A PART OF EDUCATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 76, 7 April 1913, Page 4

A PART OF EDUCATION.

The Wellington “Evening Post” heartily congratulates the Wellington Education Board upon its decision regarding the proposal of the InspectorGeneral of Schools that the holders

of froo places should he required to comply with the obligations of the Defence Act, and goes on to say : Approval of the proposal was recommended by the committee which had considered the subject, and Mr Hogg’s' hostile amendment failed to secure a supporter. It was seconded pro forma by Mr Moss, who declared that the military training system was one of the best things that had happened in the country districts. Mr Hogg says that he is not opposed to the. training of adults, but he objects to j interference with personal liberty. Is it not time that he resigned his seat on a board which is concrncd with the administration of a compulsory system of education ? A consistent theory of personal liberty would surely exempt the young from the study of grammar and arithmetic no less than from leaving the elements of defence. The only regret .inspired by the board’s excellent performance is that the decision was not arrived at a little sooner, so that it might have influenced some of the other boards. The theory upon which some of them have acted in declining the InspectorGeneral’s request is that they are not concerned with the administration of the Defence Act. But they are surely concerned, as administrators of the law, to discriminate against lawbreakers of any kind in tiro dispensation of their privileges. They are specially concerned with the kind of law-breaking in question, because military training is ■ essentially a part of education, and both the youthful and the adult minds should bo schooled to the recognition of the fact.