THE STUDY OF ECONOMICS AND SAYINGS BANK IN THE SCHOOL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 203, 23 February 1877, Page 7

THE STUDY OF ECONOMICS AND SAYINGS BANK IN THE SCHOOL.

(To the Editor of tlie ' Nelson Colonist.') Sib, — The above subject, which youjhave presented to your readers jsft^our issue of Saturday last, is, indeed, a very important one, and to the strong arguments and reasons with which you support your views on the subject I beg to add one that is not without its weight. To teach boys and girls the rudiments of economy and their practical application by devoting their pocket money to the accumulation of capital, instead of the simple gratification befitting their time of life, can be done by more ways than one. The scheme proposed by an association at Dunedin may be efficient as to mere material economy j but forming children to social virtues, liberality, and benevolence, which ought to be the leading feature in a good education, will be entirely out of question. Children brought up in such a school will come out selfish, hard-hearted, and miserly. It has I been my good fortune to have to do, during my life, with the education of children, and one of the means J have successfully adopted to break them from the habit of gratifying their taste with sweets, or purchasing useless toys with their pocket money was, first, to allow them, now and then, to indulge in their so strong natural propensity; and, after, when the child had lost, with his penny, the taste of the sweets, or had broken the foolish toy, to make him feel the loss of his money as well as that of the pleasure. Had he put aside that money for the relief of some hungry little orphan or poor widow, who might have been in need of it, what a good deed he would have done, and what a pleasure and satisfaction of mind he would still enjoy, instead of that gratification of taste that lasted only for a minute or two with his sweets ! By such repeated hints children are easily trained to be kind-hearted ; the} see they can use their money for a better and more noble purpose, assisting the needy, and purchasing little useful school implements, such as a nice exercise book, pencils, water colors, mathematical box, &c, or i joining the children's penny library. Amongst such well disposed children how often have I been edified and even have had to restrain their liberality when each week I passed rouud the orphan box. How \ often hare I admired their generous iugenuity in raising amongst themselTes, of their own accord, some pretty considerable sums for offering presents to their teachers, or other superiors, or forming a cricket or a football club. I knew and I know now many such children, to their credit may it be said, who carefully try to increaae their pocket money, to come out liberally and generously on such occasions.

Now follow one of those children in after life, and you will recog- 1 vise the liberal-minded benefactor, the friend of the poor widow and ' orphan, the kind neighbor, the one who is always found at the head i of liberal or charitable institutions ; because from his youth he learnt ! how to save and yet how to share a penny amongst his or her com- 1 panions. i But establish a savings bank in the school and you will soon j notice selfishness, sordid parsimony, narrow mindedness, stifled feel- j ings. How can a boy who has been day by day, week by week, calculating how to gather sixpence, muster courage enough to sever the chain and retard the increase by so many days, when an appeal is made for his contribution towards a good deed ? And if one of these children who was brought up in such a school, when he come to the age of manhood, happens to settle in your vicinity, you will have in him a distant, melancholic, and stingy neighbor, in a word, a miser ! — I am, &c, A. M. Gaeik.