe for this State o ; New Zealand to have a system of absolutely free State secular education. —I am, etc., ARTHUR MORRIS.