THE BIG OPPORTUNITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1919, Page 7

THE BIG OPPORTUNITY.

FOE NATIONAL EDUCATION. MR WILFORr/S VIEW&. When opening new class rooms at the l Eastern Hutt school on Monday, the Hon. T. M. Wilford said that in his opinion, after the war; the Minister of Education would be the man with the big department. He (the Minister) believed that from the schools should come, not only knowledge, but character; schoolrooms should not he intellectual barracks, as they were in Germany, turning out educationed automata, but places where the character should be formed and the bent in life discovered and arrested. School building to-day , had in the light of experience changed both in form and character. A sum of £IOO,OOO was voted in 1917 for school buildings, £400,000 iri 1918, £IIB,OOO had been voted for increases in teachers' salaries. The Minister of Education, though anxious °i or a larger vote, had to be content, but he would not be content with such grants;in future. The coon- j try understood now how commercial and ;! technical -efficiency depended on education, ordinary and technical. In the race lor supremacy in the days to come tech. meal education would have a tremendous part. Parents must not be content with primary education, but unist,"when coh'drtibiis' improved', 1 msiat'-on secondary A had 'recently ■ : been passed by Cabinet for technical 'education in the' Hutt valley, aiuf'lie intended seeing that the money was.speut to the best advaniagt' New Zealand, hi 'the near future tyould he called lipon to ilii'd 'huge sums for education,- especially; lor teachers' salaries and for"'n'ew.Tscliopl. This was realised, Tjy, the Minister for Education, who .w#s ■eiifjiest in his endeavor to. assist. After all, said Mr \Vi)forrt, the country could stand the call that would be made, and, personally, he believed that the country would stand anything that was necessary for the national welfare if it was clearly explained, All that was required was resolution and confidence, and though, as Chatham said, confidence is .» plant of slow growth in an igpd bosom," it would he found that wcv j many young and vigorous minds in thif J country with every confidence in the future, and the possibility of helping >n the direction indicated by him.