CIVIC RECEPTION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 22, 27 January 1915, Page 8

CIVIC RECEPTION

FOR VISITING EDUCATIONALISTS THE NEW MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY. • A civic reception was accorded to-day to Mr. Meredith' Atkinson, organiser for the Australian Branch of the Workers' Educational Association, and Mr. D. Stewart, of the Sydney Trades and Labour Council. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) presided, and there was an attendance of some twenty people, including several interested in labour, educational, and sociological questions. In a brief speech of welcome the Mayor explained the mission of tho visitors to interest the people of New Zealand in a phase of education hitherto unknown in the Dominion. He hailed the advocacy of the measures proposed for the superior education of the working people with pleasure. Mr. Meredith Atkinson's own career was an indication of what could be done by perseverance and energy. The visitor was a professor of economics at Sydney University. The result, of the war would be that New Zealand would take a greater interest in the development of the British Empire. Mr. T. R. Fleming, on behalf of Victoria College, added to the words of welcome expressed by the Mayor the opinion that the movement was by far the best put forward for the accomplishment of the purpose in view. It was not an academic movement, with the usual concomitant of examinations. Personally, he believed they had overdone examinations in the educational systems. Professor H. B. Kirk, of Victoria College, said that the work of the Workers' Educational Association had been discussed on tho occasion of Professor Findlay's visit, and something had already, been done to prepare the way for the' movement Dr. Platts-Mills heartily endorsed the welcome not only to the visitors but to the ■ sound educational movement they proposed to introduce. The trained mind and the craftsman's hand and the love of truth combined towards the ideal of citizenship. She was quite sure the mission would bear the highest fruit, and she wished it every success. Mr. P. Fraser said the welcome came from all sections of the community, which was alive 'to the good done by the movement in England. It was for the advantage of the whole community that the working class should gain as much knowledge as possible. ' Mr. Atkinson, in replying, said he was glad to be at the beginning of what he was sure was going to be a yery great movement in New Zealand. '1 he idea was the bringing to bear on the practical problems of life of experience beyond the academic scope of mind. If the workers were only convinced of the passionate desire of most University protessors to spread the fruits of their knowledge, there would be less of an attitude of distrust «und suspicion towards them. The Workers' Educational Association sought to give the workers the treasures accumulated by the researches of generations of study in the Universities. The very cream of the undergraduates in England had been attracted to the movement, because they felt that here was . real work in' teaching — something vital in the development of the best in the community. The idea of social service underlay the whole movement. In Britain they were producing something like a revolution in thought, both among the workers and among the men of the Universities. This was the lemedy for J,he tendency of University life to ju-oniote seclusion and remoteness from everyday life. The time was just ripe in New Zealand for the establishment of the movement. Already they had met with very promising active help. A large proportion of the Senate was already friendly to the movement. The movement came from the workers, and therefore had the sustaining force of reality and attracted the living interest of every class of the community. The welcome extended by the Mayor was greatly appreciated, and he took it as an index of the reception of the movement by tho community as a whole. (Applause.) Mr. Stewart said the movement in New Zealand promised to be as successful as in Australia. The association was entirely non-partisan and nonsectarian, and the policy had been endorsed by every Labour organisation in Australia. They were seeking to forward a work which had the possibilities of an educational revival to educate democracy, which was the essential of progress. (Applause.)