NATIONAL PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 13

NATIONAL PROGRESS

ECONOMY AND EDUCATION

INSURANCE AGAINST SOCIAL WASTE

to tri ebiiob, Blr,—Tho lattor from "Contribute*' 1 in your Usuo of the 14th inst, on ecem= omy in education calls for somo cant mont. It professes te be a reply to a letter from me in yonr columns on the 31sfe May, but in reality "Contributor" devotes more space to what I did not say than to what I did, Far instance, he accuses ■ma of being "obsessed by the idea that a curtailment ef expenditure would entail a reduction of salaries," etc, j and in another place he speaks of a. campaign for "expenditure, more exj panditure, and still more expenditure." My letter contained not a word that would justify either of thoso expressions. ■ No mention was mads, either expressly or by implication, of teachers' salaries, except to acknowledge that of late years there had been a modest increase in them j neither was there any demand for more expenditure—my Jfitter having the one object of showing •khat there, hae always been so much "economy" in education expenditure that there is little room for more. Yet "Contributor" saddles these expressions upon me, in the hope apparently of discrediting the teachers by attributing ta them, by insinuation at least, selfish motives.

Similarly, he stigmatises as ''not fair, grossly unfair, indeed," two statements of mine to the following effect : "There never has been anything else than the most rigid economy m regard to education in New Zealand," and { "There has never been any other building policy than the starvation one." So far from these statements being "grossly unfair," they are literal statements of the facts of the case, and are not even subject to discount for rhetorical exaggeration. Was it not rigid economy that closed all the training colleges but one in New Zealand ? Was it not rigid economy that allowed the teaching power to become so run down that until about three years ago one-third of the teachers in the schools wero unqualified, and even to-day about ona-fifth of them are so? Was it not rigid economy that permitted the building, of the miserable shacks that are even new. doing duty for schools in, one might also say, hundreds of places in New Zealand? The present Minister of Education, the Hon. Mr. Parr, has been able to make considerable improvements in this respect in the last few years; but even he has mere than once had to excuse the slowness of progress on account of the arrears in building that have to be made up. Only two years ago he showed that for ten years previously the average expenditure on school buildings of all types, primary to university, had been only £170,000 a year. Is it not rigid economy that still permits the existence of classes of 60 and 70 or more pupils per teacher? . Here are some figures from the Auckland district :— Summary of data, compiled April, 1924 from 64 schools. ' 6ingle Classes. Eon Eoll 801 l Eoll Eon Eon So. ho. No. No. No. No Classes 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 SO-SO 00-09 Us St 611 is 7 n 0 « <v gf-f *? lq "' * 1 8= " bUil' 3 It 8. J j= s ft an I a *' •-»' Combined 0 2classes 13 17 U f 4 I—S3 ; Us 123 143 09 43 M "7—423 : It is not likely that other districts are more fortunate than Auckland in this respect, and to those who are able to interpret these figures they mean that even if a class roll of 40-49 is accepted :.s permissible for the time beinc, something like 70,000 or 80,000 children are oeing taught in classes so large that the - best forms^ of education are impossible. ■ And yet " Contributor " accuses me of : making statements that are " grossly j unfair." This kind of arguing lays : him open to the suspicion that he has '■ little faith in his own case, and that he ! is yielding to the temptation to make I up for its deficiencies by abusing the i other side. "Contributor" has a little jibe at eeme allegedly faulty arithmetic of mine. 1 he-figures are interesting and will bear reprinting in correct form: Expended Gross on revenue. education. 10H .„ 52,229,804 1,206,678 1923 ; ., 27,579,413 3,187,202 slightly over 1-Oth The printer's substitution of " onetenth " for " one-ninth " in the second line was a fairly obvious error. I wrote " slightly over one-ninth " because it is easier to understand than 11.5 per cent. " Contributor " thinks I was in error in writing one-tenth instead of 9.8 per cent. Ho is quite welcome to the decimar 3 per cent. —a good many people will estimate that that figure represents the proportion of sound argument in his letter. '• Contributor," in his desire to see expenditure on education reduced, points out that nearly one-half of the gross revenue of tho country is absorbed by permanent charges. Does he imply that education—the process of the making of the future nation—is not entitled to the dignity of a permanent charge, and is enly to be given what is not wanted for other things? That would seem to ba hia point of view, as it ia of somo others who have not absorbed the modern idea of the value of humanity and the qualities that go to the making of it. He will'havo to learn that a nation is not made up only of taxpayers whoso chief object is to unload their taxes on to someone else, but of men and women who are men and women first and taxpayers afterwards; and that the better' education they get the more able and the more willing they will be to pay liieir taxes when called upon. One-tenth Jl the gross income is a very small fraction to devote to the making of the men and women who are to bear the burdens and do the work of tho nation in the future.

