LECTURE ON EDUCATION.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2672, 9 September 1871, Page 2

LECTURE ON EDUCATION.

To the Editor. Sir —On Wednesday evening last 1 went to hear a lecture on “ Education,” by the Rev. W. J. Hubens, RA., Christchurch. Tq speak the truth, I was both gratified and disappointed: gratified, because it has not fallep to my lot to hear a greater intellectual treat, and that by a cnlsivq,ted and masterly mind ; disappointed, by finding so few in attendance, and the more especially a? this is ju-t now a» all-engrossing subject. The lecturer paid a compliment—and, I believe, a justly merited one—to the gentlemen employer! in the business of education in Otago : one in which from my knowledge of some of the teachers, I most heartily concur. But assuredly, if one had to judge bf the educational proclivities of Dunedin from the number in attendance upon the lecture, the conclusion, as regards the inhabitants, must have been very different from that of the teachers. 1 was further disappointed in this,-that the Press, whose business it is to cater to the public taste, has taken no notice of the lecture, so far as I have been able to learn. lam quite prepared to admit there are some palliative grounds for the non-attendance, both on the part of Press and the Public. I may mention some : First—There were several other meetings on the same evening, which, owing to priority of notice may have fully employed all the reporters, and have rendered the paucity of j.qe leetpre a ijocessity. Secondly —The' eyeing was sqmewhat inclement : but 1 prejume the chief reason Was Inutile place was badly chosen—ihe approaches to the Congregational Chapel being in the meantime more like the line of demarcation

bqtweep Paris and the Prussians during the late ttyaq a thoroughfare in a large city leading t,Q three pfaces of public worship. Np doubt jthe present alterations may become improvements, bqt for the present they are not very inviting, It was the wish of many, I believe of all who heard the lecture, that the lecturer should bo requested to favor the public with another opportunity of hearing it, and that under more favorable circumstances; and this, 1 believe, would ho his duty, while it would naturally devolve on his friends, and the friends of education, to provide a more suitable place, say, The Odd Fellows Hall, and thus there would be afforded the inhabitants of Dunedin an opportunity of enjoying the treat, as well as to shew they can appreciate a good thing when placed within their reach, —I am &c., One w«o Heakp, J