THE COST OF EDUCATION.
The pressure of necessity will, there is little room to doubt, compel Parliament, when it next assembles, to adopt very thorough measures of retrenchment. With a gap of a quarter of a million, or so, between revenue and expenditure, it will take a pretty strong pull to make both ends meet, and although a good deal may be done in cutting down, or cutting off, such items as travelling allowances, supplementary salaries to officers ot the House, and a lot of such like unconsidered trifles, it will be quite impossible to establish financial equilibrium without resort to heavy additional taxation, unless a very substantial reduction is effected in the annual education vote. Much as many members may desire to leave that vote untouched, the time has come when it is imperatively necessary to limit the expenditure in this direction, and already in the post-sessional speeches of members, as also in those of the candidates for election at Waitemata the other day, we find expressions of opinion to tnat effect. Nor are these views confined to members in esse or members in posse only, the editorial utterances of our contemporaries in all parts of the colony, with a unaminity which indicates the set of public opinion, all pointing in the same direction. We quoted in a recent issue some very significant remarks from the Wanganui Herald , and appended are like expressions of opinion from an Auckland paper the Nece Zealand Herald —which writes as follows : “ Retrenchment in the department of education has become an imperative necessity. It is hard to have to say this ; and we can easily understand how the Premier in his capacity of Education Minister will be ready to say, in piteous tones ‘ Woodman, spare that tree.’ But to the root even of that tree the axe must be laid, or at all events to some of its branches. The whole system is extravagantly managed, and has in fact assumed the character of a luxury which the Slate cannot afford to pay for. The complete abolition of school fees was a grave mistake committed at the launching of the system, and though it may now be impracticable wholly to retrieve the blunder, there is yet no necessity for the State being called upon to provide for anv children tree education beyond the fourth standard. The instruction furnished within that limit will equip all the youth of the country for performing their duty as intelligent citizens; and, beyond that limit, the teaching ought to be charged for on a scale sufficient to cover the cost. In the course of a brief period the expenditure in connection with this department will reach the enormous figure ot half a million annually ; and, unless the taxation is to be very much increased, the colony is simply in the position of not being able to find the money. And increased taxation is exactly what the colony is not able to bear either. On this point the Ministry need be in no dubiety; and unless they are prepared wnh some measures by which the existing burdens will be diminished, at the same time that the revenue is augmented, they must make up their minds to vacate their places to others who will fearlessly undertake the task.” It is unnecessary for us to say that we entirely concur in these views, for we have over and over again urged the same thing, and we feel persuaded that the question of absolutely free State education is one which demands reconsideration by Parliament at the very earliest opportunity.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1431, 14 December 1886, Page 3
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595THE COST OF EDUCATION. Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1431, 14 December 1886, Page 3
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