The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 444, 22 October 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22.

Ik a previous article we showed that the recognised duty of the State with regard to education -was the affording of every facility and assistance in its maintenance, and that, where a national system had been adopted, the basis o? that system should be of a free, secular, and compulsory nature, and only of an elementary character. There are very important and weighty arguments, m which we in a great measure coinoide, against this so-called national system. It is doubtful whether it really fulfils its mission, confers all the benefits that it is popularly supposed to bring in its train, or is the immense boon that its advocates assert. But all this would bo beside the question and of little advantage to disenss now that a system of the kind has fairly taken ground in our midst. The subject before us is mainly the consideration of the enormous annual expenditure in the working of the system, and whether the State is justified, under existing circumstances, in continuing it. Statistical comparisons on any given subject between different countries, either at any one period of time or at distinct periods, are generally misleading, and give rise to much fallacious reasoning, concomitant surroundings being ior the most part omitted. It was in this way that the Minister for Education, in addressing the Committee of Supply on the Education Estimates last session, was enabled to make a most plausible statement, but one calculate.! to give an erroneous impression as to the cost of our education when compared with other countries. He urged with perfect accuracy that the expenditure per head of attendance in this colouy was in no case greater, and in most cases less, than in the other colonies ; but he forgot to add that those countries were in a state of solvency, that the percentage of attendance was for the most part greater, and that the national schools were not in the crude, experimental state that they are here. These omissions make all tho difference between absolute fact and misstatement. For this reason, and because we have not the space to include all the particulars that should be mentioned to show the comparisons in a proper light, we refrain from going into «a long rigmarole of statistics. It will be sufficient for our purpose to mention one or two only There is ample significance in the fact that the cost of education per child in New Zealand is already double that in England, and that since the scheme has been set in operation here only two per cent, has been added to the number of j children attending State schools, while the cost has been in no way proportion- j ately lessened. So far, then, results have not tended to magnify its importance, or give grounds for the supposition that due economy is being practised. Even then, if the colony were in a prosperous financial condition, it is evident that refoi mis much needed; but when the country is, as we arc told, on the vergo of bankruptcy, it becomes a bounden duty to demand that its expenditure must be retained within its means. As then the country is paternally cared for by the State in the matter of education, the State must be just before it is generous, and confine itself simply to that part of its selfassumed task which comes under the head of duty, and leave political philanthropy to a move prosperous season. That duty, as we have Paul, extends only to free elementary education, and no further. This is all that is provided in

England, and one naturally asks in what respects the New Zealand colonist so materially differs from others that he should be exceptionally favored, and how his circumstances require such far greater concessions. vV T e contend that it is a just and reasonable argument at all times that to teach a child the three R.s, is as much as the State need do at the nation's expense, and hold that a child so taught has had the materials given him on which to shape his further educational course, and that those who desire a more advanced curriculum for their children should be made to pay for it. By all means lot the fees be of a graduating nature, and as easy as circumstances may permit, and let the State assist by every means in its power, so that no obstacle shall stand in the way of advancing education ; but care should be exercised that one section of the community is not benefited at the expense of another, nor a nation crippled to sustain a costly and unnecessary establishment. This is the direction we would indicate in which immediate reform should enter in dealing with the present educational system. Let it be free in the elementary standards only. Beyond that, a system of fees by graduation should be instituted, using the higher schools, already provided, for the purpose of such tuition. That, however, is mere matter of detail; but that this is the first and proper step to take with a view to curtailing expenditure cannot be gainsaid, or that it is not warranted by the financial condition of the country.