Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/1176

1122 Education. The census of 1916 showed that 83-53 % of the popu- lation were able to read and write, and 15-79% unable to do either. The expenditure on education from the public funds has increased rapidly in recent years, as the following figures show : 1898-9 519,000; 1904-5 679,000; 1913-4 1,301,000; 1917-8 1,814,000; 1918-9 1,986,000; 1919-20 2,544,000. The increase during these 21 years was from 133. 4d. to 413. lod. per head.

The rapid increase had been due in part to the greater demands in all grades for free education, but chiefly to the provision of better salaries for teachers, the increased cost of maintaining buildings, and incidental expenditure. As the result of Acts passed in 1914, 1917 and 1918 respectively, the annual cost of State school teachers' salaries rose 66% in five years. The average salaries paid to these teachers in 1919, including house allowance or value of residence, were: Male head-teacher 380; female head-teacher 319; male assistant 301; female assistant 197; sole male teacher 221; sole female teacher 193.

The total number receiving instruction in 1919, excluding the pupils of private schools not inspected by the Education Depart- ment, was 255,320, made up as follows: Primary 218,174; secondary (including technical high schools) 16,084; technical and continua- tion (excluding technical high schools) 17,950; university colleges 3,060; Lincoln Agricultural College 52.

The average weekly roll of the State primary schools in 1919 was 193,658, with an average attendance of 90-3 per cent. Physical exercises based on the syllabus of the English Board of Education are practised in all these schools, with corrective classes for children with physical deformities. A staff of 10 school medical officers and 15 school nurses examine the children, notifying parents when med- ical or dental treatment is required. The number of schools visited jn 1919 was 704, and about 30,000 children were completely exam- ined. A director of school dental services has recently been appointed to superintend the treatment of dental defects and the training of children in the preservation of their teeth. A bureau of infant wel- fare, with Dr. Truby King as director, has also been established, with functions which include the supervision of the health and well- being of the children from birth until they enter school.

Of the 34 secondary schools 32 provide free places ; the holders of these places in 1919 represented 94% of the roll number and cost the Government 111,000. The total number of pupils receiving free secondary instruction in 1919 was 12,620.

Liquor Licensing. Local option was established in 1893, and from 1896 to 1914 inclusive the poll was taken triennially on the day of the general election in 76 licensing districts co-terminous with the parliamentary electorates. Thirteen of these districts are " dry," as the result of polls taken between 1894 and 1908 at which the three- fifths majority needed to carry no-licence was obtained. In 1910 Local Option was supplemented by National Option but a three- fifths vote was again made a condition of prohibition and its opera- tion was to be postponed about 4! years. The two national polls taken under these conditions resulted as follows: In 1911: Licence 205,661 ; Prohibition 259,943 ; proportion of prohibition vote to total, 55-83 per cent.; no proposal carried. In 1914: Licence 257,442; Prohibition 247,217; majority for Licence 10,225.

In 1918 the National Efficiency Board, which was appointed in 1917 to advise the Government on, inter alia, the enforcement of public and private economy and the promotion of national efficiency during the war, recommended total and immediate prohibition in the interest of national efficiency, but with compensation a principle which had not been applied to the liquor trade before for the aboli- tion of the time-limit. The result was the Licensing Amendment Act 1918, which abolished local option and provided for a special poll on national prohibition with compensation in lieu of the time- limit, and for triennial polls thereafter on the three alternatives of licence, prohibition without compensation, and state purchase and control, the issue in each case being determined by an absolute majority of the votes cast. The two polls taken under this Act in 1919 resulted as follows: April: Licence 264,189, Prohibition with compensation 253,827; majority for licence 10,362. Dec.: Licence 241,251, State purchase and control 32,261, Prohibition 270,250. As none secured an absolute majority no change resulted.

