SCHOOL CHILDREN’S LETTERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 20 September 1927, Page 5

SCHOOL CHILDREN’S LETTERS.

EMPIRE INTERCHANGE SCHEME. APPROVED BY MINISTER OF tjDI CA'iiuN. ‘ The scheme appears a particularly commendable one, and when developed should prove of great educational value, not only as a medium tor spreading Knowledge concerning the produce and mamuaetures of the Dominion and Great Britain, but also as a means of stimulating interest in the Empire among its children,'’ said the HOll. 11. A. \\ right Minister of Education, when interviewed this morning by a ‘‘Hawera Star” reporter with reference to the School Children’s Empire Reciprocal Publicity Scheme which has come into operation through the efforts of Mr. L. U. Hooker, of Hawera. “When the project was first mentioned to me, I received the impression,” continued the Minister, “that it was an advertising scheme being put forwaid for the benefit of certain proprietary products, and was of the opinion that, as such, it could not be given the approval of my department. When investigated, however, in the light of -later information given by the organiser, it became quite clear that Mr. Hooker was not {associating his scheme with any particular undertaking, but that he wished it to be used to bring bur products in general before the children ill Great Britain, and also to spread, in reciprocal manner, a knowledge of British manufactures among the children of New Zealand, and at the same time ' assist in widening knowledge among the children concerning the Empire itself. So long as the scheme does not interfere with the syllabus of training in the schools —and there appears no reason why it should do'so —I can give the scheme my personal approval. “Quite apart from any benefit which may accrue from the scheme as a reciprocal trade advertising medium, the effect of a child in an Engjisli town receiving a letter from one living in New Zealand, and vice versa, will naturally arouse' the curiosity of the children* in the respective' centres and adcl attraction to their acquisition, of geographical knowledge.” Ais an instance of the interest created among school children through the reception of letters- from other parts'of the world, the Minister mentioned that some 12 months ago he had received a numlier of letters from pupils of a school in the United States, with the request that they he handed to-children of corresponding standards in New Zealand schools. He had complied with the requests, and- had learned that the New Zealand children had been delighted' to receive the letters and communicate with their fellow pupils in America.

ill conclusion, Mr. ’ Wright said he had recently been interviewed on the subject by Mr. Hooker, and while the department was not issuing definite instructions to education hoards, in the matter, he had supplied Mr. Hooker with a letter formally requesting that Mr. Hooker, who had' already launched the scheme in the Taranaki and; Wanganui districts, he allowed to wait upon hoards in other parts of the Dominion with a view to having it introduced in the various centres.