The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1915. EDUCATIONAL REMISSNESS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 233, 23 June 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1915. EDUCATIONAL REMISSNESS.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Peat uaa W&imariao News.)

Although the report submitted to the meeting of householders; on Monday nightj'by the outgoing School Committee, was a long one, there was certainly no occasion If of any apology in-that respect. Theiteiwas no vestige of: the sin of commission,'but there a. suspicion, if nothing rmore, of that of .omission. The report was an,excellent ■ document, setting-;OUt clearly and .fairly what had been.accomplished,and, moreover, it disclosed unmistakeably ■ thai aiw, interested iaaQ virile ;body. o.? men had performed -.-a good and fortunate year's work. H?hc length of a report needs no apology, -nor does ; apology apply so long as ffcheie is anything usefully and helpfully imformative lert unsaid. The puMie would .very much rather have a school committee that tells them too much,'than one.that says too little, and while .the old committee deserves the thanks and congratulations of every pare-rrt on the excellent record it has put up, there was one omis'sion on which it iis of the utmost importance every parent sending children to school should 'have all thefinPornation it is possible to furnish. No b'i&me whatever, we wa*tt ji-t'UndeKstoori, filches to the commiiifetee In tliis .connection; they are blameless for what is, or ..-should be, ample cause -for public prottatt and the committee's leaving any «s,ention of it out of their report was a.<raere incident, as is proved in the fact thtfi the chairman, at the meeting; of householders, made it the »su'b|fect of a separate and special resolution. The resolution, which was unanimously adopted by*;, thoroughly representative meeting, is: '-'That it be an inatruction to' the mcomuag committee to ask for the co-operation of the member of Parliament for thelSVaimarino electorate M approa.ching the Ivlinister for Education, through sfce local Education Board, to urge him the pressing necessity <of additi&as to the Taihape school buiSdings." This is quite an innocent loc&ing resolution, and were it not. for the amplifications ft might pass without *nueh notice; but the chairman pointed mt that there were four hundred chMri'n <p'n the roll arid '...'only, 'seating accommodation for iesa; than three.uiiuMred.- surplus to be packed wf&y H& she :^l^^^ff"-B ;&3a:t:'p^f.'%: ■ The ciai>fljt*»' v the children to school *n& there wa# i?<> w^€ro to P u s tlieia wfcen ftef mm. f) ■ Wutf %% |»'3iofß*ent

against our educational ad&tinistru- \ tioiis An; r number from fifty to one hundred little ori.es packed away in | draughty passages at such'•& time of the year, in a tov/u that is perched up, on hilltops in the clouds, not far from where eternal snows lie. Can anything be more inhuman. We have societies and institutions to care for baby life, and medical scientists are labouring to find out and banish the causes of consumption, yet ; dur educational administrators are hunting children into passages where 'they are as much likely To be converted into specimens for scientific obstJTVrffion as into healthy men and women fit for carrying on the work of colonisation. In the early da;> r s of compulsory education there were I many inconveniences that had to be put tip with, but f,'b are safe in saying that any such cases were dealt with in a eottimonsense way. We have not heard of children being hunted and Jrerfred into passages, in such a climate I as "this, to spend the greater part of I the day, which, while it may mean education of the mind, it certainly' 3 tends to physical ruin. The committee r have done their duty to parents and j children in bringing, during their ste- '■ wardship, this pressing question before the authorities; they have received promises and nothing more, and now IT [has been decided to enlist help, and to again beard the Minister for Education to gel accommodation for our children that in common humanity should have been furnished when the need first arose. Every parent is under an obligation to the School, % Committee Tot taking determined action to maintain the health, to say nothing of comfort, of children while in compulsory care 'of the State. The Taihape Committee ?s not asking any favour, nor any mer« .convenience; they are simply demand ing what is absolutely needed to ensure what is necessary to keep the 'cliildren in' health, and which it i-s humanely, legally, and constitutionally incumbent upon a Government to provide.