The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1884.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3911, 1 February 1884, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1884.

Sic William Fox, one of the members of the Wanganui Education Board, in a letter to the chairman of that body, has expressed some very sensible remarks on the subject of ' • classical/ education. Regretting that he cannot concur in the proposal to establish a High School proper in the town of Wan. ganui, Sir William tuiriks that, considering the financial position of the Board, and the urgent demands made for elementary sciipo!,e by the rapidly increasing population of our country districts, we should not be justified in going to. so great an expense as the erecr tion and maintenance of such an establishment would involve for what would practically be only (if at all) a benefit to a. few of the residents of the town. Sir William Fox next confesses that he is a heretic on the question of the utility of a classical education for the youth of a; new country engaged in the work of early colonisation. What will it do for them, he asks, as a whole, or even for the very small number who will at best avail themselves of it ? He then goes on to say:—" In the Old Country there are probably a million persons or more who, either by social position, or because they intend to enter what are called the ■' learned professions' of theology, medicine, and law, find a classical education almost a necessity, and from which they derive large pecuniary or other practical advantages. The most that can be said in its fayor in a new country like this would bo that It is a desirable accomplishment, like playing a musical instrument, or the art of sketching from Nature, though much more likely than they are to be laid aside and never' after.wards put in practice when the educational period has terminated." Ho does hot think, if this be all, that the Board would be justified in expending upon it any part of resources whicli might be better employed in extending elementary education and improving its character in all parts of the district. It" is true, ho continues, we have sdmo endowments appropriated .to.higher education. But there is no necessity for us to throw the proceeds away on a useless system. It would bo better to endeavour by appeal to 'the Legislature to get the destination of those endowments -.. changed, and make them applicable to elementary education ; or at least let them accumulate till wo may be in ; a position to use-them with more efficiency "than is possible at present. Referring to those classical studies'which the custom of the Old Country has stamped with the character of being tho most important part of higher education, there seemed to him to be only two things whicli can be/gotouf; of them:—l, the languages , hi : which classical books are written ; and 2,; tho ideas contained in them: . l.uThe languages are what are .termed the " dead " ones ; that, is, nobody, all, the world oyer, Bpeaks them or, has.spoken them for centuries, and it is a ..very, few , ; indeed even of the best modern scholars' in Great Britain who can speakthem. : We are, however", told thatthese 'languages, aw. existence,

and that because they are extremely systematic and technical, their forma the most efficient means of developing in the young mental qualities of the highest order. But surely modern languages are sufficiently tudmical and difficult to answer the purpose ; and as a matter of practical utility (especially in a country which is likely to have a great commercial intercourse with other nations), they would have far more practical advantage. German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Maori, ure surely difficult enough to train tho mental powers, and far more likely to come into practical use, and would open a far wider range of literature than tho "dead languages," even if kept up after school days were over, would ever do. 2. As regards the ideas contained in "classic" writings. When the mind of Europe, at. the period of tho Reformation, awoke from the long sleep of the dark ages, and nearly all knowledge was to be found in books ■written in the Greek and Latin tongues, -an acquaintance with those languages was an absolute necessity for the acquisition of knowledge. But is this so now ? Any one of those ancient books worth reading have been translated into English, and the ideas contained in them are perfectly accessible to all, without the labour of long years spent in acquiring the means of ati-i^ ; l::g off tho hard shell which envelopes the supposed precious kernel. Those ideas have, however, by this time either become obsolete and unsuited to the world's progress, or they have been appropriated and utilised in working up the wisdom of later days and more advanced enlightenment. A classical education may be very well for those who are going to live their lives in a University or among those who have been to one, but beyond this it is no more than a social superstition, and the sooner it is relegated to the lumberroom of modern life the better. Its present most prominent effect, where it has any, is simply to create class distinctions, which, like those originating in wealth or other adventitious circumstances, are no test of tho intrinsic merit of the possessor. ■ ' ,: