ALL WORK AND NO PLAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8421, 21 January 1899, Page 4

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY.

INCRKASIO OF SUR'IDK AMONG CKKMAN SCHOOL CHILDREN. I>i:ki.in, Dee. •(. The intensity of the .struggle for existence in v. Inch (lorinany is at present engaged, is sadly illustrated by the! statistical repent of the Kducatioii Department. During the 10 years ending in ISiKi, ■107 school children— Ml boys and 7(1 girls — in Piussia alone, succumbed under the stiain of education, and took their own lives bcfoie they bad ainvcd at the ago of lf>. It is extiemely significant that, without a tingle exception, the children weie pupils of element, >ry schools, and s?hoo!s where training for a particular profession is given. The Herman educational methods and institutions aie held up as models, and rii'hlly so, to the other commercial nations of the world. To I hem is undoubtedly due in a large measure the commercial success which (leriuany hns attained. The question is, lias tins success been attained by sapping the heart blood of the nation'; The sons of the. sturdy victors at Sedan and (ir.ivelotte had stamina enough to overcome and profit by the strain of such a >ehtiol edncat ion as their statesmen prescribed. Whether the present generation can stand it, perms, to a foreign observer, doubthil. The pale faces and generally weakly-looking bodies of the youth of Berlin, for example (I refer entirely to the working classes), are not wholly accounted for by town life. In an article in the current number of the Herman Imperial Gazette on National Kconmmcs, it is stated that in lVnsoia, out of a total population of nearly 32,000,000, 5,7-IO,OUI) heads of families and persons \\ith an independent existence (with their families representing nearly 70 per cent of the. population) do not earn i'4s per annum. This -shows that the ordinary winking man is very poor, and as meat of all kinds is terribly dear in Prussia, it is evident that the pupils of elementary schools cannot, as a rule, receive the nourishment necessary to sustain them during their hard school life. A nation cannot flourish long when its i working class is not thoroughly able, and ! the suicides of school children referred to above should be a warning noto both to Germany and other nations eager to imitate her educational system.