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Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 43

A reply to charges that the secondary school system of New Zealand tended to produce an undue proportion of young men for the professions was made by the honorary secretary of the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Association (Mr F. Martyn Rennor), who waited on the Prime Minister recently. " Our critics declare we still supply the cuff and collar brigade, contemptuously so-called,” he said. “ Figures dealing with boys leaving our secondary schools- are as follow: — Three per cent, entered the university, 4 per cent, the teaching profession, 8 per cent, the Government service, 5 per cent, banks and insurances, 2 per cent. law, 13 per cent, commercial, 4 per cent, engineering, 12 per cent, trade, 14 per cent, shops and warehouses. 19 per cent, farming. The figures show that 22 per cent, of our pupils entered the so-called professions while 62 per cent, entered into trades, shops, farms, and commercial houses. From our technical schools 6 per cent, of the pupils entered the professional ranks and 75 per cent, entered the remaining spheres of life.”

Referring to the statement made at a meeting of the Wellington Retail Traders’ Association that, while several thousand subscribers had discontinued the telephone, the Government had shown stubborn resistance to the request for reduced rates, an official of the Post and Telegraph Department replies that for the last quarter for which returns were available there were only 300 fewer telephones in use in the whole of the Dominion than for the preceding quarter. There had been a large number of relinquishments, but also there had been a surprisingly large number of new connections.