" Contributor " hints at the imaginpry " sore straits of 75 per cent, of the people of the Dominion." Really he must excuse a smile on tho face of any ■one reading that part of his letter. I>oes ho expect anyone to believe that 75 per cent, of tho people of the richest country in the world are in " sore straits to meet their existing obligations" ? Let him look at the figures relating to land values, to Post Office deposits, to the totalisator investments, to the liquor bill, to tho private wealth per head, and to the statistics of sports bodies recently published, and he will not shed many tears on that score. Neither will be accuso mo of jesting on such a matter. There was no jest in anything I wrote, but merely plain, sober facts as they stand in this coiintrv hud as they havo Flood fur many years "CautribuUn;" *ays_j "\Y e jj a ye to ac-.

jcept the facts and possibilities as we know them to be." Facts are what we know to exist, and possibilities are what we may hopa to attain to in the future, I havo given "Contributor" Boma facts of which ho was probably' unawarej and it will bo well to remind him of Boms others ■ e.g., overy boy and girl will in a few years be an elector, with a voiea and vote in deciding the fate of the tax-payer. How can that voice and vote be wisely and infely used if ths education of the voter ceaaes at tlia fourteenth year! Will "Contributor" consider that question? Will the paraimonieus saving ef pounds compen* sate for the spoiling of lives In the future? It 1b bad business to be underinsured. Education is the insurance against social waste and political unrest. An uneducated democracy must sooner or later cease to be democracy j but what may not happen in the process? An^ other fact in the form ef a quotation i — The growing complexity of civilisation is demanding more and- more from every citizen—a higher plane of intelligence, an extended moral outlook, and a. courageous acceptance of new standaTds ef eivio and social responsibilities, How can that demand be mot except by improved education J So much for facts j now, in conclusion, a few words about possibilities. What are the possibilities in Hew Zealand? By virtue of the qualities of her original settlers and of the environment in which their children have grown up, New Zealand ought to have, and I for one believe has, the finest young human material of any nation in the world, This material is represented by the boys and girls in the schools. The possibilities of the nation are centred in them. By the development of their qualities of intellect and character such a nation can be built, up as tho world has never yet seen, and a good many people in it have never even dreamed of. And why should it not be so? "Because," "Contributor,"- and those ef his way of thinking, say, "we can't afford it." Mere blindness—and worse, Tho young people demand education, it is their right, it is essential to them if they are to be enabled to bear their full share of the world's burden, not to menLion their right to live a, reasonable, modern, human life, "Education is the eternal debt of maturity te youth," it .has been said, but "Contributor"'would I repudiate 'the debt for the cake ef the ; saving of some few thousands of 'pounds I and the relieving of some few taxpayers I who would willingly pass on their own share of civic responsibilities to ba borne by the children—in effect, to make the children pay the war debt. That is not how a_ great nation is to be built up. National progress is impossible without education—more education and better education, by better teachers, in better schools, and in smaller classes, than we have ever had yet Whether as workman or as citizen, the need is the same. Almost universally the ignorant workman is a bad workman; and equally the ignorant citizen is a dancer to the State. ' b Several other points call for reply, but tins letter is already long enough. Let me quote as a final word this from H Wells :— The whole measure ef progress in a generation is the measure m which children improve, in physical and mental quality, m social co-ordination, in opportunity, upon their parents.—l am, etc., H. A, PARKINSON IQM, t - Becretary N.2T.E.1. 19th Juna,