SOCIETY AND LABOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3562, 29 June 1912, Page 3

SOCIETY AND LABOR.

A SERIES OF ARTICLES DEALING WITH THE AIMS OF THE WORKERS.

(By J. 0. E. Turner.) lI.—EDUCATION.

“Free and secular State education,with compulsory attendance up to the ago of 15 years, and with the necessary hooks and stationery supplied free by the Department. All boys and girls beyond that age, not receiving full-time instruction at secondary or other schools to attend continuation classes for not less than 15 hours per week until they reach the age of 17. No employer to employ hoys or girls under 17 years of age for more than. 30 hours per week.”- —First Plank in the Platform of the United Labor Party. £ Professor Mills says that “education may ho said to he the discovery and application of those laws of life which make for man’s improvement.” From earliest childhood man is educated by observation, by and by instruction from others,' aiic! upon these to a great extent depend the kind of citizen ho will eventually become when he reaches man’s estate. Most children are very observant, and little escapes tlieir sharp eyes. To these small folk everything new is a fresh wonder—something to ponder and consider. An example of this power of observation came under my notice some years ago in this manner. Two small hoys were passing a’-ong a street, homeward bound from school. The youngest of them suddenly stoplied opposite a house and gazed with wrapt attention at tlie front-door for a moment or two, and then called to his companion, “Hey! Jack, old T has got a new door knob.” That hoy had doubtless passed that particular door for some months, and yet so small an alteration as a changed door knob caught his attention. I had passed and repassed that particular door and yet had never noticed so trivial an alteration. Not so this young lad. His powers of observation were more acute, and it is this power which enables children to form -some kind of hazy idea of life and its surroundings; which helps to mould their characters, either for good or evil, and they -will sink or swim in. the years to come, according x-e the extent of their knowledge of observation that must be and power. It is this habit power of observation that must ho t©med in conjunction with the other human attributes which help for progress.

But chiefly are we trained by instruction from a superior mind • in the case of children by the parent and schoolmaster, and later in life by those whose power is such as to enable them to load where others can only follow.

Many of us, unfortunately, look upon education for the people as meaning only training in reading and writing, with a smattering of perhaps two or three other subjects. It can be plainly seen by those who care to study the question that subjects of this kind are merely the steppingstones by which the diligent obtain a more complete education, and this only by years of careful study. Every civilised government of the present day seeks to raise its people by a more or less complete system of education to a higher plane of intelligence than they could otherwise occupy-

The object of the first plank in the United Labor Party’s platform is to obtain a more complete education, not for any particular section of the people, but for the whole of the people, so that all shall have an equal opportunity, and start life as far as possible from the same mark. Whether such knowledge leads to moro complete happiness is problematical, but it must certainly cause the whole of the people to view more plainly those subjects which are of vital importance to themselves. In addition to this it would put them in a position to assist in solving the social problems which now to so many are unfathomable. “The aim of education is to prepare for complete living.” Complete living can only be obtained by the medium of usefulness to the community in which we dwell. Our people must be numbered amongst the useful people—those who "are justifying their existence, not by producing wealth, not by attaining to positions of affluence, but by their treament and behaviour towards their fellow-beings. It is to this ultimate usefulness that the United Labor Party aims in the clause headed “Educational Reform.” Free school hooks and stationery are only a means to obtain this end. Everyone must have equal opportunity, therefore everyone must bo put upon the same level in obtaining tho means of education. The children of the rich must have no undue advantage over the children of the poor. One of the chief difficulties that the Labor Party’s conference had to overcome when framing the platform was to find a method whereby tho child’s education could be continued when lie happened to be the offspring of tho worker with little of this world’s wealth at his command. This problem 'yvas met by deciding that all children between the ages of 15, the year when they might be permitted to leave school, and 17, should be compelled to attend continuation classes for hot less than 15 hours per week. Whilst going through this course no employer would be allowed to work the child for more than 30 hours per week. By this means it is hoped that the children of those, who cannot afford to keep them at school

after 15 years of age, would continue to receive the same instruction that their more fortunate brethren are enabled to obtain because their parents 'happen to be in a more fortunate position financially. It is time that the workers put forward a claim to equal opportunity for their children with those of the rich. The workers interests have too long been postponed, or neglected, in favor of those who have had the money to enable them to take advantage of the arts that civilisation has at its command. I trust, then, that the people of Gisborne, as well as of the rest of the Dominion, will proceed to consider seriously this subject to which so much importance must be attached. Frequently a stale and unworthy reproof is offered to those who incur the odium-of meddling with these matters ; we are told that the time is unseasonable; that the people are not interested; that the country is in a healthy state under the existing conditions; and that it is michiovous to introduce the subject—or, in fact, any disturbing dement— ?,t , a V L guch reasoning, Lard as it is for me to comprehend, I cannot admit. Ido not understand the morality or the wisdom that would postpone the consideration of a difficult- question till it is forced upon us by circumstances which we cannot perhaps control. Wa are constantly told that there is no public excitement upon this subject, that the people are altogether satisfied with the existing conditions of Dominion education. I cannot help surmising that the day is not far distant when there may he more excitement and questioning than may he convenient to those who complain of its absence. When I look around and observe the numbers that are now dependent upon a half-hearted kind of education; when I see a Commission now commencing its inquiry into our system of teaching the young; when I hear the continual outcries of school committees for better conditions and more assistance in their work; I cannot help but come to the conclusion that there is some great fault in our method of instructing the children of this Dominion. The system needs rejuvenating, if it does not need entirely re-building, and it is to this end that the Labor Party has set its course. Capitalism now takes the workers’ child from school and turns him over to the factories and the workshop, long before liis body and mind is prepared for the struggle of life, and in many cases our children fail to become useful citizens; not through any fault of their own, hut because they are begotten under a system that demands their heart’s blood to lubricate the looms of industry. It is time that the workers of New Zealand gave their serious attention to this subject, for it lias become a Juggernaut which stultifies the brains, hampers the expansion, and holds back the children in their progress towards that greater usefulness which we all desire for them.