THE AUCKLAND EXAMINER. Thursday, December 25, 1856. PUBLIC GOOD. THE EDUCATION QUESTION AND OUR EDUCATIONAL PLAN.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 3, 25 December 1856, Page 1

THE AUCKLAND EXAMINER. Thursday, December 25, 1856. PUBLIC GOOD. THE EDUCATION QUESTION AND OUR EDUCATIONAL PLAN.

■“ I consider,” said Addison, “a human soul without education like marble in the quarry which shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface to shine, and discovers every ornament, cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it.” These eloquent words express with sufficient force and clearness all that need here be urged as to the importance of education because the parties pvho in our Provincial Council contend for political influence agree with regard to the desirableness of educating, but are “at daggers drawn” with regard to the way in which the youth of this Province should be educated and the kind of education they should be permitted to receive.

Both sides of the Council deal with the Education Question less poetically, per-

haps, but quite in the spirit of that poet who with genuine poetic fervour exclaims :—

What cannot active government perform, New-moulding man I As yet, however, neither party has hit upon a Plan of Education that will satisfy the other and neither party is likely to do so. While, therefore, we allow “ all classes are now agreed in promoting educational extension and improvement,” our deliberate conviction is that the Plan of Education proposed by members of the Executive will not satisfy the people of this Province. Pledged to produce a Plan of our own, it is, we think, incumbent upon us to preface its development by “ showing cause” against the Plan of the Government. This we shall endeavour to do in as few words as the nature of so complicated a case will admit. The Government Plan is objectionable on many solid grounds and for many excellent reasons. It makes a Pope of the Superintendent and converts his Executive Council into a conclave of Cardinals. It hands over to a clique of clergymen the material as well as spiritual concerns of this Province. It mixes up “ formal religious instruction” with an education professedly secular and unsectarian. < It indirectly and slyly recognizes the principle that majorities have a right to dictate modes of faith to minorities. It is a bold and crafty attempt to place in the hands of a sectarian Superintendent the most kind of patronage and to secure that worst of all monopolies the monoply of mind fax masquerading politicians who dread real intelligence as sincerely as mad dogs dread water or turkey-cocks scarlet mantles. This ColoDy g should demand free education -—- for such education “ makes men easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.” Cowper says — Only those are free whom truth has made so, All the rest are slaves. But the cunningly concocted Plan of Education our Constitutional Pope and his Conclave seek to foist upon us can have no other effect than that of perpetuating the worst forms of religious error and political injustice. Under the action of that Plan power will be given to those who have already more than enough. A Superintendent worthy to govern this Province would have given us a Plan of his own not have fished up one from the troubled waters of denominationism, but Superintendent Williamson is content to borrow, catch, or take secondhand what we may presume he is unable to create.

Mr. Carr, Secretary of the Committee of the Freedom of Religion Society, in his “ analysis” of the Government Measure well said that if it become law Managers of Schools can be none other than certain bigotted and busy ‘ ministers of the several denominations whose names are appended to the scheme,” while the entire machinery it calls into existence “ can be wielded at pleasure by the Superintendent in his own favour in any election.”

To a State provision for strictly educational purposes we should be the last to object; nor can we make common cause with those who say the Government should have nothing to do with religion. Far from subscribing to either of these opinions we say that any Government which ignores religion, or thinks lookingafter religionists no part of its business, is a foolish if not a wicked Government; and that a Government which fails to see that every child of the State receives the elements of sound Commercial Education—of education indispensable to good citizenship—fails to perform the sublimest of its functions and is neither more nor less than “ organized hypocrisy.” Education for every child in the Colony is what every man in the Colony should insist upon. Commercial Education mind—Education which shall have for its sole object the secular element of human nature. Religious Education is a

matter entirely different and a matter with which only Ministers of Religion should have to do. Let the Minister do the work of the Minister, and the Schoolmaster do the work of the Schoolmaster. Schoolmasters should have nothing to do with religion ; nor should Ministers have the least conceivable amount of control in the schoolroom. Than Ministers no worse schoolmasters can be found ; and when they attempt the double duty of preaching and teaching V e are reminded of Dr. South’s saying that many a man runs his head at the pulpit who would better serve his country at the plough tail.

