The Evening Star. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, JAN. 13, 1866.

Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 839, 13 January 1866, Page 2

The Evening Star. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, JAN. 13, 1866.

The recent published reports of Parliamentary Boards and Commissions upon endowed scholastic institutions has called into exercise the best powers of the English mind. The subject is vital, and touches the very constitution and educational method of English High Schools. From these Boards and Commissions it is clearly demonstrated that the historical old schools of Rugby, Eton, Harrow, &c., are costly and terrible failures, and present a sad picture of abuse and profligacy. In a recent report it is, amongst other anomalies, shewn that the Provost of Eton is head of the College, yet takes no part in the instruction , but is, ex officio, in receipt of the net income of nearly six thousand a year. There are, besides, ten Fell *ws, who do not teach; they merely preach a few chance sermons, are only in occasional residence; yet they receive a yearly in •come of over eight hundred pounds each ; and in addition to these, we count up some twenty eight other supernumeraries, who are perpetual parasites on the endowment.

The Head Master at Harrow gets a net income of over six thousand a-ye:tr, and so on, in proportion, to the end of the list. .Revenues that, if honestly used, would reach almost every ambitious boy in England, but which are turned aside into the pockets of indolent and useless beneficiaries, who, in one sense at least, are like the lilies, for “ they toil not, neither do they spin.” Again, with regard to Eton, Her Majesty’s Commissioners report that before 1836 there was no mathematical teaching of any kind, and that it did not become part of the regular school business until 1851!” The Commissioners go on to say that one of the Etonian pupils “ had never learned the Multiplication Tables, and held never leuvmil tticit there tens such ci thiny.” Everywhere the curriculum is shewn to be wretchedly poor and bare: boys are sent bom the highest forms to the Universities ignorant oi algebra, and even the highest branches oi arithmetic, and still more ignorant of their English language, for bad spelling is quite common in university examination papers. In summing up, tbe report states that “the pupils of these Schools appear to be absolutely ignorant of .every brauch of knowledge, save Eatin and

Greek. Prosody, with some moderate facility in translation.” Physical Science is entirely ignored, and we find the natural consequence follow —that the higher classes of society are less* familiar with practical and theoretical science than arc the industrial classes. Similar disclosures of perverted revenues and illiberal and one-sid d training follow Her Majesty’s Commissioners’ investigations amongst the Universities. The scientific men of England may well protest against this exclusiveness, and demand that physics shall be placed on the curriculum, side by side with the classics. Now let us come home and ask curselves whether our High School is to be similarly perverted, by becoming an Endowed Institution. That some radical change is desirable, is sufficiently obvious. At present it is evidently too great a burden to the State, so much so, that we feel certain it cannot be long continued under its present constitution. The building has cost the Province sixteen thousand pounds. The Rector’s report, recently published, shows that the sal ales of the masters for the past year require to be supplemented by the Government to the tune of one thousand and fifty pounds, and this too for the education of one hundred and twenty-five boys, whose parents are both able and willing to pay for their schooling zoithout any GuVrrnme.it aid. The time cannot be far distant when the parents of these will stand on their own dignity, and positively repudiate Government care for their sons’ education. They will say, “ charge us twenty pounds instead of ten, and we will pay it, provided you teach our sons that practical knowledge which will help them in afteryears, as merchants or manufacturers.” Classical knowledge in the Colonies should be subservient to the thorough grounding of that “ useful knowledge” upon which so much depends for the realization of New Zealand’s future p» osperity. We would not be misunderstood to deprecate the study of classical lore ; the sage precepts it conveys, and the brilliancy of its metaphor must always be keen weapons in the hands of our statesmen, and we shall require and look for them in the future amongst our colonists, as well as for woollen manufacturers and paper makers. We do not believe that it is the desire of our prosperous citizens to exercise a false economy in the education of their families by availing themselves of a public Institution to the exclusion of the poorer students in the Province. We hazard the statement that the incorporation of the High School is unnecessary and undesirable. The first portion of it we can prove, and the public, if an opportunity is afforded it, will affirm the scoud. What is mainly required is for the Government to step in and provide scholarships for needy and deserving boys whose parents wish to have them promoted f. oin the District Schools to the High School, and then, and then only, will the colonists be receiving the legitimate benefits the High School was originally designed to bestow. It requires no further endowment.