THE TEMPERA SUE QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13766, 3 June 1908, Page 8

THE TEMPERA SUE QUESTION.

LESSONS IN SCHOOL ASKED FOR. A i)EI*OTATION, consisting of Mr. W. Richardson and Mesdahios Colvin uu) Williamson, wailed on the Minister for Education, the Hon. Ceo. Fowlds, yesterday morning, to urge the introduction of compulsory temperance teaching into the curriculum of Slate schools. Th« deputation was introduced by Mr. Poole, M.P. The first speaker, Mr. Richardson, said that thousands of children were going out into the world without any knowledge or warning of the evil of intemperance. He understood that the Minister was confronted with difficulties in regard to this question, but they were aware they had his sympathy, and they hoped he would overcome these difficulties. Mrs. Colvin contended that intemperance was the greatest evil New Zealand had to contend with, and every mother in the. Dominion wanted temperance lessons included in the school syllabus, so that children might he scientifically taught the magnitude of the evil. The Minister pointed out, in ieply, that it was a difficult matter for the Education Department to do more than it was doing. The system was so localised that the Education Boards had,a great deal of control. The Department simply drew up the syllabus, and there was considerable objection to altering it. The present syllabus would remain in force until the next conference of inspectors, and although the Department was not bound to it, it was generally understood that it should be observed. Personally, lie war, of the opinion that it should have a. fair trial. Next year their, would be another conference, and, as he had already promised, this mutter of temperance teaching, would then receive full consideration. The temperance^ question was already embraced in the hygienic courses published in the School Journal, and these journals were generally used in the schools. He promised that at the next conference emphasis would be placed on the necessity for school temperance teaching.