The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 8th., 1916. EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1574, 8 July 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY Bth., 1916. EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

THE Christchurch Evening Nows, commenting on the memorandum presented to Parliament by the Minister of Education, which concluded with a reference to the “deplorable fact that some people cavil at the cost of education,-” says: “There are, of course, some miserable creatures who cavil at having to jjay for anything, but on the whole we do not believe that there are many people in New Zealand who object, on broad lines, to the amount spent on educating the voting people of tin* Dominion. What, however, a great many do complain about is the poor return that is given for their money, just as a man who went into a butcher’s shop to buy a pound of chops would not. mind the actual cost, but would object very strongly if the chops were of poor quality and underweight'. Mr Hanan has a tremendous lot to say about the secondary schools, but his memorandum leaves largely untouched the primary school system, which provide the basis of (he (‘ducat ion ilia I. till per cent, of the children of New Zealand receive. The secondary school system may be faulty in some respects, but the best secondary education in the world would be a failure unless the children who receive ml it were properly grounded in the elements of education. It is the fashion nowadays, especially, one notices, among school teachers, to sneer at the old-fashioned restriction of education to tin* ‘■three R’s.” No one with any sense wants to see that system re-established, but it had some good features which might well be grafted on the more scientific system of to-day. After all, any education system must be judged by its results, and the modern results of the education imparted in New Zealand are not so brilliant as to satisfy anyone who has the real future welfare of the children at heart.”