The Waikato Independent THE PAPER THAT COVERS THE WAIKATO. TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1922 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2525, 28 March 1922, Page 4

The Waikato Independent THE PAPER THAT COVERS THE WAIKATO. TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1922 EDITORIAL NOTES.

The Government and Public Funds. Some time’ago it was decided by the authorities who control these matters that owing to the high price of paper, or of printers, or of statisticians, or of something of the sort, the monthly “Abstract of Statistics’’ must be drastically reduced in size. This little publication is the only source of public information concerning, the use which the Government is making of the public funds in the intervals between the statutory quarterly publication of the accounts. It is, therefore, rather surprising comments the Lyttelton Times editorially, to find that in the current issue—the number labelled February, which is supposed to deal with the statistics of January, and which is issued in the middle of March—a whole page of high-priced paper, printing and statistical supervision, is devoted to reprinting the details of public finances for the December quarter details which appeared in a “Gazette” issued a good six weeks ago. In Britain, where these things are somehow better managed, it is found possible to give an account of the public finances week by week, one day after the close of each weekly period. The British Treasury statement for the third week in January arrived by mail several days ago, but here in New Zealand we must perforce wait for a statement of January’s domestic operations till the middle of April. Since this is the first time since publication of Consolidated Fund figures was commenced in tho “Abstract” that January statistics have not appeared in the February is-

sue, it seems probable that for reasons of State it is not considered proper to allow the public to know how their money is spent in the first month of the year.

Music in the Schools. It is interesting to note that at a conference of teachers in London at Christmas time, Dr Walford Davies, organist at Temple Church, emphasised the importance of music. The primary musical need in the schools, he said, was a book of two hundred songs, and that ten minutes of each day should be given to singing. He thought that the claim of music in the schools rested on its naturalness and its universality as a national expression. Music had both an expressive and impressive side; it was a unique combination of expressive power and impressive beauty. The piano was no more music than a typewriter was literature —and yet many mothers wanted their “little dears” to “learn music,” which simply meant, in their view, placing them before a piano for strumming. The pianola and the gramophone had arrived. Teachers would do well to remember that. They were epoch-making and had to be reckoned with. The gramophone made horrible noises, but they would have to put up with that for the present. He hoped the time would come when they would see a gramophone in every school, although they did not like that instrument, when it was trying to be classical. He deplored the fact that they had so few song books in the schools of the ideal kind —those containing songs with a chorus for the rank and file to sing. There were only about two in every thousand children who would not be able to join in. The Charges 4 ; ; at Rotorua. Excessive charges at Rotorua were amongst the impressions carried away by the Hon. W. H. Edgar, of Melbourne) on his recent visit to the Hot Lakes district. “If only we had a Rotorua in Victoria we would make it the place it deserves to be,” he was heard to exclaim. “We would keep it thoroughly up-to-date, popularise the system of free, drinking water —you have to pay 3d a glass now for water that comes bubbling up naturally from inexhaustible springs, and should be free to any creature on earth who wants to drink it—we would cheapen the baths and not charge a man 1/6 for a single plunge where he has only to turn a lever and it comes gushing out in limitless quantities; in short, we would do everything in our power to make it a place, not merely for tho globe-trotter and the man who can afford to put his hand in his pocket at every turn, but fur the men and women of our own country.”