VOTE FOR AID TO SCHOOLS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28445, 27 November 1957, Page 16

VOTE FOR AID TO SCHOOLS

Mr Harker Gives His Reasons (New Zealand Press Association) WAIPUKURAU, Nov. 26. The present Chairman of Committees (Mr C. G. E. Harker). National Party candidate for Hawke’s Bay, at Waipukurau last night gave his reasons for voting against a decision of Parliament not to extend State aid to private schools. He explained that in doing so he was keeping a promise, to give an account of his stewardship in his electorate. “There was one occasion during the present Parliament when my vote did not agree with that of a lot of my colleagues,’’ said Mr Harker.

“I stated at Waipukurau 17 years ago what I would do about that particular question and why. I said then that I felt that with the growth of Communism, and for reasons of fundamental justice, if the opportunity arose to vote for assistance to private schools, church or otherwise and regardless of denomination, I would.’’ Mr Harker added he had kept this pledge, emphasising his belief that in countries where Communists seized power one of their first acts was to suppress wholly or in part church schools. He was more convinced than ever, he said, that the unrest in the world today was coming from deliberate and intentional disturbances created by countries which had Moscow as their centre. Mr Harker said Christian education was needed as a bulwark against Communism and that State assistance was a way to achieve this.

The general taxpayer should not be called on to pay for the religious education given in private schools but that parents who sent their children to such schools were entitled to a reasonable proportion of the taxes they paid for the secular education given there, he said.