EDUCATION COSTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 239, 6 September 1933, Page 9

EDUCATION COSTS.

CLAIM BY MINISTER

REDUCED BY NEARLY £1 A

HEAD.

Figures showing that by 1934 there would have been a reduction of nearly £1 a head in the cost of education in New Zealand in 1931 were placed before electors at Lyttelton by the Minister of Lands (Hon. E. A. Ransom). The value of good education, he said, was fully appreciated by the Government, and although it was imperative that economies should be made in the department, the main endeavour was to make them without seriously affecting educational facilities. Not to have made a reduction in the education vote would have meant still further increases in taxation, which was already too heavy. ■ It could not truthfully be said that a reduction in the vote had been made at the expense of efficiency (states the Press).

The following figures showed the cost of education per head of population :

This represented a reduction of nearly £1 a head of population since 1931. The savings were made mostly in the cost of administration and were in no way an injustice on the children. It had been neecssary to close two training colleges because more teachers were being trained than could be employed. He had no hesitation in saying that the New Zealand educational system was second to none in the Empire.

Vote Cost per £ s head £ d 1914 ... 1,484,000 1 6 2 ■ 1920 ... 2,624,000 2 3 4 1926 ... 3,895,000 2 16 0 1931 ... 4.174,000 2 15 9 1932 ... 3,469,000 2 5 9 1933 ... 2,920,000 1 17 11 1934 .... 2,800,000* ‘Estimated. 1 16 2