TO “SALUTE” N.Z.!

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 284, 21 February 1928, Page 13

TO “SALUTE” N.Z.!

AMERICAN EDUCATIONALIST THE PHILIPPINES EXPERIMENT “I have come to this little country because I have heard so much about it, and somehow I wanted to salute it!” The Hon. Mason Stone, exLi eutenant-Gover nor—accent on the “Loo-tenant”—of the State of Vermont, chose rather a roundabout way of making our acquaintance. TIE arrived in Auckland yesterday with a party) of American tourists, after visiting Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, making, he declared, one of the most enjoyable trips he had even undertaken. Mr. Stone, as a matter of fact, is no mean traveller. He took a leading part in what is generally conceded to be one of the greatest educational migrations in history. It was the ex-lieutenant-governor who in 1901 arranged for the transportation of 800 American school teachers to the Philippines, where they inaugurated under his directions, the present teaching system. First, he explained, he got in touch with all the leading universities in the United States, and asked their controlling bodies to delegate their most efficient men and women teachers. The next step was to arrange for their transport—no light undertaking under the circumstances. Mr. Stone says that the grearest educational experiment in all history lias been immensely successful. Instead of being the illiterate masses they were 20 years ago, there had been a marked change for their betterment among the whole of the Filipinos. As for their independence?

Well, that was a political question, but ex-Lieutenant*Governor Stone answered it with another question: What Malay people had shown themselves ready, he asked, for constitutional government? As for his New Zealand plans, Mr. Stone was particularly anxious to meet the chancellor of the university, Professor J. Macmillan Brown,; whose works on the Pacific he had read with such keen interest, and to whom he carried a letter of introduction. Unfortunately, however, as tlie chancellor is in Christchurch, and the visitor is quite unable to go so far South, it is hardly likely that they will meet, on this occasion.

A hurried trip to Rotorua, a glimpse at Waitomo and the National Park, and then Mr. Stone will join tlie Niagara at Auckland for Sydney. The return trip will be made via Pago Pago.