SCHOOL REQUISITES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 114, 7 February 1919, Page 6

SCHOOL REQUISITES

WHOLESALE STATE BUYING PROPOSED

A MEASURE OF SCHOOL

ECONOMY

A proposal to purchase very laige quantities of books and other school requisites is being considered by the Minister of Education. The idea is that the Stato shall purchase the supplies and then allow the boards to make their cwn arrangement for the sale of them to the scholars. The idea is Mr. Hanan'e own for the present, in that it has not yet been approved by Cabinet, but it will be submitted to Cabinet shortly.' The Minister made a statement yesterday explaining his scheme.

"During the last session of Parliament," said Mr. Hanan. "I caused an initial vote to be taken on the estimates as the first step subject to Cabinet approval towards the inauguration of a. scheme under which educational supplies, such as writing paper, copybooks, exercise books, drawing books, Tiens, ink, and indeed all school requisites, may be supplied at much reduced rates to pupils throughout , the Dominion, pml thus relieve parents of the ever-increasing burden imposed upon them in providing their children, with the materials heces : sary to carry'on the school-work satisfactorily. ■ .i ■ . . "A somewhat similar scheme has for some years been in operation by the Education Department in connection with Native schools and special schools,- and it has worked satisfactorily. Further, the establishment by the Education Department of a central store some three.years ago for obtaining necessary supplies for the special schools has resulted in a very great financial saving to the Department: Since it« establishment ;;oode to the value of ,£38,000 have bep<v purchased and supplied to the Department's institutions; The estimated saving on those purchases is ,£15,2110, while the wholesale ■ value of the- goods in stock in the store is ,£7600 overMhe prices paid by the Department. The total 'saving, therefore, can be set down as about ,£23,000. In the aggregate there should, under the.scheme now suggested, be a very substantial saving to parents annually, and a further snvinsr will be effected when the opportunity is afforded of making the class books in use throughout the Dominion more uniform than is the case at present—a reform that has been repeatedly stressed in Parliament.

"Primarily the central store will be established in the interests of tho pupils attending the public schools, but with the organisation' and machinery that will thereby be rendered necessary I see no good reason wljy, under the now scheme, education boards a;id school committees could not obtain their supplies tit. loss,! cost than is incurred by them under the present system. Such supplies would includo office requisites and stationery, and also school appliances, equipment and apparatus, such as maps, charts, diagrams, historical and other pictures, clocks, inkwells, science apparatus, equipment for handwork and manual work, wnd so on. Further, as the great majority of the pupils in our high schools and technical high schools are holders of free places or scholarships, and are being educated by 'the State without the payment of tuition fees, and as tho university colleges are State 6upported, the benefits of the scheme, if ndupiwl, sliwrl bo extended to them. The same State organisation will serve, therefore, to "obtain the equipment, apparatus, and general suppliesrequired by the students and governing bodies of those institutions.