The Daily News. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1916. WHERE TO FIGHT THE GERMANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1916. WHERE TO FIGHT THE GERMANS.

In ! England, out of 2,750,000 boys and gins between the ages of twelve and sixteen years, only 1,100,000 get any further education after the age of thirteen. Of the remaining 1,650,000 the great bulk are educated only for a short time, mostly in elementary schools, up to the age of fourteen. Only 250,000 go to proper secondary schools, and they are there only for a, short time in most cases. Thus quantity as well as quality is deficient. Now take the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. There are in England and Wales 5,330,000 who get no education at all; 93,000 only have a full-time course at some period, which is generally a very short one, and 390,000 a parttime course at evening schools. These facts were given by Lord Haldane in the House of Lords in a notable speech lately. Out of the whole juvenile population only a quarter of a million get any education, worth the name after the age of fourteen.. This state of affairs faas given <rise to considerable discussion at Home. The Westminster Gazette states that Britain cannot go on like this. It must bo one of ita first duties, when the war is over, to see that secondary education is placed on a right basis, and that the British employer, like the German, finds time for the continued education of all young people in his employ between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. The schools and their different departments must be so graded and diversified that different aptitudes and temperaments may bo provided for. There is no reason why secondary education should -be purely technical and scientific. Let modem languages have their rightful place. Let military training come in from the age of sixteen onwards. "Lord Haldane's speech was a tremendous warning as to our (haphazard system of education, full of snobbery, prejudice and lumber, which must be removed if we are to triumph in the commercial wars that will follow the war of cannon," says the Star. "Germany would ■bo a very different country if she had an Eton," says the Mail. "As it is, her schools do little but teach, while oui public schools do almost everything except teach. The Germans aim at the utmost development of the brain while we look for the main fruits of education in temperament and conduct. The German boy grows up with hardly an elementary sense of the 'things no fellow can do'; we see the results in 'frightfulness.' The British hoy leaves a public school with a smaller range of intellectual interests, but he is beyond question more wholesome, more self-reliant, more richly endowed in the qualities that make a gentleman." "Are we at lost going to get our views on education into a right perspective" asks the Observer. "For year.? we have let our class prejudices, our religious differences and the false antithesis between 'classical' and 'modern' learning stand in the way of a thoroughly efficient system which shall place the advantages of sound knowledge as well as the priceless training of character within reach of every child wiho is capable of benefiting by them. The war should show us the necessity to dig and delve through all strata of society in order that we may find and win the most brilliant brains which the nation possesses, as men dig and delve in the blue clay of Kimberley to find diamonds. The brains are there. No country in. tlhe world possesses more daring originality of thought or fertility of invention. Do we intend to find them and use them, oi are we going to shut ourselves up behind a Chinese wall which shall exclude our present enemies and be content with a present and temporary advantage which shall carry within itself the seeds of future defeat? Tariffs are necessary, but these will not save us without thorough development of our intellectual powers as well as more scientific organisation of our material resources.' "There is a great deal of talk in these days of the trade war which is to follow with Germany when the military war is concluded, and in some quarters it appears to be assumed that the way to victory is to conform to her tariff system,'' says the Westminster Gazette. "We believe, on the contrary, that there is only one way w'hich will enable us to keep our trade primacy in the long run, and that is to be the equal and the superior of our competitors, whether Germany or any other nation. Inferior production protected by a tariff is more than ever doomed to defeat in the peaceful struggle between nations. If we want to make sure of the main thing, we' have so to reform our methods as to produce an army of workmen iwiorthy of the army in the field, bringing to industry the same keenness, competence and skill that we admire in our soldiers. Assuming Germany to be our chief competitor, Lord Haldane reminds us that we are up against a country which has an excellent system of primary education linked up with secondary schools which are thoroughly organised and virtually compulsory. There arc as many things in the German example to avoid as to imitate, and the last thing we desire ib to see our children drilled into automata on tihe German model. But it is idle, to suppose that we shall permanently hold our own against a competitor w r ho places this high value on skilled instruction, unless we 'have a system of our own ivhich challenges it'in its good .points.." Lord Haldftne declared that Britain suffered

from want of experts. It was no use telling manufacturers to employ more chemists; we are not training them. The training machine was not adequate to produce Die supply we required at til lis moment. There were only 1500 trained chemists in this country, althoug.li, on jJie other 'hand, four (Jennaii chemical lirms, who simply played havoc with British trade, employed 1000 chemists. To take aotlier instance, an expert calculation showed Dhat by proper means Britain could produce the whole of the motor power which it used from onethird of the coal it actually consumed in doing so. Another calculation was that in tun various stages of consumption and of the making of by-products Britain wasted as muc:h conl as would ipay the interest nn 500 millions after the war. It was not that she had not got the experts; for it was a great mista'ke to suppose that. Britain had not got men of tile highest science and knowledge, but she bad not enough individuals possessina: that science and knowledge to go round, '".here is a tide in the affairs of men," quoted Lord Hnldane, and added. "Let us not lose the tide."