Dry Rot

New Zealand Tablet, 1 November 1906, Page 22

Dry Rot

• The sin of lhe century ' is emptying the public schools, in New South Wales as well as in parts of New Zealand. Says the Sydney ' Freeman ' :— ' The report of the Public Instruction Department for last

year, just laid before Parliament, discloses \sbme noticeable features. It shows .a falling oft of 3526 children in the enrolment, the number of small schools was less by 67 than 'in 19u4, and the. cost of the High Schools rose - from £4 -4s lid per head in 1904 to £4 11s 8d in 1905. The decline in ,the attendance /is attributed to the diminished birthrate. \of past years. 1 On the other hand, both the number of the Catholic schools in the Mother State, and the attendance at them, have been steadily advancing;. '• Gideon Wurdz, Master of Pholly, 1 was by no. means so ' phoolish ', as -he pretended^ when he gave this, definition- of 'Family ' : * Once a wife and several children, a matter of pride to the possessor. Now obsolete among the careful, or confined to the w.ife, a bull-pup,_ and a canarybird.' Well—' ill. fares the land ' ; and. so on.