King Country Chronicle Wednesday, October 5, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 300, 5 October 1910, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, October 5, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The analysis of the traffic returns at the principal stations between Auckland and Palmerston North published in another column reveal a remarkable situation. With the exception of Marton, Te Kuiti shows a bigger amount of traffic than any other station on the line, between the points named, and looks like taking the actual first place within a very short time, in view of the rapid growth of the town, the prospective borough works and the enormous development of the country within the radius of which Te Kuiti acts as a centre. , The original figures show more sheep are coming into the country hereabouts than anywhere else, between the points named, and the manufactured timber being received is only second to that at Marton. Outward timber, too, ia only second to that from Taihape, and outward goods are in the same position. When the Minister for Railways tells us that perhaps in ten yeara' time it will be soon enough to talk of moving the station buildings, and refers to the problematical requirements of the town in the future, we reply by referring him to his own railway statement. Te Kuiti will have the biggest inward and outward traffic on the railway of any place over a matter of three hundred of rail within the next twelve months. It needs every facility giving to deal with that traffic, whether it be goods or passengers. The proposed alterations at the station are not enough. So far as the bridge goes it is well. But the goods shed should be moved over, and the stock yards should most certainly be shifted out of the zone of human habitation.

A series of highly important articles on the children of New Zealand has been appearing in the supplement to the "Herald." The writer, a teacher himself, frankly regards the whole educational system as rotten. He condemns the buildings in which the chlildrcn are housed, the ventilation, the lighting and the heating. He drastically criticises the methodß of tuition, and the whole educational syllabus, and, unlike many arm-chair critics, he offers a number of commonsense remedies. We need not go over them here. Our object is rather to consider those bad conditions in relation to local and district school life. At Pio Pio, for example, the children meet together in a Maori hall, where they are taught on sufferance, with every likelihood of being turned out at any time and left school less. At Te Kuiti in a school which has accommo- | dation for 170 children, a daily average j attendance of 210 is its condition. j How is it possible for proper tuition |to be given,and for healthy conditions to exist, when such schoolß, as these casually selected, are in the state they are? We talk of a healthy race. Politicians, preachers, and pressmen are apt to enlarge on the necessity for education for our children. How ia it possible for teachero to give classes proper attention or for children to be getting a proper education, under healthy conditions, when our town and country schools are overcrowded and understaffed, simply because an ironbound board declines to recognise facts? It is said the birth rate is declining, and that there are more school places vacant in some of the older settled parts of the Dominion. That does not apply hereabouts. There, ia a constant growth of attendance going; on, and a wise far-seeing board would recognise this, and make ample provision in advance. The Minister forEducation talks of separating the South Auckland district, and forming, a separate board. Some such change is very needful here. Auckland is too> far off for our representatives on the' board to take more than a very casual interest in the wants of the schools in tbe King Country.