COST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1211, 28 February 1922, Page 6

COST OF SCHOOL BOOKS.

* BAREFACED PROFITEERING."

AN A.S.R.S. RESOLUTION SUPPORTED. A resolution, which had been carried by the Thorndon branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants was considered by the Wellington College Board of Governors. The resolution was as follows :—" The members of the branch wish to emphasise the fact that the cost of school books and school requisites a dram so severe on the resources of the working people that drastic and urgent reform is imperative. Members of the railway service, who are sometimes transferred from place to place at fairly frequent intervals, are more especially severely taxed, and in view of the intention of the Government to reduce wages we contend that there is a crying need for investigation into the present system of suppying school books and school requisites. We feel bound to insist' that in this regard New Zealand is sadly lagging behind, and would point out that in many countries school books and school requisites are supplied free of cost from kindergarten to university. The position that working people are now faced with is that they are unable to continue the education of their children, and as an educated democracy is universally recognised as a} esstential for the well-being of present day Civilisation, such a state of things should not be tolerated for one single moment. We have no hesitation in asserting that for years past, and more especially sdnce the outbreak of war, profiteering in the commodities mentioned has been barefacedly carried on. We wish 'to refer particularly to the exorbitant cost of secondary school books, and in this connection asisert, without fear of contradiction, that the question has assumed the dimensions of a positive scandal. In Wellington, at present, there is practically a monopoly in the supply of schol books, and no Election of the community should be placed at the mercy of a private monopoly. We strongly urge the immediate necessity for a searching inquiry into the whole position, and confidently look to you for help in the face of circumstances so direful and so reprehensibly immoral from a social point of view. The chairman, Mr W. F. Ward, suggested that the headmaster and headmistress should be asked to repontto the board as to how the price of school books compared with the actual and whether any scheme could be devised by which the board could undertake the supply of books at a lesser cost than ws now the case. This course ws agreed to.