The Northern Advocate Daily MONDAY, MAY 10, 1937. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE SHRINKAGE

Northern Advocate, 10 May 1937, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily

MONDAY, MAY 10, 1937. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE SHRINKAGE

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

The shrinkage which is taking place in the school rolls of the Dominion’s State schools is but another reflex of race suicide in New Zealand. From the time the national education system was introduced, there was a steady increase in attendance until 1896. During the next six years, the roll numbers did not alter very much, and in 1901 they were almost the same as in 1896. There "was an increase year by year from 1901 until 1925. The next year the total declined, but in 1927 it reached a record height, the number of enrolled pupils being 219,945. From that time there has been a dwindling attendance at the State elementary

schools, the number of pupils on

the rolls at the end of 1935 being only 197,326. The attendance at registered private schools in 1928 was 26,869. The number at these schools increased to 26,977 in 1929, and then gradually declined until, in 1935, it was 26,869. The attendance at private schools, it will be seen from the figures we have quoted, does not account for the dwindling ■

rolls at the State schools. This problem was discussed recently by the Southland Education \ Board, which is much concerned by the shrinkage in the number of pupils at the schools in its district. It was emphasised that the decline in the general school population bears the greater significance when it is considered in relation to the total population of the Dominion. In 1927, when the rolls of the primary schools showed the highest number that is recorded, the population totalled 1,450,000. At the end of 1935 the population of the Dominion was 1,568,200. An increase of 8 per cent, in the total

population has been accompanied by . a decrease of nearly 10 per cent.- in the school population: There seems to be no explanation for this other than the limitation of the size of families. As the samh experience is being recorded in other parts of the British: Empire, the future of the race is definitely imperilled. This point was stressed recently by Dr. G F. MeLeary, formerly an officer of the British Ministry of Health, who, discussing the decline of the British people throughout* the world, wrote: “The problem we have to face here and now is not how to secure a stationary, optimum population, but how to prevent an imminent decrease in population that will, if not prevented,' become catastrophic

within the next thirty years. And we must bear in mind that Britain has for many years been fin important spurcc of population for the Dominions, where, incredible as it may seem, the fertility of the British stock has fallen as rapidly as in the Mother Country, ’ ’ Dr. McCleary pointed out that the number of children attending elementary schools m the United Kingdom fell from 6,082,858 in 1910 to 5,402,062 in ; 1935, .and this in spite of legislation in 1918 which added 367,000 children over 13 to the rolls by abol-

ishing half-time attendance and exemptions under the age ol 14. One of the results was a diminution in the need for school places, school books and other educational He was not able to give .similar figures, for the Dominions, which lie had shown to be suffering a similar decline in births, but it. ilqes not need to be argued that identical effects will be created-in them all. New Zealand’s position is deplorable; the report of the commission which revealed the practice of race suicide on a large scale provides all the evidence 7 neeessary to prove this. The dwindling school rolls constitute the writing on the wall.