ON LIFE'S THRESHOLD

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2217, 1 August 1914, Page 9

ON LIFE'S THRESHOLD

DR.FINDLAY'B PLEA FOR YOUTH. . Mr. F. S. Pope (president) occupied tho chair at a luncheon given by tho Now Zealand Club in tho \ .M.C.A. yesterday in honour of Dr. J. J. Findlay, M.A., Professor of Education in the University of Manchester, and one of the delegates to the Science Congress! Tho chairman was supported .by the Minister of Education (the Hon. Jas. Allen),-and Mr. G. Hoeben (InspectorGeneral), and the gathering included a number of distinguished educationists. ■ Professor Findlay, in tho course of his remarks, said that he valued tho opportunity of meeting so many men .outside his own profession, just as it was gratifying at times for the schoolmaster to get away from his boys: There was a narrowing effect in "the life of the school teacher that was not quite wholesome, and it was good te get into touch with men outside., With tho increasing interest and enthusiasm for education the world over he was beginning to believe that one might call it a now religion. New Zealand had no past, for 60 or 100 years was but a small bit of the existence of civilisation, but it had' a future before it, and anything, that related to,tho children was of supretne interest, not only in its civic, but.in its general, l'ife. Hβ could conceive the. country generating a passion for education such as had never been dreamt of in tho world. The Old..World had despised children—that traditional in Greece, Rome, and even with our own' forefathers—they all despised child life. It was Dickens and other contemporary writers of the. nineteenth century who had awakened interest in the child, and had led to the scientific study of child-life,; and , the British. Association had taken it up and made the study of children real , and vivid, had established.the principle that children were really, our greatest as-, set.'. In' England' a topic that had given them .the; greatest.concern was the period of youth—adolescence, some people called it, but he preferred to call it youth. When children reached the age of thirteen,-some of them were sent to high schools and colleges which was .all very good for those fitted for it. But 90 per cent., of the v children went to work immediately, they left the primary schools, and unless they were given the opportunity of further development it meant the failure of th'ejr lives—too many were running into blind alley occupations. . . ". ..:'■■"..■,

Child labour, continued ■ the Speaker, had been found to be very valuable and very cheap, but the problem was be-< coming so insistent that in a very few years' time .it ,would.have : to_ he dealt with by law. Both parties in politics at. Hoihe were .agreed that the hours of employment for those, up to 18 years would have to be curtailed. He had spoken recently with Mr. Joseph Blanur'es, the Mayor of Huddersfield, and had asked him, if the manufacturers could not'spare their youthful employees, for a few hours,daily for self-devel-opment arid he had replied that a- few years ago they could not have done it, and now the manufacturers would fight hard against it. . But (said Dr. Find-, lay) it would have to be done. Years ago they ,'liad to.fight;to get time off: even for those up to ten years of age, and now..they would have to go further. We had hot the same urgency in . thw v problem ■in ■ New Zealand, but the csame, question affected, bbyb and girls in factories and offices; here. In the /United 'States they had preferred to scour the , world for: cheap labour, but here we would not be willing to import Pole's,- Bulgarians, arid Greeks; we were content to get selected labour- and pay for it. Apply the problem to our.own :ypnth,vand.it;meant;£nat,.we would have to make them more, efficient. They had continuation- schools in England, hut wecould ,not expect'girls and boys to study seriously : after .a-hard day's work in "an o'ffioe'or factory;- . Time wae when; they had controlled youth up till 18 years of age, by apprenticeship and the guilds, and the .law still g_ave control, but.'it wfie merely a nominal (control. As'soonas a youth, began to bring his wages home now he became his own master. Let us t'hen, he';eaid; have some intelligent development in return for, that lost control. (Applause.) Professor Findlay was, accorded a hearty vote of thanks for-hia address, carried with • acclamation..; • •