Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1920. NIP IT IN THE BUD.

Western Star, 27 April 1920, Page 2

Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1920. NIP IT IN THE BUD.

Authority was taken last year to raise the sum of three millions by loan for the purpose of education buildings, power being given to the .Minister to spend five hundred thousand pounds during the current year, and seven hundred and; fifty thousand during each of the three subsequent years. At the same time it was decided to provide the sum of twelve millions out of the accumulated surpluses of the consolidated revenues during the war years, amounting to £15,239,561, for the purpose of settling soldiers on the land. According to a statement made the other day' by the Hon. D. H, Guthrie, Minister of Lands, this money is just about used up, and until further authority has been obtained from Parliament, a go slow policy, so far as soldier settlement is concerned, will have to be adopted in the meantime. This means, then, that another big loan will have to be authorised this year to carry on the work of settling; soldiers oh the land, and in view of that fact,. it behoves the Government to; see that, in view of the huge national debt and heavy increased annual charges for interest, sinking fund, and pensions, all other loan moneys are judiciously spent. And this re-

mark applies to the money to be raised, for educational buildings. All over the Dominion demands are- being made for hostels, and unless a. proper national policy is laid clown, with a

huge supply of borrowed money wholesale extravagance may occur. The hostels are being asked for in connection with High Schools and Technical Colleges, and proposals have been made that in a place where there are a High School and a Technical College there should be four hostels—two for girls attending the High School and Technical College, and two for boys attending the same institutions. As these with furnishings would cost not less than eight thousand each, we can only characterise the proposal as sheer extravagance. The attempt to transform our educational system into water-tight compartments should be strenuously resisted. Why cannot girls attending the High Schools and the Technical Colleges be housed Jn the same hostel, and what insuperable barrier is there between boys attending a High School and those attending a Technical Coliege that they should be separately housed? Such a proceeding would make for class distinction and snobbery, and necessary Economy must dictate that unnecessary Waste for the aggrandising of goodness knows what shall not be permitted. And the ambitions of small localities must be, jealously watched to prevent waste in the name of Secondary Education. In these days there is much talk of centralisation, and this should obtain whore this system of education is concerned so far as hostels are concerned. In a province there should be one

High School and one Technical College with boarding facilities, and all other secondary schools should combine High School and Technical School work, and be known as a Tehnical High School. If a- pupil is gjoiug, to board away from home he may as well go to the chief centre with the best teachers and best school equipment as go to a small place to board where the income of the school is insufficient to permit it to compote with the school of the larger centre. And particularly dio these remarks apply in view of the fact that the greater number of the pupils who outer upon a secondary course do not remain longer than a period of two years while the full course requires four years. Hostels are necessary, but to have them within forty miles of each other, or oven less, when there are abundant facilities for reaching the main centre, and when the demands for primary education arc continually growing is aj policy that has nothing to commend it, and

is fathered by enthusiasts whose outlook is circumscribed by the area of their own locality. In this (matter what is required is to think colonially.