“PUBLIC OPINION IS CLEAR”

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28089, 3 October 1956, Page 3

“PUBLIC OPINION IS CLEAR”

Parliament Urged To Take No Action NGATI-TOA HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION (New Zealand Press Association) tut toy WELLINGTON, October 2. Mr Max Bollinger, on behalf of the Ngati-toa Home and School Association, Titahi Bay, submitted grounds for opposition to the Holy Name Society’s petition for State aid to private schools, and said that Parliament was competent to examine and decide the issue. The majority public opinion was clear, and followed long-established and well-founded tradition, favouring the present education system. “There can be little doubt that State aid if granted would promote the fragmentation of education and would endanger our national education system in New Zealand,” said Mr Bollinger. The alleged burden of the private education of their cljidlren. borne by the Roman Catholic community was self-imposed, and stemmed from the doctrine that children of adherents of that section should not be “exposed to error,” said Mr Bollinger. The Roman Catholic insistence - on separate schools was based on an intolerance quite out of keeping with the spirit, of democratic New Zealand education. Mr Bollinger submitted that an inquiry into State aid for private schools was not justified, and urged the Education Committee to recommend to the House of Representatives that no further inquiry be held and . that no extensions of State aid to denominational schools be considered. Mr Bollinger said that his association attached great importance to cooperation between the community and the school.

“It is quite an expensive business keeping even a free education system going,” said Mr Bollinger, who added that schools depended a great deal on parents and the community. If there was fragmentation there would be a pull of various interests. The State in New Zealand recognised the rights of minorities, but that was not to say that the State should recognise, for example, the claim of one religious sect that did. not favour payment of taxation. The Minister of Education (Mr R. M. Algie): It would increase their adherents. Mr Bollinger said his association believed that already in New Zealand there was a certain difference in “where a child goes to school,” because there were two systems of education. This difference should not be accentuated.