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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 79

Value of Financial Education

Value of Financial Education.

According to "The Knights of Labour" journal, the United States school system neglects to provide tuition in the science of banking and the various monetary systems of the world. We find this to be largely the same in our Maoriland. It follows on the lines of the earlier Creed, which denied to the people a free use of the Bible. This kept them sufficiently ignorant as to be under the thumbs of their leaders. It certainly pays the capitalist to keep our youth in ignorance as to the methods by which our currency is run, and the relative values, to the capitalists and to the people, of Gold. Silver, Copper and Paper. If our youth were taught the rudiments of this, our people, in the page 8 course of time, would cease to depend for our advancement on the Gold of foreign money-lenders. It is indeed sad to reflect that we are dependent upon this foreign money for our very comfort. Why speak of happiness? Hanking concerns do not trouble about our happiness. They are more concerned about precipitating crises of finance and in the consequent seizure of fat mortgages and squeezing the poor. What deluded creatures we are, seeing that centuries of this evil process have not sufficiently taught our masses that we trust to broken reeds, that the words of the high priests of banking convey luxuries to the few and poverty and misery to the masses. Let us have our youth educated in finance. We can do this well and cheaply on paper money, as I shall presently show. Let, then, education in finance become our common cry, and let it become a faith with us. It is assuredly to be hoped that the Labour Party, which is slowly moving up into power, will advocate and insist on a financial education for our youth. So, in the course of time, it may be expected that the masses—as of their right—should control the principles of our currency. We must not, we cannot, depend for this upon the efforts of the philanthropical; we must ourselves bring it about,