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Press, Volume LII, Issue 15500, 29 January 1916, Page 8

Poets and novelists were once—in that curious epoch "before the war"— commonly thought not to be men of action. The average man, if he thought about them ab all, must have thought that thev were poor useless bodies and that they would feel dreadfully out of it. It says much for the wholesomeness of the writing trade that they are not out of it at all. Some of the most beautiful poems of recent years have come from soldierpoets. some of whom, like Grenfell. wrote in the trenches that became their graves. The novelists are well in it. There was published last: month a "R-ed Cross Story Book." written to cheer up people at Christmas and incidentally to raise money for a fine work. Eighteen wellknown writers have contributed to it, and all of them are serving with the forces of the Crown in sonic capacity or other.

There is Mr A. E. AV. Mason, of the Manchester Regiment, and the author of ever so many thrilling stories of intrigue and adventure; Mr A. A. Milne, of the Royal Warwick Regiment, the interruption of whose enchantingly funny work for "Punch" is one of the real hardships of the war; M r Barry Pain, who is with the Royal Naval Air Service; Mr T. G. Roberts, of the Ist Canadian Expeditionary Force: Mr Martin Swayne, of the R.A.M.C.; Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. who has loft his -Professorship of Poetry fo r the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry : and Mr lan Hay, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In most cases these cheerful souls have carried their usual pens with them ;• they are serving with the King's forces, but they do not write, in this book, pf their military experiences. The Canadian man's contribution concerns Red Indians and beautiful girls; Mr

Lan Hay's story is of a gentleman -who bought a two-seated motor-car: ~r Mason has another tale of Morocco; •' \ V M-" deals with a boarding-house in London. It evidently time for those who hold the old-fashioned ideas concerning novelists to changc tliem for better one?.

V correspondent writes to lis from Waif>ara complaining of the hardships suffered ''v the parents in that loeality who r.re anxious to see the education of their children provided for. In these times everything must wait upon the war excepting those things which arc vital national necessities, and the education of our children is one of these things. r ° deprive the children of any district of the opportunity of goinc to school, or to make their education difficult or adequate teaching impossible, is to do very injurious thing. The teaching of our children is almost the very l ast thing, next to the. feeding of the community, thai ought to be abandoned under the stress of war. We are assuming that tho facts are as stated bv our correspondent, and in any ease there are many country districts in which parents are grievously worried by the lack of educational facilities. While a single case of the kind remains not a penny should be spent on the improvement or extension of existing schools. The Education Department has plenty of money to spend, and is spending it; its expenditure has increased despite the war. We hope, but we fear the hope is unfounded, that none of the increase has gone in painting and renovation. In Great Britain the local education authorities have saved huge sums bv curtailing the expenditure on improvements, etc. If the same policy were followed here, there would be money enough to remove the hardships suffered in many a district off the beaten track.

By an interesting coincidence a message from Wellington received last night, and printed in another column, records some statements made by the Minister of Education in reply to a deputation. We do not know what the deputation was concerned with, but Mr Hanan took the opportunity to defend the expenditure of his Department. "There were some people," he said —we have not heard of them —"who thought that the medical inspection of schools could well stop during the war, o-.' the grounds of expense." Such a method of saving money, he very properly pointed out, would be false economy. Mr Hanan, however, would obtain a much more eager support for ihe maintenance., undiminished, of the expenditure necessary to keep the primary education system up to the standard if he were to adopt a better tone. He went 011 to preach a sermon about the "children of the workers" and the "wool kings,"' suggesting that the "wool kings,'' whoever they may ue, do not desire to sec "the children of the workers" looked after and educated. If that is not what Mr Hanan meant to suggest, we do not know what he did mean. We do not see what "wool kings" or "workers" have got to do with the plain fact that the children in the primary schools must be looked after, arid that their interests come nearly •first on the list of -tho interests to be conserved, war or no war. Mr Hanan can relv upon it that the public are pot such fools as to desire or to require wild and whirling words to help them to digest simple facts. What we should very much like to know is how much of the Department's money is spent 011 needless luxuries, instead of being saved or else spent in perfecting the medical treatment of children and building schools in the out-of-the-way places that need them.