EDUCATION BOARD.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16263, 13 July 1918, Page 12

EDUCATION BOARD.

REFORMS AKD IMPROVEMENTS. :

MR F. G. NORTON'S PLATFORM

To the Members of School Committees,

Ladies ana liouueuitui, — My objoct in oinjrmg my .services to members or vSchuol CoiiiinitL«es as their representative on trio lulucaiion lioutd is to help to briny about urgent Reforms in control by tnat body, and by tho Kdncation Department. In tno lirst place, 'leacbers must bo paid better than tney are at present. 1 am putting tne position very nuiuly when 1 say tnat our great ftecuiar Juiucational bystcm is halt-starved.

To stufi and cram our iioung Children for the first three or four .years, and to allow them to roam at will and forget everything at fourteen years of is a Grave Injustice to our manhood and our womanhood.

If the People of this Dominion aro to be Sclf-contained and Self-maintain-ed, thoy must wake up to thoir own interests. There is no reason why child labour should bogin at the early stage observed at present. There aro, of course, exceptional cases of physical disability, and allowance must bo made for them; but every boy should be compelled to receive Secondary Instruction, whether ho is apprenticed to a trade or not.

Each branch of Science must bo brought within tho reach of all, rich and poor alike.

As to tho management of schools, I have no hesitation in saying that School Committee work is absolutely shunned by many good men and women simply because they will not submit to the indignities incidental to the position— begging for this and pleading for that. Can anything bo moro absurd than To ask a committee to take office and to work under a skinflint system in which the capitation, perhaps, will hardly pay for the cleaner?

Tho Education Board must consider a more adequato allowance to committees.

It must consider the urgent noed for a. moro up-to-date system of heating echools.

It must give moro attention to sanitary arrangements.

It must realise that committees aro elocted by parents and residents, and that they aro entitled to havo thoir requests attended to without repeated reminders.

I am out to try to bring about those and other Reforms.

If elected, 1 shall do my utmost to improve our Educational Methods and help the children to reap better results from the instruction they roceive. Yours faithfully, P. a. NORTON. Lyttelton. 4777

The theatrical profession have paid heavy toll to the call of the Allies' cause in the present war. The percentage of actors who have gone to the front is certainly as high as in the case of any other class. So far as the firm of J. O. Williamson, Ltd., is concerned it may be mentioned that no engagement is given to any man of military age who has neglected tho call to arms.