FREE EDUCATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19129, 25 September 1936, Page 5

FREE EDUCATION

DEPRESSING RESULTS WARNING BY BISHOP ADELAIDE, Sept; 14. , The Bishop of Willochra, the lit. Rev. Dr. Richard Thomas, in a pastoral address to the Diocesan Synod at Port Augusta, said that both in England and Australia there were doubts in people’s minds about the value of free and compulsory education. Millions of pounds were spent every year in providing it, but the results were depressing. “That is true,” lie said, “both of free elementary and free secondary education. I think that education would be valued more if paid for by the parents of the children concerned. What people obtain for nothing is generally not appreciated. Compulsory free education has not produced cultured people, nor is it likely to do so. I think that- to-day, to a certain extent, it is helping to swell the numbers of the unemployed and unemployable. “How do children spend their leisure time when they leave schoolf ’ the bishop asked. “The majority spend it in looking at the illustrations in papers and magazines, and at racing news amt accounts of football and cricket matches. They read poor fiction. Very few do any* solid reading. They are to be found at the moving picture shows, betting shops, dance halls, billiard saloons, ice-cream shops, watching matches on the sports grounds, attending races, and so on. All this makes us wonder whether the large sum of money on free education has been worth while or wasted. I believe that education would be more highly valued and bring better results if it were paid for according to people’s ability.”