PAPER AND BOOKS

Grey River Argus, 9 January 1941, Page 6

PAPER AND BOOKS

SHORTAGE IN SCHOOLS. NECESSITY FOR ECONOMIES AUCKLAND, January 8. The provision of stationery and text-nooks in primary and secondary schools thi s year will be a major problem for parents, pupils and teachers, the scarcity of supplies, together with rising prices, making rue situation one of great dillicully. Several headmasters here said that there would have to be an ad-round effort to reduce the amount of paper used in school work, and also that children would have to use secondhand books to a much greater extent than in previous years. “Even before the holidays.” said Mr. J. W. McGechie, headmaster of Parnell School, “th e scarcity of exercise books, notebooks and other paper, was becoming apparent. In order that sufficient supplies no available for this year, waste of every kind will have to be eliminated, and the children will have to be educated into making the most oi all paper that is usable.” Not all schoQl§ would be affected to the same extent by th e shortage, said Mr. F. A. Garry, headmaster of the Northcote Junior High Schoo!, as some had made provision far their needs already. Exercise books would be smaller, but he was opposed to the use of loose pi’per m schools because of waste, “More p(tper of a cheaper grade will have to be used,” said Mr. F. W. Gamble, headmaster of Mount Albert Grammar School. Strict economies would have to be enforced because of the high cost, and special notebooks such as were used in science would have to be replaced by substitutes of smaller size. As textbooks for primary schools were mostly published in New Zealand, it was considered that supplies would be sufficient, but dihicuities were likely to arise in finding books on literature, mathematics, and languages, which were imported. In some schools usetl textbooks had been collected from pupils at the end of last. year. A representative of a firm of booksellers said that shipments so far were light, although imported textbooks should be arriving in quantity at the present time. It was not expected that prices would be much higher than those ru.ing last year.