The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA : FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1877.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 151, 1 June 1877, Page 4

The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA : FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1877.

Judging from a recent article in the Daily Times, Dunedin High School has nob yet reached a haven of rest. It has long been tossed about amid the troubling waters of our daily contemporary. Ever since the unfortunate mistake of the late Mr Simmons that resulted in his retirement from the High School rectorship, the Daily Times, through one or more of its special contributors, has had and has manifested a down upon that institution. It is not yet forgotten how much the late Mr Hawthorne suffered in heart and health, resulting in a premature death, from the frequent, and, in the estimation of many, unrighteous attacks made upon him and the High School in the leading articles and other communications that from time to time appeared in the columns of the Daily Times. Despite the fact that under the new and able rector, a man of somewhat stronger nerve than Mr Hawthorne and higher principle than Mr Simmons, the High School has attained a measure of success hitherto unreached by it, the Daily Times cannot let it alone, but takes occasion of the late talk about the alteration, or rather application, of our Educational Reserves, to raise the question as to the continuanceof the High School as a public institution. That such an institution for the imparting a higher education than can be furnished in the common schools of the city is a necessity cannot, we think, be questioned. Were the High School done away with to-morrow as a public institution, a similar, if not several, private institutions would be called into operation. Whether this would be of greater or less advantage to the public generally, and to higher education, is a fair question of discussion. And we have no hesitation in expressing it as our opinion that in the present state of society — as it exists in the Colony — it is better that our High and Grammar Schools, intermediate as they are intended to be between our common schools and our University, should form a link in our public educational chain. They enable many to secure the advantages they offer who would not be in a position to secure the education they supply at privately conducted schools, in consequence of the higher charges they would necessarily have to make, From our High and Grammar Schools we must, as a matter of course, look for the main bulk of our Universitystudents. It is in them that the taste for a Uni-

versify education must be awakened and fostered, and to the largest extent possible should opportunity and encouragement be given for as large a number' of the youth of the Colony as possible being induced to seek the highest education within their reach. There are public and private situations many thut can only be rightly filled by those who have received a liberal education, and such situations we should seek to have opened to and filled by, not strangers, but those born and bred in the Colony. Were, especially, all public appointments to be made on the principle of competitive examination, and such examination to mci ude the leading branches included in the term v a liberal education," a considerable impulse would be given to the youths of the Colony to avail themselves of our higher schools of learning. These, we say, ought to be upheld as public institutions on the simple greund that as such they can give a liberal education to a larger number than can private schools, and the more widely diffused such an education the better for the wliole community. Education won't hurt a man in any profession or trade he may follow. On the contrary, it will make him do the part in social life that falls to his lot all the better. And this being the case, we think the late Provincial Government did a right thing not only in instituting the High School of Dunedin, but in originating grammar schools in the seyeral centres of population, such as Invercargill, Oamaru, Milton, and Pore Chalmers, in which and the like localities and. their vrckities there must be necessarily many to whom such institutions must prove a boon, who, but for their assistance, must be limited to such education as the common schools can furnish, and so be left behind in the race of life. As population increases in similar centres, we would have grammar schools multiplied, and we trust tbat in any new Education Act provision may bVraade, through our reserves and otherwise, for the maintenance and increase qf such institutions, as conferring an important benefit on the community, and providing feeders for our University. Without such institutions, we do" not think the University is likely to obtain many students, especially if, as it seems to be the present tendency, neither encouragement is to be given nor time allowed in the district schools for imparting what is known as the higher branches of education. On this tendency we may have something to say again, especially as involving the standing ot teachers in our district and sub-district schools, and the interests of not a few of our youths attending these schools. Some talk there has lately been as if a tenth of our educational reserves was intended for the special benefit of Dunedin High School. To apply so large a portion of these reserves in this direction would, we think, be wholly out ol the question. But we could have no objection to see such a portion set apart for high schools and grammar schools throughout the country — Dunedin High School sharing in proportion with the others. For we look upon the High School as one of our grammar schools, suited for Dunedin as that of Oamaru, for instance, is suited for its locale. We are persuaded that the country at large would look upon the appropriation of a full tenth of the reserves for Dunedin High. School alone as a.misappropriation, and we can scarcely credit that such an appropriation would be proposed. By all means let Dunedia High School be supported, but not at the expense of other districts. Let it have a share of the benefit accruing from the reserves in proportion to its importance, but not to the injury of similar institutions existing, or that may be required elsewhere. A tenth would not be an undue proportion to be set apart for such institutions as a whole.