DENTAL CLINICS

Northern Advocate, 11 June 1929, Page 3

DENTAL CLINICS

SERVICE FOE EVERY CHILD. DUTY OF THE STATE. “Children are my care, irrespective of Colour, or race, and as long as I am Alinister of Education that is 'the policy I will maintain,” declared the Hon. H. Atrnore at the laying of the foundation stone of the new Roman Catholic School at To Aroha on Saturday. Mr J, C. Carroll was chairman of the ceremony, which was witnessed by a large gathering from, all round tire district.

“I have always refused to divide my people into creeds,” continued rtjhe Alinister. “They .are all New Zealand children. Hence my service in getting dental clinics extended to private schools was a tardy act of justice. The child’s need is the great fact. All parents are taxpayers, and help an the upkeep of the clinics. It was an injustice that children in private schools should not haye clinics when their parents were paying for them. “It will depend on the equipment given to the children now how they will carry out the business of .the nation in the future. Our system is too much dominated by academic considerations. AVe want smaller classes, and we should proceed along the lines of ‘discovered aptitudes.’

“It. as a matter of regret that we have a system of education that trains the -children away from the land. This must bo changed. AA r c must, show the children that there is as much scope for them on the land as in. the city. A now education system, allied witii a wider , land .settlement 'scheme, will open up new avenues, and do away with unemployment, in the future. “It is my duty to see that every child in New Zealand is educated, under the requirements of the Education Act. It was because I knew that the children will come out of this school well fitted to bear the responsi bilities and burdens of life that I came here today to lay the stone which bears mv name.”

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