TEACHERS' INSTITUTE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1650, 6 January 1914, Page 5

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE.

-y* ' ANNUAL MEETING. SYSTEM FOR PRIMARY -." SCHOOLS, CONSOLIDATION APPROVED (Ey Tclcgrapli.-I'rcjs Association.). Auckland, January ,", The tliirty-fii-at aiuiual iiieetia}; <jf .the New Zea.lajwl Ediiratsonai .institute was opened to-day. Ah. T. U. Wi-lls <p:or;i- . diait occupied tho chair, in the absenco uf the M.\vv)r.(.\!! , . C. .). Parr). A eiviu welcome was c-xteMed So tbe delcgjiU'B by Mr. John Court, Deputy-Mayor, and Mr. A. ,|. Entrican, Senior Counciilor. A welcome was also extended to the visitors by Mr. G, J.- Garland, chairman, of the. Auckland Education Board. For 31 years (ho said) such conferences had been hold, and the results had proved their value, lie referred to tho board's power to transfer teachers, and said tlia.t tho board dirt mot intern! to givo this up. The Auckland Board had never exercised this power unduly, and its personnel was a guarantee that it never would do so. After touching upon the recent changes in tho matter of salaries, Mr. Garland said that lie intended to bring under the* notice-of tho board the advisability of introducing a< perfect system into tho primary schools, PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. The president (Mr. Wells)""spoke tin "Education in its Kelatioa:to Modem Problems." He said tho principal causes of social diseases were defective heredity, defectir* environment, and defective education. Heredity determined capacity, but environment provided tho . opportunity. .The s-pcaker advocated larger playing spaces at echqo.ls,.kindergarten .departments in ■ iho .'. schools, ant? ra.fire attention to the physical well-being of 'tho eisikl. Fourteen years was too young for tho drij at which eompnlsoi'.v education ceased. Toacli'evs' slibutd endeavour to cncourago co-opewtive rather than coimjictitivG methods, and schools should be rendered attractive to the young; They should set a Meal and »iako the teaching profession the noblest ob earth. The president was warmly ihnukcU. < UEMim ■'■'"■' A remit, from tho Wellington Insti* tute, that the annual meeting of the New Zealand Institute should in future be held in Wellington during the ses« siori of Parliament, was supported by Mi , . A. N. Bums. Ho maintained that by hoMitifi; their mooting in the capital they would bo able to extend their influence and knowledge of their aims. After discussion, the remit, was adopted. The Auckland and H'awkc's Bay InRtitntes each ionyarded remits apsrov* " ing of tho recommendation of the ftdu-> cation Commission that tho consolidation of the school should be ravrk'd out whera possible. 'Mr. 0. Lippiatt (Auckland) saicl that the scheme had now passed the experimental stapo, having been tried with success in tho Uiiiteii States and in New Sonth Wales. Calculations had shown that a school.of under 100 pupils could not support itself out of the Government grant, but a bis; savhig on tho present expense cauld bn made by timalgninatini;, say. three schools of 30 pumls McJi. In salaries alone thorn would be n savins df. £275. and teaching would be not less efficient. Tho motion was carried.

A lively discussion took plncp npnii an Auckland remit, whSli was (n tlm effect: "That the tinre had arrive;] when all tho junior, national, and Education ftonri scholarships should lie aholfclirvl, and tliat the money so saved should ho spent in paying the lodging expenses of rliose. children who were highest on.the list in the junior free place oxainination, and who required to lite away from homo in ordor to atlciul (.oromlary schools. It. was nrgned Ihnt i\n> »i!o|ition of this snagostion wotdd place country pupils nt n« ailvaiitage «v<r town children. The motion was eventually carried.