The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3592, 16 January 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1883.

Can any one say what the particular object was in the establishment of a High School at Napier ': We ask for information. The question is not confined to (his educational district, but nan be applied to the establishment of High Schools the colony. From the initiation of our State school system our opinion has been that New Zealand has gone mad on the subject of education. We are not opposed to a free, secular, and compulsory system : on the contrary, we hold that it is the bounden duty of a State to provide means whereby every child in the land can be educated. The'qucstion then arises, to what extent should the State provide education r Should secondary education include the dead languages. mathematics, and modern toniruos; It' so, should it be freer A writer in a Southern contemporary enters fully into these questions, commencing by asking:—"Under what conditions should secondary education be imparted in New Zealand •■"•'He then goes on to say that one way would be for the State to treat it as it does religion—to irive it a fair field and no favor or official recognition. Let secondary education be subject to the law of supply and demand, if parents desire to give their children an education superior to that obtainable in our elementary schools let them pay for it in its fair price ; and let teachers enter into competition for the scholars, just as butchers, and bakers, and drapers do for custom. Tho objection to this is that many men who wish to μ-ive their children a good education have not the necessary means. But many men want nice houses, tine clothes, and costly food, but not having the money to procure them, they put up with the best they can get. It is claimed, however, that education does not stand upon the same basis as eating and drinking. A man may be as healthy while eating plain food, wearing common clothes, and living in a small house as he would be if he were clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. The children of the poor have brains as well as the children of the rich ; and it. is argued that they should have the opportunity of fitting themselves to use their brains to tho best advantage, for themselves and the public. A fair way to enable all children to obtain a, superior education would be for the State to support the advanced schools, just as they now do the elementary schools, and thus grant a free education to all who chose to avail themselves of it. It is objected that, under this system so many children would be sent to tho schools that the State could not bear the cost. There is then another method. Let private enterprise provide schools for secondary education, and let the fees be fixed by those who provide them at an amount that would render them selfsupporting. 'Die State could then pay the fees of all children brought, up in the elementary schools who passed a certain examination', showing that they had capacity to profit by the higher training. Under this system poor boys with brains would not be shut out, while the wealthy classes would pay, as they should pay, the full amount required for the education of their children. Some one may ask, "Is not this the system of secondary education in Otago and Southland r" We answer, no. The State has endowed our High Schools with an estiite which is yearly increasing in value. The proceeds of this are devoted to the support of the schools ; the parents of the children being required to pay in fees only so much as will make up the difference between the proceeds of the endowment and the cost of carrying on the schools. These fees are trifling to the rich, but they effectually exclude the children of the poor--that is, of artizans and working men. The practical outcome of the present system, therefore, is, that the rich have their children educated for one-third of what the schooling costs, while the poor are excluded, except in the few instances where their children gain junior scholarships. The public estate is thus used for the benefit of those who are well able to take care of themselves. No amount of declamation or vituperation will alter the fact that at present the fees payable at our High Schools arc so graduated as to be almost unfelt by the rich, while they are prohibitory to the poor. In this matter we do not say that Otago and Southland are by any means singular. On the contrary, in the Old Country the same practice prevails. Even where endowments were specially given in days gone by for the education of the poor they have in the course of time been diverted from their purpose and taken to still further reduce the cost of secondary education to the rich. But in our case the State and not private benefactors has furnished thu endowments and therefore the benefits of our system of secondary education should be open to all in reality as well as in name.