An investigation into the ideals of New Zealand school children in urban and rural areas

Bearing in mind the thoughts clothed in the above quotations, it was decided to try to find how far our New Zealand school children had progressed towards the "desired goal." As far as the adult population is concerned, one can judge only by the sensational pleasure loving crowds which flock nightly to the luridly, and often lewdly, advertised "talkies"; by the crowded jazz dance halls; by the half empty churches; by the sordid, ugly streets in the residential areas adjoining factories; by the aspidistra nestling coyly among the hideous yellow and blue frilly curtains; by the ill-kept and inartistically planned gardens; by the huge and garish baubles encircling neck and arms of both society lady and factory girl. But for the children, we still hoped; New Zealand's education system has enjoyed a high reputation in the educational world, and the Director of Education, in his report to the Minister of Education, presented on April 16th 1936 after an extended tour abroad, wrote: "The New Zealand system of education, primary and post-primary, is fundamentally sound, modern, and well suited to our requirements."