NEW CADET TRAINING

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18, 22 July 1919, Page 7

NEW CADET TRAINING

Sir, —In these days, when so many difficult problems beset us, and it is so necessary that the public should be given the truth, in order that the nation may arrive at their proper solution, it is distressing to find one of our university professors taking up the attitude he adopted last week. I refer to Professor T. A.' Hunter, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Victoria/ College. Speaking on the subject of the new cadet training scheme, he is reported in your Friday's issue to have said : "It has become evident during the past few weeks that the. military authorities of this country are, under the guise of giving physical instruction and teaching citizenship, about to lay their hands on the educational system of New Zealand. Is the fate of Prussia to be ours? History warns us that not infrequently the conquerors have been inoculated with the. views that brought about the destruction of the vanquished. On what grounds do the. military authorities claim that they are fitted for the tremendous, task of training in citizenship? This is the work pre-eminently of. the Department of Education, and as the people with no uifcertain voice have decided that they will not allow the schools to fall under clerical domination, so I trust they willjbe even more determined that the schools shall not be dominated by the military spirit." Now, Sir, I submit that in the abovequoted remarks the Professor is misleading, and I propose to prove it. In the first place, the military authorities are in no way laying "their hands on the educational system of New Zealand." This is evidenced in the fact that cadet training in New Zealand only commences at 14 years of age, when the bulk of the youth of the country have left, or are leaving, school to go to work,' and so pass beyond the reach of our educational system! The only cadets, indeed, who come within its scope, and whose "military" parades are included within school hours, are the youths attending the secondary schools. The Professor's charge, then, I submit, cannot bear examination, because, when the great bulk of senior cadets do not attend school, and even where they are technical college students do not attend parades during their technical college hours, they cannot be said to come under our "education system." The fact is that for them no educational system exists, except voluntary attendances at secondary and technical schools and universities, of which only a small proportion take advantage. The new cadet 'training scheme, so far as physical training and education in good citizenship go, fills the gap between the time most" of our youths leave school and their posting to the Territorials when they reach the age of 18- years. Surely, then, one would expect the Professor to applaud the action of the military authorities in ■rectifying what is a lamentable omission in our educational system, and to extend them his most active and hearty support. But, instead, he condemns! It is amazing. But wonders will never cease. The Professor should wake up. He, to all intents and purposes, tells the people of New Zealand that the new cadet training syllabus is introducing Prussianism into New Zealand. Let us see how this is achieved. Whereas formerly the whole of our senior cadet training was devoted to military drill, the new syllabus provides that more than half the instruction to be given to the senior cadets is to-be devoted to physical training- and education in good citizenship! To be exact, the total time to •be devoted to physical training and lecturettes on good citizenship is 132 hours,' as against 115 hours 20 minutes in infantry training and musketry; again, to be exact, of th'fe 132 hours mentioned 101 hours 20 minutes are to be spent in physical training, and 30 hours 40 minutes in receiving lecturettes on good citizenship, hygiene, and self-control, punctuality, cleanliness, smartness, and kindred subjects. This is what the Professor objects to, as against the former system of the cadet's \vhole timo being devoted to infantry drill flnd musketry. Ho objects to it as Pi-ussianis'ni! Prussian militarists, if they studied the syllabus—which I . suggest Professor Hunter has not—would blush .at the charge for what they taught was aggressive militarism, "Deutchland liber Alles," not ideals of truth and justice, cleanliness of jnind and body, respect forl women, and duty to one's neighbour and one's country. Truly words have lost their meaning when the Professor levels his charge of Prussianism in such a connection, or maybe the Professor has got lost in his philosophy. I trust, Sir,, the Professor will study the syllabus before he speaks again, and that he will then tell us how it conforms with the teachings of "aggressive Prussian militarism.—l am, etc.,

NEW ZEALAND BORN.