ECONOMY CAMPAIGN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 401, 19 May 1922, Page 2

ECONOMY CAMPAIGN.

1 THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. GOVERNMENT'S TASK. (Contributed.) In no part of the economy campaign upon which it lias embarked will the Government encounter greater difficulties than i( is meeting now in its attempt 10 confine within the absolute needs of full efficiency the. expenditure of the Education Department. The people of New Zealand, very wisely, have .sought to give their children tito very best education the country can afford, and many of them are disposed id imagine iliac any lessening of expenditure [ in the maintenance of their ideals must, mean some retrogression in quality. If this j really were ihu case, it would be both im- i politic ami unpatriotic to suggest any tie-; partnre from the existing stale of affairs, j Dui. facts and figures make it abundantly plain iliai economy, properly applied, so iar from weakening the national system of, ! education would materially strengthen it. j Efficiency is properly measured by re- j suits, not by expenditure, and results in any department of the public service are obtained by prudent: and well-ordered administration. No one who lias the best, interests of tin Dominion at heart will wish to see its education system starved. On Tie contrary, everyone will desire iu see it broadened and improved, so that in the years to come New Zealanders in this re- ■ sped may he numbered among the most f favoured peoples of the world. Nor is this ! aspiration inconsistent with a wish lor the; strictest economy in tlto expenditure of j money necessary for its realisation. The problem before the Government is | not merely how to keep file expenditure of I the Education Department within the means j of the country, but, more pressing still, ; how to obtain, with a smaller expenditure, atl least as good results as are being obtained now. The expenditure of iho de- I partment always has been progressive in ; volume, as it always must bo with iho in- j creasing demands following upon the growth of population and settlement; but in recent: years it has advanced out of all proportion . to these natural developments. in 1912-13 the total expenditure was' £1,311,888, an incrase of £97,56] upon that: of the previous years; in 1919-20 it had risen to £2.436.379: in 1920-21 to £3,193,452. and though the figures for the year closed are not yet available, it is known that they will reveal a further substantial increase. Of course the , later growth of expenditure is largely duo to unavoidable increases iu teachers’ salaries. Previously the members; of t!m teaching profession had been inade- j qunteiy remunerated and no reasonable ob- i Joel ion can be urged against the more gen- : mills recognition ot their labours, provided Tin State in return receives full value for in, money in a thoroughly efficient service. Hut iu other directions there are costly and ineffective methods which have, contributed in no small degree toward* ihe alarming . growth of expenditure. Take for instance the education boards I and their administration. When the provincial form of Government was abolished the boards were left with their original status because at that time, forty-five years ago, they were discharging functions winch the State .Government, with scanty and ir- j regular means ol communication, could nut ' undertake conveniently. Theil’ continuance in their existing form was regarded by most people as a temporary expedient, flat lour decades have passed since the education system was nationalised, and still the boards, as survivals from the , old provincial systems, continue to assume responsibilities and to discharge duties which obviously should belong to the State. The powers of die boards have been restricted to some extent in recent years, but they still include the uncontrolled expenditure of large sums of money provided by the taxpayers and involve the over-lapping and duplication of costly services. Ol this it is necessary' to give only one or two examples. The boards, with funds supplied to them by the department, pay the salaries of the primary school teachers and for this simple (Iteration each of them has a staff engaged in writing up salary records, preparing pay sheets, making endless calculations and attending to the correspondence incidental to the business. After this the whole work has to be reviewed by the head office and ihe same tiresome circle of operations repeated. If the work were undertaken by the head office in the first instance it would be more accurately and expeditiously performed, and probably £30,000 or £40,000 per annum i

would be saved in (lie way of expenditure. Other large sums could lie saved by making use of the head office, with all its facilities, in the purchase of supplies, the erection of buildings, the administration ol endowments and so forth. In (his connection the great: dissimilarity in the salaries paid by (ho boards is worth mentioning. The Auckland Board has thirty-three officers on its staff, of whom seven receive £4OO a year nr over by way of .salary, the architect with £ll6O, considerably more than the amount, paid to the Dominion architect, being the first on the list. The Canterbury Board, with a school attendance three-quarters of that; <>i j Auckland, has three officers receiving £4OO ' a year or over, of 'whom the secretary with £6OO and the architect with £SOO are two. The secretary of ihe Hawke's Bay Board receives £650 a year and the secretary of iho Wanganui Board £7OO a year, while (he secretary of education at the head office of the department receives no more than £750 a year. Including the ‘ head office the total cost of the administration of the department in 1920-21 was £99,266, of which sum £59,705 was education board expenditure. In New South Wales, with double the population, the cost of administration was £75.607. and in Victoria, with a population about equal to that of New Zealand, only £32,703. All this surely suggests that the whole system of administration should be thoroughly overhauled by competent authorities with a view to affecting economies without lessening local interest in national education or in any way impairing its efficiency. There are other points in (lie system needing attention, but these notes already have run into too great length to hold the interest, of the busy reader. The grants to training college students, the method of dealing with indigent children, the practice of subsidising bequests and gifts, the management of reserves and endowments. the purchase of supplies and the erection, maintenance and replacement of school buildings all are matters requiring the services of the broad-minded economist and the business doctor, and it is clearly the duty of the Government to see these practitioners are called in without delay.