POLITICAL HISTORY. -The closing years of the Liberal regime which had ruled New Zealand since 1891 were not distinguished by any of the daring experiments in social, industrial and agrarian legislation which had marked its opening years. The pace had indeed been too fierce to last. It had slackened long before the death of Seddon, the enterprising and all-powerful Liberal leader, in 1906, nor was it in the power of his successors to re- verse the process. Most of those early experiments had justi- fied themselves in the public estimation. The Liberal-Labour legislation was generally accepted, but new applications of its principles were not forthcoming in sufficient force to arouse either supporters or opponents to the enthusiasm with which the original measures had been advocated and attacked. The result of this slackening of Liberal enterprise, synchronizing with the removal of that masterful personality which for thir-

teen years did " bestride our narrow world like a Colossus," was that during the six years of Sir Joseph Ward's administra- tion (1906-1912) politics became relatively tame and the old party lines less distinct, though many of the old catchwords survived. At the same time Labour, dissatisfied with the alli- ance with Liberalism which had for many years been so fruit- ful, and finding the Opposition still less to its liking, began to aspire to independence.

Among the legislative achievements of the Ward Ministry may be mentioned the Land Settlement Finance Act 1909, which enabled the Government to finance associations of private buyers in the purchase of freehold estates for subdivision and settlement; the Public Debt Extinction Act 1910, which pro- vided for the creation of sinking funds for the extinction of the public debt in 75 years'; the National Provident Fund Act 1910, which encouraged the provision of annuities in old age, with supplementary benefits for the protection of the family from birth to old age, by a voluntary scheme which the State was to subsidize to the extent of one-fourth of the contributions; the Licensing Amendment Act 1910, which amended the local- option legislation and supplemented it by providing for a poll on total prohibition for the whole Dominion on the day of the triennial general election; and the Widows' Pensions Act 1911, which granted to indigent widows an allowance for each child under the age of 14.

Defence. But the most distinguished achievements of the Ward Government were the gift of a battle-cruiser to the navy and the introduction of compulsory military training. The speeches delivered on March 16 1909 by Mr. McKenna and Mr. Asquith in the debate on the navy estimates caused much anxiety in New Zealand because, as Sir Joseph Ward expressed it, " no room is left for doubt that England feels that her suprem- acy on the sea is seriously threatened by the amazing naval activity in the German dockyards." The offer was accepted, and the battle-cruiser " New Zealand," built at a cost to the Dominion of 1,701,000, received her commission on Oct. 12 1912.

The establishment of compulsory military training by the Defence Act 1909, though a more serious undertaking than the gift of a battle-cruiser, did not demand the same strong initia- tive on the part of the Government. A movement in favour of universal military training had been in progress for some time, but at the general election in Nov. 1908 it had failed to make any material impression. Even in June 1909, when Sir Joseph Ward left to attend the Defence Conference, its position was not strong, but on his return in Oct. it had gathered irresistible force, and by Dec. 24 the reform was on the statute-book. A well-organized platform campaign, which had exploited the German peril to the full and had received the powerful help of Mr. R. McNab, a leading member of the Ward Ministry before his defeat at the general election of 1908, had carried all before it. The Defence Act 1909 provided for the compulsory military training of all able-bodied males (a) from 12 to 14 years of age in the Junior Cadets; (b) from 15 to 18 years in the Senior Cadets; and (c) from 18 to 21 years in the General Training Section, from which transfers were to be made to the Territorial Force if voluntary recruiting failed to keep it up to the required strength.

In 1910 the Act was amended to make the scheme fit in with the recommendations of Lord Kitchener, who in that year visited Australia and New Zealand in order to report upon their defence systems. For Australia he recommended an army of 80,000 citizen soldiers between the ages of 18 and 25 years, and a reserve in which they would serve for an additional 5 years; and for New Zealand, to which the report was made applicable mutatis mutandis, the number would be about 20,000. The Defence Amendment Act 1910 accordingly extended the age- limit to 25 years, with a further period of 5 years in the reserve. The extension of the age-limit involved a cutting down of the universality of the scheme, as only about half of the number eligible was required. The minimum amount of training for the Territorials and Senior Cadets included 30 drills, 12 half-day or 6 whole-day parades, and 7 days in camp.

Sustained by a strong public enthusiasm which valued the