TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 59, 6 September 1913, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

How many more years will paas before representatives of A Crying Need the people will end .of Co-ordination, the muddle between the primary and secondary systems of education? The subject has been mentioned at many conferences, and in many press ar^jicles, and reform is promised, but very little is done. On Thursday, at the Conference of the Secondary Schools Assistants, Mr. F. ,M. Renner " urged' that a coordination between primary and secondary schools should be established. Tho whole superstructure of education depended upon such co-ordination." This is true, but if tho faith of the Education Department and successive Ministers is gauged from their works, then they doubt that statement, of which the correctness is admitted by every close observer of the confusion. In the old days the secondary schools worked out their courses without much regard for the things tjone at the primaries. Hadical changes began with tho establishment of the free-place system, but old anomalies are far from ended. It is still possible for parents to send very small boys as so-called "paying pupils" to high schools and colleges, in a belief that the fees cover the cost of instruction. The payments are much short of the average cost of such pupils' education to the State, and thus the taxpayers are charged with a! proportion of this incubus on the secondary system. Good sense demands that the highest standards of the primary schools should grade smoothly into the .lower forms of tho higher schools, just as one primary standard, V., for example, fits with standard VI. The secondary school should be a natural continuation of the primary — but it is not, becauso educationists will not insist on a plain and sane linking. Thiß neglect ib very costly to the country, not only in but in time and energy. / It is coming. The police will have yet the common right — no - A Weekly longer -regarded as a 'bay of Rest, privilege^— to a weekly day of rest. The police must smile grimly at the fact that they, who have to watch for breaches of tho law relating to observance of Sunday, Are themselves denied tho right to a free day ones a week. Who wall regard the guards? Who will refuse them justice? The Minister (the Hon. A? L., Herdman) quotes the cost as an obstaclo —an estimate of £30,000 a year— but euch an argument cannot stand long. Such a plea could have been made by every private employer — and, indeed, it is voiced by the keepers of hotels and restaurants now— but it is not logical. Why should distinctions be drawn between classes of workers? Why is it deemed only fair and reasonable _to give a day's rest to fcho great majority, Imt inexpedient to make a similar concession to police, cooks, and waiters? A Minifterol the Crown, acting 'for th©' State, which, as politicians acclaim, should bo "the model employer," wonders whether the country can afford to treat the police fairly in that respect, The people have no right to act otherwise than fairly to all workers by cheerfully insisting on a strict Ministerial observance of tho old injunction : " Six days ehalt thou | labour." The people will pay, of course. Society as a whole has to -.pay for its Sunday, and there is no respectable i reason why the general public of New Zealand should exclude any section of workers from the enjoyment of one clear day'B liberty in seven. All cannot 'have the same day, but all should have one day. During the first aoesion of Now Zealand's First. Parliament ASocial —in 1854— a Select Wanton Waste. Committee enquired into the question of r'Socondary Punishments in Lieu of Transportation." The evidence taken included opinions and suggestions similar to the principal features of the Prisons Board's report published yesterday, especially in regard to prison labour. The modern reformative ideas wore anticipated six decades ago, but the advice was pigeon-holed. It was a busy young country which looked upon gaols as rubbish dumps, not worth any extraordinary caw. There was land to bo won, roads to be pushed into tho wilderness, rivers to be,Tbridged, all the roaring activities of .pioneers making homos far from the ancestral roof-trees — and the prisons had to wait till tho problem of the criminal absolutely compelled more attention. Tho white man hero began to feel seriously a fow years ago that one of his burdens was the prisoner who did not cam his bread by any considerable sweat of his^brow. The criminal it ft nuisance to sooiety before he is caught, and ho is then a load on tho honest. Last year every gaoled person cost the taxpayers £44 6s 6d not to maintain. There is a double disadvantage in this matter; the work of tho majority cf prisoners is not ofi the best kind for the mind and the soul, and is not sufficiently beneficial to the community. The - waste of potential energy is hugo — and etupid, ior centuries in Britain, gocigty,

believed that tho prison must be mord übolobs than useful, and this notion has persisted peculiarly. Tho Prisons Board wisely recommends a change — on linos which Sir John Findlay impressed on the public three years a-go. It i» remarked that "work could be provided that would not, or would not appreciably, compete with free labour, It is time free labour grasped tho truth that the less the prisoner is allowed ■to do good work for the community, to tho advantage of himself and dependents, tho larger will bo tho taxpayers' lbad. This young country has plenty of scope for all available strength of prisoners — to tho benefit, not tho injury, of fro© la-1 hour- Tho only danger to be feared by, private enterprise is any unsoujidnfl«s or unfairness of business' methods in computing tho cost of prison products — bufc no Government here wouwi bo allowed, to offend in that manner. '