The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1025. FRIER SCHOOL BOOKS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 24 July 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1025. FRIER SCHOOL BOOKS.

Delivered e\ery eveniug by 5 o’clock ’d Hnwern, Manaia Normanby, Okaiawa, Kltharn, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton. Tlurleyvnie, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Wliakamara, Ohangai. Mereniere, Fraser Hoad, an Ararata.

The only really sound .argunieiut that can bo brought forward m support ot the claim for free .school hooks in New Zealand is .that, primary education being compulsory, expenditure on school books is a compulsory tax upon parentis. But even this cc-ntetition is weak at its strongest pomt. If parents were to .allow their children, to run naked, the law would step in and insist that they -be clothed. Similarly, a father well able to provide lor his children comes within the range of the law when he neglects or starves them. In other words, it is compulsory to feed, clothe and care for children. Then should the Government provide food and clothing free? Now that school books are uniform throughout New Zealand—or are .supposed to be—the position here is exactly parallel with food and clothing. Where parents are. unahle to purchase books, the,so are provided free of cost, just as there is provision for the supply of food and. clothing in necessitous' cases. If iii parent be not glad to furnish his child with .school books, then he i 4 not keen to give that child the best possible education ; and if he care not for the schooling of his child, then he is failing in one of the first duties of a parent. Fathers and mot he ns, as well as girls and boys, have obligations. Primary education costs this country two and a-quarter million pounds a year already. We do not say that is too much; we do not say that the amount could not be increased with advantage; hut we agree with the Minister of Education that an additional annual charge gf £IOO,OOO for school books would not be,, warranted. So much on the question of cost. There is this other side to the business : books that are not well wired for soon become disgracefully dirty and, it may he assumed, fully laden with germs. It is not desirable that these should be handed on from pupil to pupil until they practically fall to pieces, and it is unthinkable that the department would supply ftesh books for every new child in each standard. Some parents, it is to be feared, would not insist on their children taking the same care of State books as they would if the. cost bad come directly from their own pockets, .and mo life of the books would be materially shortened as a result. The position would probably resolve itself down to this: that parents who valued books, and taught, their children to look after them properly, would prefer to buy for themselves rather than accept custody of State books that had been ill-used by a former bolder. At. once, therefore, an element c>f unfairness would enter. It will not be denied that school book»s are an expensive item in. -s< me homes; but there are compensations'—there is untold return in the riches of a developing life for ove.iy penny spent on the education of a child, be it spent by parent or .by State. The point is that the- benefits are .appreciated more fully when a share of the costfalls directly on the individual parent.