Religion should be free—-Education should be free—the Minister should be free—the Schoolmaster should be free. Not free to interfere with each other. No ! but free to mind their hwn proper business and keep well out of each others way. But as regards Government the relation of education and the schoolmaster is not the same as the relation of religion and the minister ; because while it is clearly the duty of Government to provide for the education of the citizen, it is not, never was, and assuredly never will be, the duty of Government to provide for the education of the Christian. Borrowing the language of Hamlet we say — This was some time a paradox but now the time gives it proof. When Government pays the schoolmaster it pays for the teaching of that about which no two parties differ. When Government pays the minister it pays for the preaching of that about which no two sects agree. Few people object to having their children familiarized with the multiplication table ; but there are very many who would object to have them bewildered by elaborate dissertations on the Thirty-nine Articles. In no other way than the way of education upon principles unsectarian because secular should Government attempt to stimulate, purify, or otherwise affect the religious feelings of the governed. Its action with regard to the diffusion of useful knowledge and general development of sound principles cannot be too direct; whereas direct action in respect of religious opinions will be avoided by every Government which has wit enough to profit by the lessons of history and wisdom enough to confine itself within the circle of its duties.

The cost of education is as nothing in comparison with its advantages which are infinite and, like the air we breathe, common to all. A batchelor resolved upon single blessedness for the full term of his natural life should no more complain of being taxed for the education of children not his own than of being taxed for the repair of roads along which he never travels or from the improvement of which he derives no immediate profit. All pay for roads because in the long run all are presumed to profit by them. All should pay for education because in the long run all must profit by largest possible measure of moral and intellectual culture. Besides, increase of population without offence to law or decency being a desideratum in this Colony there might be no harm in taxing batchelors merely because they are batchelors. These observations must suffice by way of preface to the development of an Educational Plan which we believe founded upon unexceptionable principles and far more likely than any hitherto proposed by Auckland friends of Education to meet the views of all denominations. The Plan is embraced in a series of Propositions now to be stated, but the detailed exposition and full consideration of which we reserve for articles on the Education Question tu be published from time to time in this Journal. Propositions are these following : — L—That supreme authority in all matters appertaining to Education shall be entrusted to a Council to be called the Council of Education. 2.—That the Council of Education shall be elective and composed of members of all religious denominations.

3.—That any man who is eligible to be elected Member of the Provincial Council shall also be eligible to be elected Member of the Council of Education.

4.—That all who are eligible to vote for Provincial Councillors shall also be eligible to vote for Educational Councillors. 5-—That three shall be the minimum and seven the maximum of Educational Councillors of any one religious denomination. 6.—That a correct Census shall be taken of the inhabitants of the Province.

. 7.—That a building to be called the Provincial College of Education shall be erected in this city. 8-—That in every District containing more than fifty families a School-House shall be erected.

9. —That for every such District a competent Teacher shall be appointed. 10. —That for the Provincial College of Education six Teachers shall be appointed. 11. —That these and all other appointments under the proposed Plan, shall be made by the Council of Education.

12—That any expenditure consequent upon giving a Commercial Education to any child in the Province shall be defrayed by a tax upon all its male inhabitants without other exception than may be made in case of individuals unable to pay from sickness, want of employment, or other causes, but quite able and willing to prove their inability. 13. —That while in the Provincial College or in the District Schools a sound Commercial Education shall be given to all children of all parents the extra cost of providing an Education purely Scientific shall be paid exclusively by parents whose children receive such extra instruction.

14.—That the Provincial College pupils shall be divided into six classes to be presided over by an equal number of Teachers.

15.—That these six classes shall be under the management of one of their number to be named Class Director.

16.—That no one Teacher shall be permitted to teach more than two Branches of Knowledge, care being taken that the Branches selected have entire and distinct relation toeach other.

17.—That the Provincial College shall be constructed and fitted up with a view to the convenience of these Six Departments of Instruction.

18. —That for five days in each week no Teacher in the Provincial College or in the District Schools shall be permitted to give doctrinal instruction save and except only so much of it as may be conveyed to his pupils by use of the Bible as a School book. 19. —That every Saturday shall be set apart for religious instruction when Pupils may attend or not attend at the discretion of their parents or their guardians for the time being and when Denominational Teachers thereby authorized by the Council of Education will be at liberty to attend and perform their spiritual functions.

20. —That every quarter there shall be an examination of pupils. 21. —That the pupils of District Schools and also of Private Schools shall be at liberty to take part in these periodical examinations and the prizes awarded be distributed equally among the successful competitors.

22.—That the Council of Education shall be elected annually and annually be called upon to render an account of their stewardship.

23.—That on the Council of Education freely elected shall devolve Power and Responsibility. Power enough to carry out the Plan in all its integrity — Responsibility enough if they fail to do so.

This is our Plan. It is conceived in the spirit of conciliation and drawn with the view to secure for the rising generation of this Province a sound Commercial Education, which may or may not embrace the higher branches of Science—an Education, unbigotted, unsectarian, with no other limits than are prescribed by most scrupulous regard for Conscience, Truth, and Right.