Page 9 Advertisements Column 2

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18352, 16 September 1921, Page 9

A further emphatic expression of his opinion regarding the singing of the National Anthem and the saluting of the flag in the schools was given by the Minister of Education (the Hon. C. J. Parr) at the opening of the new infant school at Manure wa on Friday. After expressing the pleasure it had given him to hear the children join heartily in the singing of the National Anthem, Mr Parr said it was fety that a little elementary instruction in civics and history might well bo rounded off hy the singing of the National Anthem and the saluting of the flag. From one end of Now Zealand to the other the children sang the anthem and saluted the flag, which was just as it should bo. Yet, continued the Minister, there were parents in New Zealand who told their children that they must not salute the flag. There wore only a few of them, and they would get no sympathy from the Minister or the department. They had written to him and to the department saying it was not fair to force the children to do so. “What nonsense, " said Mr Parr. “Why, every child wants to do it. The culprit is the parent. I think it is a cruel thing when the children want to salute the flag for the parents to say they must not just because they themselves do not believe in it.”

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