NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 197, 15 May 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

: Mn. Parr, is evidently a Minister of Education with ideas. This much is clear from his address yesterday 1 to the Education Conference, but it is by no means so clear exactly where his ideas will take our education system. The public will await with interest a fuller explanation of the Minister's • proposals. The plan as sketched is for primary ec*Scation between the ages' of 6 and 12 years, intermediate schools for children between 12 and 16 not taking a secondary course, and secondary education from 12 to 18. Although not expressly stated the raising of the school-leaving age from 14 to 16 years would appear to be incidental to the scheme. A transference to the secondary department at the age of twelve, the Minister explains, will mean the sweeping:. away of' the Sixth Standard. But only 8400 of the 20,000 twelve-year-old children are in the Fifth, Sixth, .and Seventh Standards; 10,000 are in the Third and Fourth Standards, and 1500 in even lower classes. Does Mr. Parr contemplate a wholesale transference to his secondary and intermediate schools at the age of twelve, irrespective of the stage reached, or does he intend a speed-ing-up in the primary schools bo that twelve becomes the average passing-out age on a Fifth Standard qualification 1 . We are by no means sure that a movement in this direction would not be advantageous.

In welcoming the Commonwealth Treasurer to_ London,' Lord Milner laid emphasis'on the necessity for close personal touch between Im-. perial and Dominion Ministers. .Resident' Ministers in London have been mooted for a year or two past, and the Secretary for the Colonies has now directly asked whether it is hot possible to appoint them.; So far as New Zealand is concerned Sir James Allen, on his arrival, would be able if necessary to act as this Dominion's Resident Minister, as he possesses the full confidence of the Cabinet and comes fresh from actual contact with New Zealand affairs and the, New Zealand point of view. But no High Commissioner.' permanently in London can make a satisfactory Resident Minister throughout his term. Insensibly he loses touch with his home point of view, and the essence of the' matter, as Lord Milner points out, .is that the Ministers shall bring the latest ideas from their respective Dominions- The Ministers will thus need to be peripatetic, ■' travelling backwards and forwards, but there is no need that the same person shall always act as Minister in London. Changes would'probably be an advantage. A certain amount of expense will be entailed when the new departure comes, but it will be trifling compared with the_ old proposal of an Imperial Parliament.

The chairman of the Victoria College Council yesterday very wisely advised those who have the welfaro of that institution at heart not to cease agitating until residential; colleges are established in connection with it. It dees not need much demonstration to show that the usefulness of the college and its prestige and influence would be. inestimably increased were the bulk, of its students in residence enjoying a full college life. We cannot have wholetime students to any great extent at present, but college influences should be, and could easily be, made supreme outside the hours spent in the daily avocations in the city. A very large number of the students live in scattered private lodgings, and the need for residential accommodation is so great that' the Y.M.C.A. is now endeavouring to fill the gap. The present arrangements are unsatisfactory in every way. If any wealthy .Wellington citizens wish to leave a grateful posterity behind them they might do much worse than devote some of their wealth to this purpose. It would be difficult to' find a direction in which the pxpenditure of money could be made more potent for good.

Once again the vexsd problem of the railway gauges is .to be discussed by the Australian Premiers at their conference this year.. The difficulties of the situation and the expense have defeated all past efforts for the adoption of a uniform gauge for the five mainland States. Delay, however, has only'intensified the difficulties and sent' the cost of conversion soaring to bewildering heights. New South Wales has the world standard gauge of 4ft. BJin.; Victoria has the wide gauge of sft. Sin.; Queensland, West Australia, and the Northern Territory have the narrow or 3ft. 6in. gauge; while South Australia has both the wide and narrow. On top of this confusion the Transcontinental railway from Port Augusta in South Australia to Perth has been built on the standard or New South Wales gauge. In 1897 the estimated :.cOst of conversion to standard, gauge was £2,3G0.500. In 1912 the cost was again calculated and put at £37,164,000, the difference-being due to the growth of all the systems. What the figure stands at to-day 110 one has yet had the hardihood to estimate. ' The only thing certain is that it will not grow less as time elapses, and that the wisest course is to be rid as soon as possible of jthis unhappy legacy from the past with the continual handicap on | traffic and unnecessary handling of goods it involves.

No class of people has suffered more acutely by the rise in the cost of ■ living than the superannuated public servants. Aftjr years .of faithful service they were lotired on pensions which in normal time? would have been adequate for - a

comfortable existence during their remaining years. A modest pensiop of, say, £150 is a very different thing now from what it was in 1914, anu numbers of , the pensioners who are physically unable to supplement their incomes have been reduced to a state verging on penury. It is impossible for the State to leave them without relief. A pension sufficient for a reasonable existence in old age after working years are past was an implied condition of employment in the Civil Service. Circumstances have changed,' and the value of the pound depreciated to such an extent that the State, _ in tendering these old people pensions on the pre-war scale, is imposing on their bent backs a greater war burden than falls on almost any other class of the community. The matter is one that calls for the earliest rectification. =^===^==