The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1877.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 77, 13 April 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1877.

One of the most important, if not the most important measure, that will be submitted to Parliament for consideration at the coming session, will be the Bill to provide for a system of National Education throughout the Colony. Speculation is rife as to the nature of its provisions, and various are the conjectures offered, and the opinions given as to what its effects will or will not be. At the annual meeting of the householders of the Educational district of Christchurch East, the Rev. H. C. M. Watson, Incumbent of St. John's Parish, is reported to have said. "He had been in- " formed that the new Bill contained a " provision that the Bible should be ex- " eluded altogether from the schools. It " became most important that the public "generally should have an opportunity " of exj>ressing an opinion on this most " important subject." Mr. Watson is known ast-a gentleman holding broad and liberal views on the subject of education, but we arc not in a position to say whether tliere is any ground for the idea with reference to the exclusion of the Bible from the schools. This, however, Aye do endorse, that it is highly desirable that the public should have an opportunity of expressing an opinion on the provisions of the Bill before it is submitted to Parliament. In reply to Mr, Watson, the chairman is reported to have said, —" that he would under"take to write to the Government, ask- " ing them to forward a copy of the Bill "to the Christchurch school committees." Whilst agreeing with Mr. Lee as to the desirability of copies of the Bill being sent to the committees he has named, we are disposed to take a much wider range and say, that a copy of the Bill should be forwarded, not only to the Christchurch committees, but to every school committee throughout the Colony, nay further, that every newspaper published in New Zealand should also receive a copy, so that through the medium of the public press the people might become acquainted with the details of the scheme of Education which the Government propose to lay before the people's representatives. Hurried legislation is at all times to be dej)recatccl, but when such an important question as National Education is to be legislated on, every facility should be afforded by the Government for its fullest possible ventilation.

The jury who tried the case of Regina v. Buchanan at the late criminal sittings of the Supreme Court, held in Christchurch, accompanied their verdict of acquittal with a severe censure upon the loose manner in which some part of the business connected with the Resident Magistrate's Court at Akaroa had been conducted. It appeared from the evidence, that not only was credit given for fees, thus offering facilities for litigation, which ought not to be afforded by any tribunal, but that no local supervision was exercised over Mr. Buchanan's accounts. Had this been regularly done, we believe that he would have been spared the shame of undergoing a public trial. On a former occasion we wrote somewhat strongly upon this matter, and also alluded pointedly to the proper course which the Government should

have pursued when they' found that Mr. Buchanan did not send up the required returns, namely, that they should have instituted a rigorous inquiry into the whole matter, and, if necessary, dismissed him from the service, rather than to have stopped his salary for months, until it" accumulated to upwards of £90, thus exposing him to temptation to take money with which he was entrusted, in order to exist —we will not say, support the dignity of the combined offices of Resident Magistrate's Clerk, Postmaster, and Custom House Officer—upon the miserable pittance of one hundred and twenty pounds a-year !

To the Good Templars of Akaroa belongs the credit of being 'the first to initiate this season, an agreeable and rational manner of spending an evening during the coming winter months. We allude for the Open Lodge .meeting they have lately held, and, we venture to express a hope, that this is but the precursor of many such. It is one method by which our Good Templar friends can most effectually demonstrate that they know how to be " merry and wise," or, in other words, that they can spend an evening in innocent mirth combined with, it may be, some valuable instruction, without the aid of the intoxicating cup. A short time since we drew attention to the advisability of instituting a series of winter evening entertainments of a popular character to be given in the Town Hall. Although we have not heard of any movement having taken place in this matter, we trust that it has not been lost sight of, but that ere long the publication of a carefully prepared syllabus, will prove that vigorous vitality does exist, although, for a time, it may have lain dormant.