WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1922, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

COST OF EDUCATION. A MISAPPREHENSION (Special Correspondent.J Wellington, July 2G. Tlie remarks concerning the cost of education made by Mr. IT. A. Parkinson, the national secretary of the New Zealand Institute, at the Auckland Training College, when urging teachers and educationalists to impress on the public the paramount need of extensive and efficient education in the schools, have not escaped the notice of the politicians here. “I believe the Labor Party does appreciate the value of education, if only as a fighting force,” Mr. Parkinson is reported to have said, “but the older parties are built on economic lines, and are always taking into account the cost of education in hard cash. Even the Education Department says education is too much expense.” The members of the older parties are not resenting the suggestion that they are less -well disposed towards national education than the members of the Labor Party are—that, they say, is a long discredited story but they are protesting against Mr. Parkinson’s assumption that the quality of an education system must be measured by the amount of monev it costs. They contend that this is an entirely fallacious conclusion and that the secretary’s arguments fail from the very base upon which he has founded them.

RAILWAY CONTROL. The Farmers’ Union Conference this year, as was generally expected, is playing the candid friend towards the Government with more vigor than it has thrown into the role for a long time past. Mr. A. A. Ross, a delegate from Auckland, gave the conference a lead by moving that the State railways should bo removed from political control and placed under the management of an expert board. In the discussion which followed, the 'speakers protested their desire to say nothing that would hurt the feelings of the Government, but forthwith proceeded to show that the Government had made a deplorable mess of the management of the lines. Political management, said Mr. D. Bates, a gentleman from Canterbury, had made a muddle of everything it had touched — railways, post office and the rest. These departments had no rent or taxes to pay and yet they could not return as much as 2 per cent, on the capital they employed. After a lengthy discussion some of the asperity was removed from Mr. Ross’ motion, and in the form of urging more competent management the farmers’ protest was carried lyPOST AND TELEGRAPH. In the House last night the Hon. T. G. Coates, in presenting the annual report, of the Post and Telegraph Department, stated that it showed an excess of receipts over expenditure of £350,000 and that in consequence there was likely to be a reduction in the charges for certain services. The Minister promised that later he would present a balance-sheet setting forth the accounts of the department just as would be required if it were a private concern. If he really does this, his critics say his surplus will quickly disappear, and the public will be called on to make up in some shape or form an enormous deficiency. Unless interest on the cost of buildings and other equipment is charged, the same authorities maintain, the accounts will throw only a partial light upon the situation. The popular opinion here is that a speedy return to lower charges for afl its services would be the quickest cure for the financial ills from which the department is suffering.