Dry Rot

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 21, 26 May 1904, Page 18

Dry Rot

The signs of dry-rot in our population, to which the Premier referred in his recent circular, are specially noticeable in the falling-off in school attendance in nearly every part of New Zealand. The Otago Education Report for last year shows (p. 6) an almost continuous decline from 1890 to 1903. The attendance at the close of 1903 was only 19,504. This was the smallest attendance since 1881, when the numbers stood at 19,274. 4 The decline in the number of children in attendance,' the inspectors say, ' is, no doubt, part of the great question at present occupying tlhe attention of moralists, statisticians, and statesmen.' The highest morality ia the highest patriotism; And the emptying benches in our schools bode ill for the future of New Zealand.