FREE EDUCATION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2227, 16 September 1889, Page 2

FREE EDUCATION

Undee date July 19, the London corcespoadeist )f the " Afgus " reports that the Government, bavlDg decided to go on with only one of tha Irish drainage echemea, narrowly eßoaped driest on Friday night ; but the Bill has now gone to a committee, and It is doubifrs), ep'.te of all, whether it will reappear In the House again th*'s year. Tha free education olames ore, however, to be reor.B ! on the report stage. Tbo Sootilar Local Government was got throagh corcmlttee on Friday night, The Qovernmo v have aarrondereJ a ! most evarythlng. ♦.lut the Scottish Radicals wanted on this matter. The totftl amount of iha grant for the probate da*j\ originally fixadl at £170,000 a yjar(whloh waa enough to fi-i-e the three lo*ar or tha three higher standards In the Sootoh sohoolfj), h»a boon Inoreaatd to £840,000 a year— anoagb, that is, to free all the five oompulaory standards. So that hmoefor ward In Scotland a child will go to eohooi for nothing until he enters the sixth standard. But this laat is not oompu'sory (a child who has paessd the fif h standard may leave school), and it Beems only reasonable to cmolude that as it will ba the only standard which must be paid for olementary education m Scotland wi 1 henoef orward praotloally come to a close !at tho end of the fifth standard. But all 1 the enme Scotland has made a great coup The thin end of the wedge has disappeared, and the wedge has gone m altogether. The Government profess that there is strong reason why the system now practically set up m Scotland should not be extended to England and Ireland, but nobody else sees it, and we may be sure that tha day of genoral free education m these Islands Is fast approaohinz. The Honae of Lords threaten to destroy the free education clauses of the Sootoh Looal Government BUI, but we bave little faith In the menace. The Government will tell them tn»t they must not tonob "mo ey " olauaes. One thing whloh the Government bavo done on the Scotch Local Government Bill commands wide appreciation. They bave mude It absolutely clear th«t no womau shall alt on a county board. In London, spite of tbc deolslon of the Queen's Bench against the olatms of women, Miss Conns stil! •ttendß the Onnty Opanotl as an " Alderman,' : and Miss Jinn Oobden »s bo eleoted oounolllor. Nobody will go to th< expense of ejecting them, and so (aa the ohalrman will not permit them to vote; they insist upon disfranchising their con stltnenolei.