EDUCATION BY TRAVEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18963, 10 March 1925, Page 8

EDUCATION BY TRAVEL.

The project advanced by Mr. B. Buttle of an educational tour for New Zealand boys has been cordially commended by the Industrial Association, and will no doubt be received with equally sympathetic interest l>y others. The idea is of course capable of development upon almost any scale—a tour of the Dominion, a visit to Britain, a general survey of the Empire, excursions to foreign countries—but whether carried out on modest or ambitious lines, the purpose and the result must be of great advantage to the selected youths and through them to the nation. It is not a new idea, even in the Dominions, for it has been given the test of practical experiment, with gratifying success, by the Young Australia League. That society, whose purpose is service and the cultivation of the ideals of citizenship, was founded in 1905 by Mr. J. J. Simons, of Perth, beginning as a boys' football club. Realising that its members had learned a great deal by travelling in the neighbourhood to play football matches, Mr. Simons organised tours of the State, extended the enterprise in 1910 to a journey through the eastern States of Australia, and two years later arranged the first overseas tour. Last year, a party of -15 members of the league visited England and the Wembley Exhibition, and they were followed by a party of 130 who are now touring the British Isles and Europe. Mr. Simons' parties, which are accompanied by officers of the league, are open to boys between the ages of 14 and 17 years, of good health and character, and they are required to pay the whole cost ; in the case of the last tour the expenses were -CI4G for each boy. Altogether, some 4000 boys have participated in the league's tours within or beyond Australia. Mr- Battle's proposal varies in some respects : he suggests boys of 16 to 18 years, the higher age being probably preferable, and he is sufficiently old-fashioned to propose that the selection should be made by 1

competitive examination. ('ertainly if any contribution toward the cost is to he made by the Minister for Education or by Industrial Associations, a test would be necessary to determine the capacity of the candidates to take full advantage of the four. Such boys might not be able to provide JJI.V) for foreign travel, but would if not be good business for l.lie State, to offer travelling scholarships for competition as an alternative lo secondary or uri i - versit\ courses ! The plan needs careful thought, but it. is manifestly one in which the task v. ill lie to clear the way to its successful undertaking. not to discover obstacles. And when the means have been devised for the inaugural educational tour, there should be no difficulty in establishing the scheme on a permanent. basis, so that every year there would be opportunity for the most promising young citizens to gain a liberal education by travelling abroad.