The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2348, 11 October 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1870.

We should be sorry to find the efforts made by the Provincial Council to provide a high-class education for girls marred by the cheese-paring savings of the Executive at the High School. Not that we have any serious apprehensions that there is so much danger as some very sensitive papas and mamas, whose letters figure in the columns of our contemporary, seem to fear from a fence a foot or two too low between the playground of the boys and girls. That is not really the question at issue. There has been quite difficulty enough experienced in getting the school established, to sheer that the utmost caution is necessary in order to its efficiency, and that so trifling a matter as the height and compactness of a fence should not be overlooked in the arrangements. There is a remarkable tendency in our Otago people to spoil good schemes by a muddling way of carrying them

through. We start with very high hopes and very good intentions. Plans are devised, talked over, delayed for farther consideration, finally adopted, and spoiled for want of thoroughness in working them out. Had half-a-dozen merchants had at command the powers and means vested in the Provincial Government for carrying out the Clutha Railway, we should have had trains running every day by this time. But false notions of economy crept into the counsels of the Executive, and grudging the percentage which two or three sessions of the Provincial Council decided on guaranteeing, the construction of the line is reserved for other and clearer-sighted men. Precisely the same spirit seems likely to interfere with the completeness of the plan for the Girls’ High School. There has been prudery enough displayed on this subject already, and there is some evidence that an attempt will be made to revive it. The idea of separating the two schools has been mentioned ; but this would at once do away with the advantages anticipated from their close proximity. Those who take this narrow view seem to imagine either that the High School for Girls is to be a superior sort of ladies’ seminary for obtaining a smattering of French, and acquiring deportment and a knowledge of working in Berlin wools, or that there is intended to be a staff of teachers totally separate from that of the High School for Boys. But neither of these plans formed any part of the original scheme. It is the purpose of the new institution to provide for girls a thoroughly efficient education. It is not merely a superficial acquaintance with current and classic literature, and with physical sciences that is contemplated. Dr. Hodgson says —“ We are happily fast “ outgrowing the time, which I can “ well remember, when to each sex « was marked out a definite class of “ subjects, separated by a line not to “be crossed by either. On one side “ Latin, Greek, mathematics; on the “ other, French and Italian, music, “ drawing, with needlework plain and t( ornamental ) on neither side much “ that is most valuable in the training “ of the mind, the formation of cha«racter, the guidance of conduct,” But these latter desiderata are really what we are about to aim at in Otago. In order to secure them, the services of the present staff of teachers in the Boys’ High School will be made available, and in degree at least, the girls will receive a training in the same class of studies as are pursued by the boys. To remove the girls’ school, then, would be to interfere with the efficiency of this arrangement, and to incur expense and inconvenience that by their being under one roof will be avoided. What should be purposed by the Executive should be providing such machinery as to give every promise of their "arrangements being successfully carried out. Were there no fence at all, in all probability such plans could be adopted as, aided by a sense of honor on the part both of boys uud girls, would prevent any serious difficulties. In fact, we have no hesitation in saying that no fence whatever would be better than an incomplete one. An apology for a fence is a premium upon negligence on the part of teachers, who are led to trust in it when it should point to the need for greater vigilance. A barrier of that sort is a thing for a smart lad to laugh at and to overcome. It is an incitement to the spirit of adventure of a daring boy, who would glory in shewing how little he cared for the slight impediments the Provincial Government had placed in his way, With an infant institution whose reputation is to be established, and whose usefulness is to be tested, there should be shewn a precautionary spirit that even the most fastidious could not but be satisfied with. The trifling additional expense is nothing compared with the loss that would ensue from a prejudice being raised against the school ; and we would strongly urge upon the Executive the sailor’s advice to his owners—“ Don’t “ spoil the ship for want of a hap’orth “ of tax 1 .”