PROBLEMS OF N.Z.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 934, 2 December 1933, Page 21 (Supplement)

PROBLEMS OF N.Z.

s Educational System at Fault? A BLURRED VISION. (By E. J. HOWARD, M.P.) ~VVR PROBLEMS are peculiar to c New Zealand. In fact, there is one common problem affecting the £d or even affecting «the British rnmonwealth of Nations, unless we that the common problem is dis>ution. Having said that, what do 1/mean ? Africa has its problems. That is hin the British part of South Africa ir fy have the problem of the native aes. And that is some problem. We r aid sum that up by saying there is colour problem in South Africa. We hive no such problem here. As a fact, the colour line is not noticeable in this country. Canada has its problem peculiar to that country. We could pick out each country and isolate its problem, and we would find each had troubles peculiar to itself and that even the economic problem of distribution is not a common problem. In China an acre of land keeps a family. Of course, that family does not live on -* Rolls-Royce standard of comfort. 3ut it is the standard the Chinese eople enjoy. When Japan Woke Up. rhe Japanese decided in 1871 that rr€y were going to raise their standard. Up to then they had adopted a kind of Japanese Monroe doctrine. They - nted no intercourse with the outside Id. But slowly some British tramp amers began to poke their noses o Japanese harbours and to break rough seme of the cobwebs surrounding those islands. Japan woke up almost in a night. Now, when we speak of a Pacific; problem, we think of Japan. Long after New Zealand was colonised Japan woke up. But there must have been some power latent in* the sleepers to have enabled her to wake up and wash and get to the job. It was as if rehearsals had been going on behind the scenes and in 1871 the play was presented. She threw over her feudal system, her religious system and her military system almost in a night. We must have a mental picture to be able to get some idea of what she actually did. But there is nothing we can think of to compare with it. When our pioneers came out they brought with them set pictures of how to do things. Their religion was the religion of their fathers. Their outlook on life was the same outlook as their parents had. Even the failures of their fathers were copied. The ugly houses of the poor of England were reproduced in New Zealand. No new ideas came with the pioneers. New hopes may have come with them. The preacher says that we must be born again.. All he means is that we must get a new picture in our heads of this world and the next. So Japan was born again. One historian (Hazen) says: “A remarkable and sweeping transformation of Japan, which revolutionised her political and social institutions in a few years, adopted with ardour the material and scientific civilisation of the West, Europeanised herself, and entered as a result upon an international career.” Into Dragon’s Mouth.

Even Russia with her revolution is not to be compared with what happened to Japan about 1871. An industrial revolution, an economic revolution, a change from one form of Government to another form, like Italy, and even Germany, can be visualised bv any Westerner. But to change an old system of culture almost in a night borders on the miraculous. There are those who think Japan will pursue an onward march from one success to another: that she will be master of the Pacific within a few generations. That may be so, but there are already signs of a tiredness in her onward march. Each system contains the seeds of its own destruction within itself. It breeds itself out. Japan has marched into a dragon’s mouth. China, with her 400,000,000, will absorb Japan’s 60,000,000 almost in one meal. A noted Japanese said about Manchuria:—‘‘ln less than one hundred years we shall all be Chinese.” The Chinese are a tough race. The people who inhabited Manchuria for thousands of years before Japan went there were noted for their physique. They are giants and they are fighters, but they are patient. The original Manchus were not Chinese. But China absorbed, or should we say, assimilated them. The dragon turned them into Chinese. We want more information really about that great country China. It is a great country. It has a scientific mind. Whilst Japan simply copies, China invents. That leads us to our own problems. Victim of Bad Habits. What is wrong with New Zealand? Has our educational system been wrong? Have we turned out only stereotypes? Have our colleges a personality of their own? Or are they just copies of Oxford and Cambridge? Have we simply transplanted old ideas and ideals from an old country to this new country? Are we suffering from a lack of energy ? Lord Horder, we are told, in a lecture in London recently advocated that a group of doctors should be attached to the Ministry of Health, not quite a new idea, but an idea that is fanned into flame now and again. Just before the war the word eugenics 1 was on everyone’s lips. We knew what the word meant. Fowl breeders and pigeon breeders made a close study of the meaning of the word. From time to time the word disturbs us. And when Lord Horder tells us that one in every 120 in England is feebleminded : that one in every 200 is insane; that one in every 10 is too dull to be absorbed into industry, it worries somewhat because we love our race. There is some trouble in New Zealand beyond economic trouble. Our vision is blurred. The possibilities of this country are so immense. If Japan can wake up and provide for 60 million people, what ought we to be doing? Habit is a fearful thing. And New Zealand is the victim of bad habits. I would like to see our engineers take charge for a time and shake us out of our habit of thinking in terms of cows and the size of their udders and the amount of butterfat they can produce. Seeking Knowledge. Up at the headwaters of the Waimakariri there is a young man working away turning over boulders, digging and delving to find out the history of the river. He is a doctor of one of the sciences, I think geology. I tried to get him some assistance to do the rough work. I am not sure if I sue-, ceeded. But I cannot help thinking

of that young man up there by himself seeking knowledge. He is a foreigner. But it is the spirit of that young man that seems to be disappearing io New Zealand. And New Zealand is such a wonderful country. Is it our stereotyped educational system that is at fault? What do you think?