Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10476, 11 October 1912, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11. EDITORIAL NOTES.

WE have on various occasions deemed it our duty to call public attention to the excessive cost of onx- Education system, and the poor results achieved by it, and we are therefore glad to note that other ; journals are new discussing it. In the course of a recent article the Grey River

Argus says :-rOur education system should be placed on a proper business basis. At present it seems to bo treated as an object of fetish worship, in resnect to which there could be no such thing as extravagant expenditure. It is not difficult to understand how the cost of education has been allowed to mount up when such a feeling is prevalent amongst the larger proportion of the Dominion voters. Education is a very necessary tiling, and it is well worth any reasonable expenditure to ensure that the people are at- least fairly well grounded in the three R’s. It is a question that calls for* consideration as to what further extent public monej 7 should he spent in pursuit of what is known as ‘higher education,” With the general diffusion of newspapers and cheap literature of all kinds, it is in the power of every person who can road, write and cypher to make progress in any branch of the curriculum of knowledge ; and if he has not the faculty or industry to enable him to acquire some > degree of proficiency, it could not he done even if we expended the wealth of the Indies in providing the necessary teachers for “high class” education. Let us have primary education by all means, but let us always pause when the expenditure of public money is asked for in the cause of higher education. What the country wants is that the mass of the people should be intelligent workers. The world lias no time or encouragement to waste on half-baked academicians or professors spoiled in the making, who usually know so much as to he too superior to be useful, and so little as to be considered of no account for any really high-class work. What the Dominion wants most of all just now is that a little more of the element of common sense—just plain, unsophisticated every-day sense—should be imported

into our public affairs generally, and into education to begin with by preference.

THAT some farmers appreciate the political change that has been accomplished was shown .by Mr John Millar in speaking to the toast of “Parliament” at a Farmers’ Union dinner at Wyndham. He said now that the party of liis choice was in power he could define his feelings in the lines of Browning:

God’s in His heaven ; All’s right with the world. To paraphrase: “Mr Massey is Prime Minister; and all’s right with New Zealand.” Hence lie was not taking "so much interest in politics, feeling safe and secure with so excellent a Parliament. Not for 20 odd years had ability been so well distributed in a New Zealand Cabinet ; the Ministry was composed of men prepared to give of their best in their respective departments, for the good of the country as a whole. He believed the new Land Bill would prove acceptable to all, be they farmers or not, as the freehold was the best of all tenures. He was glad to see the backbone of the Government in connection with the Industrial upheavals, principally at Waihi, and Mr Massey’s declaration that the laws of the country must be complied with. It -would have been better for all had previous Governments displayed a like firm attitude in dealing with belligerent labour leaders—in the past it had only been necessary for these men to make enough noise in order to secure a snug Government billet. It would be a good thing if these claimant opportunists were deported from the country'.