EMPTY CRADLES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2217, 1 August 1914, Page 11

EMPTY CRADLES.

IS MODERN EDUCATION COSTING -I .':• •' ■;' US TOO DEAR? "Then there is the problem of the teacher and the children under his control in. the aspect, as'to where the children 'dome from that he hae to teachj" said: Dr. J. J. Findlay, M.A., Professor of Education at Manchester University, in his address before the New Zealand Club' yesterday. "In the United States they get: families : from ■ all parts- of Europe,- mould -the; •' in' the ■ schools,::and .turn• them ' out good Americans with wonderful success. You are doing ; somthing,. : \quite ■ different, though' by .immigration'' you' are bringing in , a large number of families, but you.are.more remote from Europe, and the question -of - your future •■ 6tate becomes much, more urgent.". ' .nit was this line of thought, he added, 1 which brought, one naturally to the subject of the-birth-rate;;and jthe-.problem of eugenics)'and.the question as 'to'the'j relationship between compulsory education and the declining birth-rate. .As an economic •question the size of the family was a matter of the gravest concern. ■ Before the jera of general education it was a distinct advantage for people to have large families, but today they had to send them to school between the ages of six and twelve years, a period when they ■ previously had been a valuable, help. Furthermore when they went to school they had:to be better clothed than when at home or working in factories,, which made tjie economic struggle, particularly in .the country, .quite' a grave .matter. \ '-. i. '; ••.'".

"You in this he 6aid, "can't_ afford the disadvantage that education creates against ,the' Breeding of population. I was' the son of a Methodist- minister, arid I often think of ,John_ Wesley,* who was something of a eugenist, and a great world organiser, and of; the mariner in. which he instituted'a children's, fund for-the benefit of the families of Methodist preachers, who ■realised that they had to move u,p and down the.country and that large families would be a burden to them. So Wesley established the fund, which existed up till to-day, of making grantsfor ohildron 'iro 18 years of ape. Something ,had been !done in Australia in giving 'the £5' bonus, hut some measure, very much larger would have to'hfi conceded as time went on. "The danger of education, which I stand for, , lays 'down the'threat of, a I childless race.- We only have to refer to the Old Testament to find that the power, and glory,of the Jewish race lay in,,their. belief in the value' of the family,; and all that attaches to the family. If his-thesis he correct, we have purchased education and culture at too high a price. That is one of the largest problems the statesmanship of a new nation has to face.' Is it the better part, to receive immigrants from EuroneP If, they come out at the ago of ,18, they become immediately productive, whereas you have to epend a lot of money, on the infant, but the expense; that , is incurred is all our own your family—raising up your own ; breed with your ,own ideals, who will ultimately re of more value to the .country than even those brought from'> the Mothorlandj" ■ ' . :