The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1882. EDUCATIONAL.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 590, 10 March 1882, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1882. EDUCATIONAL.

The Iliyh School Board are wise in having , resolved not to open the High School imiiiudiiituly. but to w.nit till the revenue li.ul so far accumulated as to leave no shudow of doubt as to its success. As a matter of course the present postponement is owing to the small number of pupils promised. Nine children—seven boys and two girls—were all that the parents of the Peninsula would decide to send in response to the Board's '< ircular, and cer- ' Uinly in the face of this want of encouragement it would have been unwise to have advertised for a master.

The Board mast not, however, be dis•coumged, or think they are exceptionally ill treated by the few replies. A prior circular sent out here before the High School Act was passed to ascertain how ■many pupils would be likely to nttend only elicited two replies, and two or three yenrs ago at Asliburtou, where a large and flourishing school in at.presentin existence, an iippp.il of the same sort was responded to in about the sam 3 manner, and the 'Board let its funds accumulate for many months before the personal energy of one or two gentlemen, who went from house to house begging the parents of the more udvanced children in the district to send thorn, secured a promise that twenty boys .should attend. Having accumulated funds »t ihuir bat k. the Bonf-l then advertised for a master and opened the school, and although only some fifteen of the twenty promised attended at first, the ability of the conductor soon told, and the school is now a great success.

Now, we have little or tio doubt that if two members of the Board, or any other gentlemen, wcie to make a series of visits, that it would be possible to get the fifteen or twenty children required to attend the •cliool, but we think it wiser to wait till uore revenues has accrued from the .'vcsorves. One of our principal reasons or this is, that there is hardly a boy ikely to attend who has oaased the sixth ftiuiurri in any of the district schools, ■id whose course of study is therefore . tn» interrupted by the want of secondary moatiuu. The seven boys whose parents | .■IAwA to give them a higher education ■• all go on learning ■souie'tbinr; where ; y are for the next few months, and . :..i hardly have a better preparation I- tliuir severer studies, for we are of ) ...ion that the High School should be a ■ :■ "Ctween *tha Borough School and the ■. ■ ■ 'irsitv.'

We are glad to heir of ft lnr<re increase in the attendance at the Borough S'-hool. and are also pleased to know that many parents are quite satisfied with the in3!ruction provided there. Tlie great increane of pupils will no doubt incite the teachers to fresh efforts, ami we have every hope of an excellent report from the Inspector. The committee deserve every praise for the efforts they are making to enforce the compulsory clauses of the Act, They are determined that, if poseible, the children shall not suffer through the negligence, laziness, or ignorance of their guardians; and, with this object in view, the police have been furnished with the names of those criminal parents who debar their offspring from the ju«t right offered them by the State, a sound elementary education. It is to be hoped that no will be shown to these people, and that if the police neglect in any way to carry out the instructions of the com- ; mittee to the letter, they will be instantly reported at head-quarters. Nothing disgusts us more than the wretched excuses made by these people to avoid giving themselves a little trouble. It is no uncommon thing for persons who r"o not know a letter in the alphabet to gravely question the capaci yof a master. We have seen pooplo who thrashed their children fearfully at home, rave with in dignation because their unfortunate offspring, turned into fiendish larrikins by their wicked brutalities, have received a well-merited and extremely necessary castigation from a master, and we have always found that it was from the most brutal and the most ignorant inhabitants of a town or district that the greater number of complaints against teachers originated. Many committees, also, have members utterly unfit to judge on such cases, and we think we may be congratulated on possessing one, which, through evil report and good report, strikes a blow at the Demon of Ignorance, and we call on all good men and true to aid them in their endeavour to rescue the little ones from the fatal toils their unnatural parents have cast around them.