THE KINDERGARTEN APPEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22911, 19 June 1936, Page 12

THE KINDERGARTEN APPEAL

In commending to the sympathy ot the public a street collection appeal to-day on behalf of the Dunedin Free Kindergarten Association no more than a reminder should be necessary of the claims which this organisation can justly make upon the support of the community in which it has now carried on its work for nearly half a century. Dunedin was the first centre in New Zealand to open free kindergartens, and these institutions are now accepted as a matter of course, perhaps with little question on the part of most people as to how they arc maintained. They provide a boon of almost inestimable value to parents and make an important contribution to the training and general well-being of the young. If the Dunedin Free Kindergarten Association were in the position in which, upon its merits, it deserves to be, it would have no need to come before the public as a suppliant for assistance, but would be spared all its anxieties in regard to finance. Many splendid causes, however, derive their support entirely from public generosity, and it is a small return which the public is asked to make to the Free Kindergarten Association for the work which it carries out and the educational facilities which it provides among the poorer children in the community, A notable feature of the Association’s activities is the extent of its operations in relation to the funds that are at its disposal. This testifies alike to the measure of gratuitous service given and to the economy of management. With five schools to maintain, however, with salaries to pay, and with equipment to provide upon an inadequate income, the Association is constrained to ask for a little more of the voluntary aid upon which for some years it has, consequent on the withdrawal of State grants, again been rendered entirely dependent, save for an isolated dispensation by the late Government. What the future may have in store for it in respect of a restoration of capitation grants is uncertain. The Association asks for present help in the shape of the means to enable it to meet its expenses, and its appeal is emphatically one that merits a generous response. It provides a free service, accepting no fees from parents, whose appreciation of its usefulness is such that it would be glad to extend Its operations where there is a call for them if only its resources permitted. Associated with the kindergarten schools are activities from which parents derive considerable advantage. Recognition must be cordially accorded to the work of those to whose assiduity and enthusiasm is due the maintenance of - the admirable educational and philanthropic movement of which the free kindergartens are the centre in our midst. The importance of the inauguration of the education of the child under the wisest and happiest auspices cannot be exaggerated, and the public of Dunedin must agree that no such cause should ask assistance in vain.