Decimals To Save Academic Year
(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 9. Children starting school from 1967 on will have their academic lives shortened by at least a year as a result of the introduction of decimal currency, said Mr R. M. Fleming today.
The chief cashier at the Reserve Bank and a member of the Decimal . Currency Board, Mr Fleming was giving an address to the Founders’ Society. “This extra year in every child’s lifetime is a sort of a free present,” said Mr Fleming. “It is a large gain for the community. What will be done with it depends on the community, however.” Mr Fleming said the theory was that arithmetic was based on tens and that it was easier to calculate in tens, thus teaching a decimal system saved time.
A decimal system had disadvantages, however, and a system based on eights would have been very nice. A system based on twos would be equally useful, especially as the work done by computers was all based on twos.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 3
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171Decimals To Save Academic Year Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 3
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