WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15360, 8 October 1923, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE EDUCATION SYSTENb

SOME OF ITS DEFECTS. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Saturday. The Hon. £ J. Parr did well, in summoning the school inspectors to Wellington for a heart to heart discussion of the administration of the education system of the Dommum. The inspectors, above all people, should know where defects in the system exist and should be prepared with suggestions for their removal. Judging from the reports of the proceeding? at the conference between the Minister and those responsible officers of his Department, they were by no means backward in expressing their views on a number of matters that are of importance. to the country That children should not DC kept too long in the Infant classes and that head-masters should do their

fair share of class work are conclusions that ought to have been reached long ago. But it is conceivable that children might be humed through the infant classes far too rapidly and that head-masters by loading _ themselves with detail work might be left with insufficient time for the discharge of their still more important duties. Thy publl* schools cannot make social distinctions between their pupils,, but some children are less fortunate than others in their home surroundings and to those a service is due from the State which a headmaster with any spare time on his hands well could supply.

A Waste of Money. One of the difficult problems Parliament will have to face next session, when there will be no approaching Imperial Conference to divert its attention from the country's domestic affairs, will be a further substantial reduction of the public expenditure. In no Department of State is the. need for this more flagrant than it is in the

Education Department, where the expenditure has been doubled in tne course of five years without producing any commensurate results that either the politicians or the teachers or the statistician can show. It is inevitable, of course, that with any sound svstem of eduction the cost increases with the growth of population, but New Zealand has gene far beyond this, and practically has nothing to show for its extravagance except a large increase in taxation. In addressing the Education Association on Wednesday, Mr F. M. Rennner indicated several directions in which the pruning knife might be, applied. He declared-emphatically that • the evening classes at Technical Schools involved a shocking waste of money 'conferring no benefit at all upon 60 per cent of the pupils and impairing the health and consequently the usefulness of many of the rest. ' This is only a drop in the brimming bucket, but it suggests one direction in which economy should proceed.

Lessons In Co-operation. The negotiations for the sale of the works and business of the Poverty Bav Farmers' Company to Vestey's, the great meat operators with ramifications all over the world, have loosened the tongues of many.gossips who profess to know all about the matter and to understand its significance. First of all there is the familiar story of the inevitable failure of the farmers to manage successfully business affairs. Poverty Bay has but added its quota to the long list of similar experiences in other districts. The fate of its latest business enterprise certainly has not enhanced the reputation of the farmer as a commercial expert. Then the opponents of the "Butter Pool" see in the" readness of the Meat Board to hand over to a great combine the interests of the stock owners an alarming indication of the kind of treatment the .butter and cheese producers .may expect from the Dairy Board. If Vestey's are,to have a run with New Zealand meat, these critics ask, why should not they or seme other combine have a free run with New Zealand butter and cheese? And so on and so on ad infinitum. Every idle person in the city has views on the position to express.

The Official View. What may be regarded as an officially Inspired pronouncement on the situation, appears in the -editorial columns of the Dominion. After referring- to the protests of the shareholders of the company, against their property being handed over to a concern mainly interested in reducing the prices of stock, the paper remindsthem of the necessities of the position. "The fact that 'Vestey's' is one of the most powerful meat organisations in the world, with far reaching ramifications," it says, "naturally may be regarded as giving some colour to the fears of the Poverty Bay company's shareholders. Unfortunately for them, however, the only ground on which they appear to have justification for calling* on the Government to interfere in the njjdter is cut from under them by 'the Meat Producers' Board. . . It may be that the shareholders Of the Poverty. Bay Farmers' Meat Company will find a way of extricating the company from the unfortunate position reached, but it'2s unlikely that any help can be given them by the Government under the powers it holds to refuse to revoke licenses to export." This may provide food for thought by farmers whether interested In meat or dairy produce. The only refuge for co-operation in the last resort, it appears, as a return to private enterprise.