WORKERS & EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2370, 28 January 1915, Page 7

WORKERS & EDUCATION

AUSTRALIAN VISITORS CIVIC RECEPTION AT THE TOWN HALL \ Mr. Meredith Atkinson, organiser for the Australian branch of the Workers' Educational Association, and Mr. D. Stewart, of tho Sydney Trades and Labour Council, were accorded a civic reception at the Mayor's room, _ Town Hall, at noon yesterday, there being an attendance of some twenty people, including prominent leaders of the Labour movement and representatives of tiio University. The Mayor (Mr., J. P. Luke), who presided, in extending a hearty welcome to the. visitors, explained that their mission was to interest the people of NewZealand in a phase of education which had hitherto been neglected. As chief of the City Council —and he thought he could speak on behalf of the other municipalities of Wellington too—he hailed with pleasure the advocacy of the measures proposed for the superior education of the working people. Mr. Atkinson's visit was'of particular interest to Wellington, because he was a professor of economics at Sydney University, and for some time past Victoria College had been desirious of setting up a Chair for the teaching of economics. He (Mr. Luke) had no doubt that during his visit to Christchurch Mr. Atkinson would be able to interest the Chancellor and members of tho Senate in the movement which he had come to.further. • Speeches were also made by Mr. T. R. Fleming, of the Victoria College Council; by Professor H. B. Kirk, of Victoria College; by Dr. Elizabeth PlattsMills, and by Mr. P. Fraser, of the Social-Democratic Party. Mr. Atkinson, in the course of his reply, said he was very glad to be here at the beginning of what he was sure was going to be a very great movement in the Dominion. The object was to approach subjects in a manner on the whole foreign to the academic mind. The true scholar had an absolute passion for the spreading of knowledge, and if the workers could only understand this they would have less of an attitude of distrust and suspicion towards the universities. There had never been a highly educated working class, but- the Workers' Educational Association now sought to give tho workers an opportunity of availing themselves of the treasures that had been stored up in the universities for centuries past and the universities in turn could obtain from the workers the benefit of practical experience. In Britain the movement was producing something like a revolution in thought in dealing with great questions and tho very cream of the undergraduates were being attracted to the movement because tliey felt that it provided real education. Tho prospects seemed wonderfully good in New Zealand, where the time was just ripe for the establishment of the movement. In going to Christchurch; Mr. Atkinson knew • lie was going to speak to a Senate, of whom a large proportion were already friends of the movement. The welcome that had been extended was greatly appreciated. Mr. Stewart expressed himself as oonfident that the movement was going to be an even greater success here than it had been in Australia. The greatest obstacle there had been pessimism, which in practice had'proved to bo unfounded. BEFORE THE CARPENTERS' CONFERENCE. In the morning, prior to the civic reception, Messrs. Atkinson and Stewart attended the Carpenters' Conference at the Beehive Chambers and addressed the delegates on tihe aims and objects of the association. AT THE TRADES' HALL. Labour officials and friends were addressed by the Australian visitors at tho Trades Hall in the afternoon, and ufter brief speeches some time was devoted to question and answers bearing on the programme of the Workers' Educational Association. Mr. D. M'Laren occupied the chair. Mr. Atkinson stated that although the association was not yet 12 years old, it consisted of 3000 affiliated organisations, had 10,000 individual members, and reached something like 50,000 students. Those figures" were sufficient justification—if justification were needed—for the extension of the movement to New Zealand. In New South Wales they had already twenty tutorial classes, in Victoria six. in Tasmania six, and in the other States from two to four. A tutorial class was only small in numbers—not more than about 30—but it was tho embryo of a university, and its members were bent on seouring, not a diploma or a, degree, but the knowledge that would, make them good citizens. The principle of the class was that a number of people met together for the purposo of improving the community in which' they lived. It would make pathetic reading if he were to tell his audience of the' kind of letters he received at Sydney from workers, who described themselves as starving, for the knowisdge which they had hankered after for many' years. The Workers' Educational Association wanted to minister to the higher needs of the people, and it would not have been nearly so successful but for the fact i that it was a people's movement. It .dealt with adult students from 18 years onwards. There was no maximum ago and some students were actually over 70 years of age. It was because of the elasticity of the classes that the movement had avoided the failures so common to the purely academic system, and the control was so democratic as to meet hitherto neglected interests of ;he workers. The principal subjects weia economics and industrial history, but there were in addition praotical excursions in geology and botany, visits to the observatory and the like. To each class was added ft library, built up on the widest possible scope. The only expense was an •innual subscription (say as.), and the cost of the text book in any subject.

Mr. Stewart referred briefly to some of the other activities of the association and to its relation to the l&boujing class and the workers' organisations. He stressed the point that the movement was social as well as intellectual. Its object was to develop a social democracy, and there coula be no fixed limit to the activities of such an association. Mr. Stewart addressed a public meeting at tho Trades Hall in the evening, when Mr. J. M'Kenzie, president of the Trades and Labour Council, occupied the chair. Thero was an attendance of about fifty people. Mr. Stewart said he regarded the Workers' Educational Association as one of the greatest movements of the century. Starting in England in a very small way some twelve years ago, it had grown Iq such an extent that it could safely be said the ideals of the founders bad been realised. It had now been established in all tho States of the Commonwealth, in the United States, in South Africa, in Canada, und was- about to be established in New Zealand, It was not by any means a narrow movement and what it had already succeeded in doing was but a foretaste of what it had yet to accomplish. It had been proved that the workers werp absolutely hungering for the uplifting influence of the'education which the association had to offer. In England, the association had always pressed for tho introduction of tho spirit of democracy into the administration of education, and it was ilie general oxDarjcnco that the educatiofl aiK

thorities were everywhere ready to welcome the co-operation of the workers. A feature of the new movement was the fact that no preliminary examination wa-s required and no standard was sot. The idea was to keep the tutorial classes for the workers as workers and to ensure that the man at the bottom of the ladder was never shut out. Mr. Stewart went on to give a detailed outline of the methods employed hy the association to reach the workers and the various activities already in hand, and to bo taken up by the association. At the conclusion of the address questions were answered and a general discussion followed. Mr. Stewart was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.