PATRIOTISM IN TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21225, 4 July 1932, Page 8

PATRIOTISM IN TRADE.

No time has been lost by the Education Department in disabusing the minds of its officials and members of the Auckland Board of the idea that trade within the Empire Ts a controversial subject which should be banished from the schools. What is tantamount to an instruction appears in the Education Gazette, which states:—"ln their geography lessons teafchers are urged to bring prominently befbre their pupils the nature of the products and manufactures within the bounds of the British Empire, and incidentally to show the advantages that are derived from inter-Empire trade. The importance of strengthening the bonds that hold the different parts of the Empire together should be set out clearly to the pupils, the appeal being made not merely on the ground of sentiment but of common sense." Among practical patriotic people there is astonishment that such an instruction should have been necessary, and its appearance at a time when the representatives of every country of the British Empire are on their way to the Ottawa Conference will excite remark abroad, and the doubts of the Auckland Board may gain for it some unexpected notoriety. Its decision was entirely out of harmony with the spirit and traditions of the teaching profession in New Zealand. Tuition of the kind has been embodied in the history and geography lessons of hundreds of schools for many years, to the staffs of which } the idea that it might be a forbidden subject never occurred. However, it has been necessary for the Education Department to expound the obvious, and the country is assured that instruction in this field will be more systematic and comprehensive. ' Teachers are invited to make suggestions showing how lessons can be treated and grouped round this important aspect of the teaching of geography, and no doubt the syllabus will benefit by them. As a whole the teachers have no political scruples where patriotism is concerned. How sound was the patriotic grounding of the boys of a former generation was shown by their great response to the Empire's call during the war.