The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2660, 26 August 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1871.

Last night ie published an outline of the Education Bill introduced into Parliament. In its main features it resembles the system which has, undeniably worked well in Otago. Without the details of the measure before us we do not feel at liberty to express approbation or disapprobation of it. It appeal's to have been framed with much care, and short as is the summary of its provisions, there is an evident endeavor to meet exceptional cases. In this, and in making education compulsory, the Bill differs from our practice in Otago. With regard to the compulsory principle, there may be difference of opinion. For our own parts we quite coincide with its necessity. Nothing can be more obvious than the duty of parents to train up their children so as to tit them for the duties of. citizens, and this cannot be done without giving them the education necessary to comprehend those duties. Those who oppose compulsory education do so on two grounds : First, what they are pleased to term the right of a parent to train up a child as he deems best, and Secondly, that the State has no right to interfere in the matter. The first reason evidently places a child in the same position as the goods and chattels which a man possesses. It assumes that, just as a horse or a dog is the property of a man, and therefore may be trained for the purposes for which it is retained, so he may say of his child lie shall be taught or remain ignorant, as best suits his purpose, or his convenience, or his pocket. This needs only to be pointed out to shew the folly and wickedness of such a theory. The relationship of parent and child differs widely from that of master and slave. The child, although attached to its parent’s household from its earliest days, has obligations to fulfil that must be intelligently performed ; and as it advances in years, those obligations become wider and more onerous. Confined in the first instance to mere subordination to parental authority, they gradually expand until they develop into the duties of citizenship and selfdependence. For the fulfilment of these duties education is necessary, and as there can be no dispute as to the duty of parents to confer that education, it must be plain, if they neglect or refuse to fulfil that duty, it is the province of the State to step in and compel its performance. There are those who maintain that instinctive love of parents for their children will naturally lead them to make self-sacrifices to give them education, but unfortunately this is found to be illusory. It was proved before the passing of the Factory Bill some thirty years ago or more, that children were used by their parents as mere machines lor money getting. The poor little creatures were worked occasionally fourteen and sixteen hours a day, and no attempt was made to give them even the rudest rudimentary education. Their parents did not know its value ; they eat, and drank, 1 and slept, and worked, and could not desire for their children that, the possession of which they had never felt the want of. From this condition of-mere animalism, the legislature of Great Britain rcs3ueci them. It was a step in the elementary education of the people, and has been productive of the greatest possible advantage. But it was but a step. The chief gain was that it established the principle that the State has a light to secure for the child those privileges which the ignorance or cupidity of parents denied them, and formed a precedent for that gra-dually-advancing system of education at Homo, which has been so long needed, and which must result so beneficially. In this Colony, excepting in Otago and Nelson, precisely the same indifference has characterised the Provinces. Education has apparently been undervalued : at least no efficient measures have been taken for conferring it. It is in consequence of this neglect that the legislature has had to undertake the matter. Whether they will be able to carry the measure through this session depends much on the Provinces more immediately affected by it. In Otago, pretty much the system proposed has been carried out: the main difference will be the transfer from Provincial to General control—an event that must occur sooner or later.