STATE BLUE BOOKS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 13, 29 December 1931, Page 10

STATE BLUE BOOKS

EXTRAVAGANCE AND WASTE STATISTICAL ABSURDITY. THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT The papers comprising the 1930 appendices to the journals of the House of Representatives weigh two stone less half a pound and there is no reason for doubting that 1931 saw the half-pound made good. For the benefit oi those who are not familiar with official literature it should be stated that the appendices comprise all official statements and departmental reports accounts, statistics, maps, graphs, lithographs and photographs. In times of prosperity s-uch a spate of print is an extravagance; in times of depression it is shocking waste (states the “N.Z. Herald"). Through the years, Ministers and departments have developed official reporting to the point of absurdity. Some detailed papers are demanded by Parliament, which has never counted the cost, but the chief reason for the great bulk of these accumulated tomes seems to be a competitive spirit among heads of departments. A competent subeditor could put the matter in onetenth of the space and he would have over a lot of minor stuff, which could be thrown away without the representatives of the people being denied any information of the least consequence. | VAST COST OF COMPILATION.

But the cost of priting these papers is only a bagatelle to that of preparing them. No one knows, not even the Prime Minister, what is the cost of collecting, analysing and compiling the facts and figures that are presented to Parliament. Every department is unceasingly engaged upon the task, so much of which is barren, and in some cases much of the raw material is mined outside.

Take the Education Department, for instance. The first line of its statistical offensive is in the offices of educatioa boards, schools and colleges. There are eight sections of the Education Department report, totalling 258 large pages. The Minister is content with 40 pages, including many tables and a graph or two, with four pages of art paper for half-tone photographs. Folk-dancing life-saving by sprightly girl students, boys swimming and sun bathing and a dental clinic are among the pictorial subjects illustrating the document. MARSHALLED AND MANOEUVRED The section devoted to primary edu cation is a feast for those who fin' pleasure in studying statistical table for their own sake. The children art marshalled into every possible grout and division and one almost expects t< , find them numbered and given finger print identification marks. Appended are the reports of the chief inspector, extracts of the reports with statements of accounts of the various education boards, reports of the principals of the training colleges and the supervisor o!k musical education. .'■ " Included in the report on educatloe of native children is a list of all na tive village schools with the ".num - - classification, position and emoliinien’ of the teachers." It may bo very in teresting to know that a certain schoo’ is graded 3A, that the average attend ance is 47 and that one teacher re'cev'e* £285 and the other £l6O, but why burden the Parliamentary report with these details! PONDEROUS TRIFLES, Page after page of the report or higher education is filled with a'n clab orately set-out statement' of various little funds, scholarship endowment and the like. One is pleased to see is the revenue account of one prize nr count that interest amounted to 2/1, but is it necessary that this fact should have a heading and a line for itself ir. the Parliamentary papers of the Do minion!

Finallv we come to the report on ths teachers’ superannuation fund. The 3' counts occupy six pages which, one will admit, is a moderate ration of space but then follow no fewer than 26 pages giving a complete list of all people re ceiving allowances from the fund. Eai-I. person receives a line of largo type and three columns, one for name, one fot the board under which he worked and one for the amount of his pension. This sort of thing is grotesque waste It has no public value. Any commercial institution which recorded its affair* in this manner for the meeting of its shareholders would soon go into liquida tion, with the nrinter as chief creditor. Half of the staff to be thrown., out of employment would know nothing X of the business except that of recording h and compiling statistics.