WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 July 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

(Special to “ Guardian ”.)' COST OK EDUCATION'. ■ LAVISH EXPENDITURE.” WELLINGTON. July I. On Saturday t lie ” Evening Post •published two impeachments of the financial side of tlie* Dominion’s education system, one an article contributed j by a writer 'appearing to he lamiliar, with t,hc subject, and the other a sum-| in ary of some remarks made by Sir j Robert Stout in the Legislative Council in regard to national waste and luxury. The contributor found his text in a statement made bv .Mr .1. It. Howell, the director of lhe Wellington 'leehliieal Coli'oge. to the effect that while progressive States in America were ilevoting as much as two-tbirds ol their total exjienditlire to education. New Zealand was employing only one-sixth of its total expenditure in the same direction. The amount voted by Parliament for education hist year, this authority declared—brushing; aside the absurd suggestion that some American States were allotting as much as twothirds of their expenditure towards thi- end—was L'2,9sti,(l2J. and yet to this sum (.'"Os (of had to be added to enable lie* depa r! nienl In loot it- annual bill. This means that 22.2 per rent, considerably more than one-filth, of the Dominion's net revenue last year was expended upon education, a proportion no Stale ol America ever has reached. “ WASTE AND Id X PRY."

Sir Unbelt Stout's allusion to the cost of education was embodied in a

genera? appeal for greater effort .and thrill on the part of the people ol the Dominion, which well may he piloted ill full in its newspaper form. "The value of our produce in idle markets of the world,” lids runs, " had declined because the people had been living too last, and had not been careful enough in their means. 'I he only remedy was thrift, lie went on to refer to waste ill State administration. He said that when he was head ol the Education Department the cost of administration of the head office was C2.:519. The population had increased only 2.1 times since then, yet the cost of administration wtts now CHS.OOO. more than fourteen times what it was in his day. The same thing applied in other departments. If we were to rid ourselves of taxation and cure pre.sejit problems we must curtail wasteful expenditure and luxury. Hoards had been set up nil round, making for waste. A "real saving could he effected by curtailing year hooks and other publications which embodied year after year useless repetitions of figures and other matter.” Kir Robert was Prime .Minister between September. 1884. and October. 188”. and during the greater part of that time was also Minister of Education. CAUCUS AIIKKNTKKK.

The Prime Minister's light-hearted reference, in the course of an interview with it representative of the "Auckland Star.” to the absence ol Mr \ . 11. Poller, the member for Roskill. and Mr A.. Harris, the member for AA'aitemata, from the Reform caucus last week, is not rebooted in lobby gossip. No one regards the assumption of independence by the two members immediately concerned, and by one nr two other members of the yarn who have a personal grievance or a political grudge against Alt’ Coates and his colleagues, as the hegiuuuig of the end of Reform. Hut there are Severn t other members of the dominant party in the Mouse who me very much more critical of the Government's h'gisi'ation and administration particularly nl its administration than there were tit any stage of last session. Ihe strength of the Ministry, of course, lies rather ill the division of the Opposition than in t lit- magnitude ol its majority, mid while the Labourites and the Liberals keep npair the position ol the emolument i' not likely to he .seriously challenged. The immediate peril before the Prime Minister is a revolt by a large section of the community .against his thinly veiled excursions in socialistic experiments b,v which he hopes to conciliate a troublesome section ol the farming community and disarm the less rabid members ol the Labour Party. These are much more likely to bring about Ins downfall than are the defections of the Potters and the Harrises. j PERILOUS COMPARISON'S. : The “Dominion” this morning makes) merry at the expense of Mr Yeiteh. the member lor Wanganui, who lias undertaken in good part the resuscita-tion-of the Liberal Party. *' In 1011. it tells its readers, “ Mr Yeiteh stood as the Labour candidate for 'Wanganui and was returned by a small two-figure majority. At the following election, in 1914. lie iigain unfurled the Labour | standard and was again elected. The 1919 election saw him adventuring forth as an Independent-Labour candidate and succeeding again in regaining) his seat. . . Then came 4922, when j

}ii‘ stood ns the Liherai'-Lubour enndidnto aml Wanganui again returned him. . . The year 1025 saw the disappearance of the lust delinite lingo of the Labour tint from his poltical line. He stood ns a Nationalist and tens once more returned.'’ All this seems true enough of the member for Wanganui, and its recital leaves him unashamed and undismayed, lie points out that the present Prime .Minister was first icturned as a Liberal, then became an Independent and finally a Reformer. More remarkable still Mr .Massey, who denounced, as a Conservative, all tlio progressive land and financial measures propounded bv Mr John Hai'lance. drifted through National Association and Reform to the high tide ol Pro-1 gressive Liberalism, the trouble with his newspaper critics, according to Mri Veitch. is that they have neither watched the developments of history nor learned to appreciate its inspiring lessons.