The Hawera Star. MONDAY, JULY 28, 1924. CHILDREN AND RESPONSIBILITY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 July 1924, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, JULY 28, 1924. CHILDREN AND RESPONSIBILITY.

Delivered every evening Dy ft o'clock in Ha were, Metiaia, N^rmanby. Okaiawa, Eltham, Hangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeuo Manutahi, Alton, Bnrleyville, Fates, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Heremere. Fraser Bead, and

As shown by the Minister of Finance in his Financial Statement, large sufns of money are being spent each year in New Zealand upon education, and as population grows expenditure will no doubt increase proportionately. There is no department of State upon which the people are more ready that money should be spent, for every right thinking person desires that, the country’s children be well educated and that, they be trained to take up their work successfully when they grow up, but above all it is desired that they become good citizens and do their part as Empire builders. Although the world is so full of trouble at the present time and the problems confronting the nations are proving exceedingly difficult, most of the countries are not neglecting education, realising that as time passes education becomes more and more essential to their welfare. Unfortunately many people look upon education from a wrong angle and regard it as a cramming of facts, as a kind of investment that will return the child a good financial return in years to come. To look upon education only in that way appears to us to be quite inadequate, for the first duty of the boy when he grows up is to be a good citizen of the great nation to which he belongs, and good citizenship is not judged by a monetary measure, but by character, ■which is more important than knowledge or wealth. It is possible for a very well-informed man to be a'bad character, and a bad character cannot be a good citizen. In New Zealand the great majority of the young people are of good character, but in recent years there have been a large number of distressing cases of theft and dishonesty in which young people have figured. To what extent such cases may be due to a lack of definite moral training in the schools is not known, but those who have studied the question think that lack of parental control is the chief cause of young people getting into trouble. The number o' cases have been sufficient to cause considerable anxiety, for it is most distressing that when a child has been well educated its life should be ruined by an action due to lack of a sense of moral responsibility. Teachers and parents have a serious duty resting upon them —the former to teach children not only the subjects that will help them to earn a living when they grow up, but also the duty of people to their neighbours and to the Empire to which they belong; the'latter to see that their children are given proper instruction in the moral laws, which must be observed by all who desire to make a success of life. The State is doing its part by finding the large sum of money required for schools and equipment and for the payment of teachers, but State expenditure cannot do the work for which the teachers and parents are responsible. We hope that, the publicity which has been given during recent, weeks to the views of those who have commented upon the misdoings of young people and who keenly desire that an

improvement should take place will have the. effect of making people realise fully their responsibilities to their children. What, are wc doing to help the boys of this generation to take their proper place as the men of the next? And by “proper” place more is meant than the mere words would signify. Not mere manhood, which is a development at once natural and inevitable, is meant, but the braver, better things which go to make up the total of a good citizen. “Adolescence,” says a writer in the Sydney Morning Herald in an article dealing with the problem, “is of all periods the time when help is most needed, when careful handling and sympathetically-wielded authority can effect, its best results; and particularly is this so. perhaps, of the boy. For at tliat most difficult age the boy, as a rule, is first allowed—and often compelled—to meet the garish enticements, the sly temptations, and the devious raptures of life, armed only with the pitiful spear of his inexperience. To add to his armour, to aid him in the fight, to medicine the hurts he must lecen e, and to provide a means whereby he may avoid all permanent harm what finer or more fitting work is there for anyone to do? And more, for what work is there of greater necessity, not only to the boy, but to the whole community, of which he is now the hope, and should, in the near future become the ornament?”