Preface

This survey was begun by Dr C.E. Beeby, who collected some of the material on which it is based, sketched out the general pattern of the book, and actually wrote a small part of it. Finding himself hard-pressed for time, he asked me to collaborate with him, only to discover a little later that his official duties prevented him from going on with the work at all. Eventually I took over full responsibility for the survey on the understanding that what had already been written by Dr Beeby, or by the two of us in collaboration, could be used as it stood. Actually, most of Chapter I is really Dr Beeby's, though I have made some additions and alterations that slightly change the original emphasis. But for one or two short passages the rest of the book is my own. Having made this explanation, I hasten to say that all the opinions expressed must now be regarded as mine.

The book makes no pretence at comprehensiveness. It does, indeed, trace the larger movements in page viour educational history, but there are considerable omissions. Of these the private schools (including the free kindergartens), native education, special schools and classes, and child welfare are among the more obvious. Such omissions are partly due to mere limitations of space, and partly to the fact that the aim was not so much to tell the whole story of New Zealand education in brief as to show something of the way in which educational ideas brought from Britain have been worked out and modified in the colonial environment.

My indebtedness to published works on New Zealand education is, I hope, adequately acknowledged in the text and in the note on sources. In addition I have received generous help of various kinds from the staffs of Centennial House and of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research as well as from several other people. I should particularly like to thank those who read and criticised the typescript, especially Mr C. L. Bailey, who not only assisted me in this way but also allowed me to use some unpublished material of his own.