The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1873.

Evening Star, Issue 3186, 7 May 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1873.

The Provincial Council opens this session under very favorable circumstances. Instead of an adverse balance with the Bank, there is money in hand ; and instead of votes having lapsed because of funds for the completion of the works not being av<iilable, every work that could be carried out has been proceeded with. These facts indicate a state of material pi osperity not hitherto known in the Province, and point to work that lequiies to be done to render it permanent. There are, however, many croakers amongst us. Some croak through constitutionally looking on the dark side of everything : these are to be pitied , some croak through envy engendered by party spirit: they are to be condemned. Instead of co-operating with others to render things more prosperous, they are continually finding fault with what is. With them Pope’s doctrine, “ Whatever is, is right, is reversed, and they say, “ Whatever is, is wrong,” when done or said by others. Their aim is to mar and hinder every plan that -has progress for its object. If it is necessary to borrow money to make a railway, the Province is travelling, towards bankruptcy: if the Superintendent projects work to be done, he is going too fast: were he* to project none, he would be going too slow . if wool is selling well, it is going to be lower: if it fetches low prices, all is lost, we are going to the dogs. It is well that the world is not governed by such men. Unable to see the end fiom the beginning, they are quick to find fault with some detail, and would take a wheel off a railway carriage if they saw a scratch in the paint, under the idea that it was a crack in the iron. We suppose, like spiders and other ugly looking insects, they have their uses in the world, although it is difficult to determine wliat they are. We shall no doubt have many of these croakers showing fight in the Council this session. Even good prices foi wool and grain will not put them in good temper. It is almost a pity that the Land Bill passed last session, for one safety-valve for blowing off ill-temper, is through th& withdrawn. However, if minor is correct, anothci And wider view of the land question is likely to be brought under notice, which on account of its reversion to fiist principles must ultimately .be accepted ; but which for the present has only found favor with such men as Herbert Spencer, J. S. Mill, and other leaders of sound thought. Many of our Councillors will be fairly drnnbfoundered for the moment at the audacity of proposals so subversive ©f the notion of ownership of “ a cottage, a pig in a stye, and a cow feeding on the natural grasses ” j and all sides, we venture to say, excepting those who have really examined the subject, will rise lip in arms 1 6 oppose it when they recover from their astonishment. It will, however, be the beginning of an agitation that must go on until victory is achieved, a and then it will be found to be the sound and simple solution of problems of taxation, occupation of land, restrictions on trade, and all the complications rendered necessary to bolster up a system, having monopoly for its basis and might for its motive power. In the meantime, as indicated by the Superintendent’s address, our Provincial estate fhust be improved by the completion of the leading lines of railway. Those must go on if we would perfect the work that has been so well begun. Perhaps next to these is the perfecting of our educational system. We have become so accustomed to believe this needs no mending, that the idea of shortcoming never seems to be entertained. Yet none can look over the report of the proceedings at the late meeting of the Schoolmasters’ Association, without arriving at the conclusion that the defects of the system are glaring. The picture drawn of the position of up-country schoolmasters is bad enough, but it falls far short of the reality. We all remember the bumptiousness of the School Committee of Tokomairiro, who assumed the right to be offefided when the Board of Education relieved them of inquiry into circumstances connected with the school. That little boiling over was an indication of what a School Committee could do in the way of assumption of duties to which they are not equal. But that was harmless compared with making men judges of what education should, be who are themselves uneducated. Who would think of making a man a judge at an agricultural show who had never seen a sheep, a bullock, a horse, or a ploughed fieldl Yet in school matters there are members of school committees who, in regard to the education given in the school, are quite as ignorant. It has come to our knowledge that in one place, a resolution was passed that it was essential for a member of a school committee to be able to read and write. All these matters require to be looked into, for it is impossible that good work can be done with inferior tools.