THE COST OF EDUCATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10517, 27 July 1910, Page 2

THE COST OF EDUCATION.

LOCAL CONTRIBUTIONS SUGGESTED.

By Telegraph

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, July 2G. "I feel satisfied," said Mr T. E. Taylor in the House to-day, ''that Uie Minister of Education will haye to withdraw from the position lie lias taivcn up recently with regard to the. cost- oi buildings necessary lur technical cuu;•..-.-tiou. If it is a sound proper-it ;;.; w::ic.i hu intends to x-hrov/ lut-tr tite- y-~- ■"- buildings for this particular panev <■< education on localities, why snoiuu not hali the cost of primary education .»• thrown on the shoulders ol t.ie loea. taxpayer/' Mr Taylor suggested thai, the inspec-tor-General of Schools was dominating the administration, ana .lie saio tlie.i it was va>.tlv more important to qua'iiy ■drls in 'the' third and fourth stamPivos jot ihe duties of wives and motneis than for brushwork and similar non-a-nso that thev were now taught, ami the system would have to be revolutionised, so that instead of tooLmicai education costing -t-IS.IIUi) auu primary education £l>21.00;l, the bulk or to-,

monev could be spent on equipping bovs and girls for after life ihe co.t of'education should be a burden qn.tlio •toss wealth of the country. It iiiigutas well be suggested that the half cost of all public services should be placed on the shoulders of the local taxpayer a- that education should. The Minister of Education said that it was a gratuitous imult to suggest that the Department was run by tin; Inspector-General, and he said lie ban acted against that oiaecr's recommendations in the mailer. Air Taylor surely did not contend that the chum or tne Uiristohiirch iioard of Alanagers t.mt further expenditure on building was a iust one. The Ministers of Finance and Kducation. who had ti,e rcspo:i.,i-

bility of raising funds, eudeavorot! more to save money in the matter. A new police was not being propounded. The Chmtohuroh Board had merely been informed that the time had com/ wiieu air.- further expenditure on technical buildings in Chrisu-iimvu -should I.x• on a pound for pound basis, as over tl4,()i'V) inid been spent in already. Thi.s was much more than

had been oxp; ndod on any other centre, and it must- nut he said that a;;y town that would nor hot], itself should be placed ou the same footing as a town ■that subscribed lor technical buildings.

V.'lietber the funds come i'rom the Consolidated .fund or i'rom local taxation, said the Minister, there must he some responsible authority between the bodv expending the money and the bod'.'" collecting it. and i. believe iv

v.vuld be better for education if f eras some such connection.

Mr Tavlor: Giving the Minister or the local liodv further authority ? The Minister: i do not care whore it is. i am sati-iied that there should be further local control.

Tho Minister went on to say that the move was. one towards decentralisation. "[ want to put- the rospousibilit.v i'oi the- administration of education." he said, "into the hands of local authorities, which .should have pome responsibility to the people in the neighborhood for raising part ou the cost. As soon as a body' was given authority to spend without any responsibility tor raising tiie money, he continued, there would be extravagance and waste. The proportion of expenditure of one bra.ne!i to the other was reasonable at the present time. Technical education could not proceed except ou a basis of sound primary education, which must be maintained intact. —(Hear, hear.) The best way of securing that the cost of education should be a charge on the gross wealth oi the community was to raise a. portion of the cost of education from local rates. A good many people, concluded the Minister, oppose any contribution from local rates towards education o/i the ground that local rates are a direct '.ax on wealth., whereas a great po'rtion of the Consolidated Fund is a. tax 0:1 tho laborer through the Customs. Any large section of support the member for Christchurch North receives in the po-i----tion he takes up is because the representatives of wealth, desire to secure that tho main portion of the- cost of education shall fall on the backs of the poor people through the Customs. MAKE YOUR OWN HAIR TOMSC.