THE SCHOOL CADETS AND THE EXHIBITION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 72, 22 September 1906, Page 4

THE SCHOOL CADETS AND THE EXHIBITION.

Mr. Barber was doubtless correct in ths r-eferenc-ss which he made in the Houes to the disappointment caused to many cadete and parents by the Government's decision against holding the camp for school cadets at Christchurch during the Exhibition. The proposal had many attractive points about it, especially for tho young soldiers whom it most intimately concerned; and boys must have oeaeed to be boys if they were not charmed by the prospect of combining military duties with a long excursion, a picnic, and a visit to the Exhibition, oi which few of them may otherwise get the chance. But there wrrc many objections which were obvious to older heads, and we think that the Government was wise in treatjna; them as fatal. Tho experiences of tho previous big muster of tho cadets in Christchurch ou tho occasion of the visit of tho present Prince of Wales must be painfully fresh in the minds of those who took part In them; and though the inconveniences, the discomforts, and tha positive dangfrs to health involved in thai mismanaged yen ture might to a large extent be avoided now, a certain proportion of them must inevitably recur as inseparable from Hie conveying of a large number of boys to a long distance from their homes, and concentrating them for the best part of a in a city crowded to overflowing with pleaGure-seekers. The Government had certainly done Us best to ascertain whether the schemu would be workuhle and acceptable, and the answers which its < circulars elicited wero far from encournjring. " Tfc (the j>r°po6nl) nas not received unanimous approval," said the Minister of Education in antwer to Mr. Barber's question on \Vednesday last; " there have been n?que.st6 for a reduc tion of the cadets' contribution, and one influential School Committees' Association has cxpreseed disapproval of tht scheme." If to the objections we have mentiorcd be added the heavy expense involved, even without any reduction of the proposed contributions from cadets, the benefits of the scheme .will be seen to be far outweighed by its drawbacks Already tho colony is commitfed to a very heavy expenditure and a very heavy con tintjent liability in connection with th« Exhibition, and we have good reason for believing ihat by the time the whole bill is made out, it will be found to be far' in excess of all official estimates. The undertaking is a colonial one, and the colony must see it through without flinching or- etintintt. but the position is nevertheless of a kind to justify the curtailment of eveiy penny oi unnecessary expense.