The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2504, 24 February 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1871.

One of the most remarkable features brought prominently under notice by the Franco-Prassiau War is the advantage of education, training, and organisation in pursuits in which it has hitherto been the fashion to imagine brute courage and manual dexterity in the use of weapons alone was needed. It was perhaps one of the natural

evolutions of aristocratic rule, that those to whom befel the accident of wealth and position should contrive to maintain for themselves and their peers exclusive, privileges. For centuries the ruling classes scarcely acknowledged a common humanity with their vassais and dependents. They sent them into the field of battle as so many units capable of drawing the bow or wielding the battle-axe at the word ot command ; and even in our own (lay we have heard it mentioned that, in order to good government, the mass of mankind must not be too well educated. When first the education movement began in Great Britain, it was a favorite practice with sticklers for what they were pleased to term British fieedom, to decry the Prussian system as calculated to tend to unheard-of evils. Comparisons by no means complimentary to Prussian morality and intelligence were drawn between the “ paternal “ Government ” of that country and the free, unfettered Parliamentary Government of England, bo long as the facts were not known, it passed very well. Like the outciy against the Public Works Act here, it was based on a fallacy ; but it pleased the people, because it flattered then vanity and rendered them content with themselves. Perhaps the first, glimmering of the real state of affairs was given when the late Prince Consort brought it practically under notice at the Exhibition in 1851. It was then shewn that there were nations on the Continent where workmen were artists, and that the real superiority of Great Britain as a -manufacturing country arose from the mineral treasures buried beneath her soil. It became plain and self-evident that the mental was needed to give increased efficacy to the material* and that without these the prestige of the United Kingdom must pass away. Looking more minutely into the Prussian system, it is plain that education is not only general, but it is systematised. It is looked upon as a means to an end. There may be objections to a plan of training exclusively for political purposes; and the mind of Prussia is educated under the control of Government, is to some an insuperable objection. But since thought cannot be fettered, and conviction is Irresistible, whenever a standard of truth or liberty is fixed in the human mind, anything short of that will not satisfy; and the better the training, the more certain is a correct standard to be formed. The danger, therefore, to human weal is in too little education, rather than in too much. Those who clearly see a good to be attained by a common and joint effort, are far more likely to submit to the necessary self-restraint than those whose ideal is centred upon self We have numberless instances of those selfimposed restraints amongst ourselves, but they enter into the spirit of our government in a very limited degree. There is scarce!}’’ a project set on foot requiring combined action but it is objected to by some theorist. The consequence is that, instead of succeeding, impediments are thrown in the way, that require more expenditure of mind and wealth to remove than would have secured the object aimed at. The inhabitants of Otago came here in order to make rich and happy homes for themselves—but they came with imperfect organisation and no definite : purpose. They came with very little idea of the wealth which abounds on and beneath the surface of the country. It has been disclosed to them by accident, ami the discoveries have been confirmed by experiment and scientific examination. In the hands of a people who understood and would submit to organisation, the coalfields, mines of minerals, and goldfields would have been, to say the least of it, more intelligently woiked than they have been ; but instead of that, the surface has been scratched, some ter. thousand Europeans and a stream of migratory Chinese have paid us flying visits, taken what they could pick up without too much trouble, and invested only so much in the country as was necessary to feed and clothe them during their stay. It seems very strange that amongst men there can be such perfect organisation for purposes of destruction, and so little for higher and nobler ends. The same energy, intelligence, and combined action for a specific end, that marks men’s movements iu war, if directed to works of peace, would achieve results immeasurably beyond what has hitherto been attempted. If an organisation can win a battle or destroy a town, because means to that end are intelligently devised and used, surely well-devised effort can develop goldfields and provide work for inhabitants and immigrants iu a Province where such boundless riches lie inutile around ns. It is now nearly twelve months since we drew attention to the necessity for more practical means of developing our goldfields than hitherto adopted. We pointed out that because organised, Chinese were taking away what a fixed population im Otago might havej obirfir

kiined We pointed out that our owu people, because of not knowing how to do the work, or where to go to with a prospect of success, were perforce idle, lest they should lose in the winter what they had gained in the summer ; that this might have been prevented had proper means been taken, not on y without loss, but at an absolute profit to the country. We know that Ins Honor the Superintendent proposed a plan to his Executive consonant with that idea; but nothing has been_ clone. Is the winter to prove a lepetition ol the past—a season of idleness, want, and misery—or shall we take example by the Prussians, and by organising right means to a right end, in spite of adverse weather continue even in winter to add to the capital of the Province . It depends much upon the coming elections.