The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3671, 27 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1874.

The pertinacity with which the ‘ Daily Times’ follows up its attacks on the Board of Education in regard to the High School suggests the idea that there is something behind. Nothing satisfies our contemporary. The late Rector was literally persecuted in its columns. Article after article was written casting contempt upon his endeavors, and in every way disparaging thecharacter of the education given there. We by no means think it was perfect; but the number of young men who have been found able to till situations in professional and commercial life, who were educated at that school, proves that the unqualified condemnation of the system which our contemporary has so long indulged in, was as unjust as it was impolitic. We know nothing so likely to induce the evils imagined to have existed as to proclaim them constantly to the world. No matter what authorities are attacked; no matter whether it be a government, a magistrate, a rector of a school, an official in any department, or a Board of Education, the result must be the same : authority is weakened, and power to carry out the purposes of an institution interfered with. Unless for cogent public reasons, therefore, even fair comment is inadvisable, but such unfair criticisms as our contemporary indulges in are a most unpardonable abuse of journalistic privileges. Nor is the social injury atoned for by occasional fits of repentance. The damage done is not easily repaired. Men of Mr Vogel's standing may escape unscathed after years of abuse, direct and indirect, and smile, with no little mixture of contempt, on the fulsome toadyism with which he is spoken of by a newspaper that once placed faith in the nonsense of a “ Master Humphrey,” and aided his puny miscalculations with the authority of its own leading columns. But it is not given to everyone to catch the rising tide on the turn, and guide his vessel safely onward by its help. Too many, like the late rector ot the High School, have to battle with difficulties bequeathed by those who have gone before them, and with prejudices fanned and fostered by discontented or interested opponents. The position of the High School is a peculiar one. Instituted to give an education to our youth, to fit them for the every-day duties of life, it has been made the battle-ground of sectarianism and an occasion for party contest in the Provincial Council. The subjects taught, the manner in which they were taught, the qualifications of the men by whom they were taught, and whether or not they ought to be taught, have been discussed by those who knew but little of what they were asked to decide upon. It is impossible for any man, however gifted, to succeed under such difficulties. The doubts of parents incapable of judging through having received but limited education themselves, tend to shake that confidence in their teachers necessary to cheerful working by the pupils. Teachers not only feel uncertain as to the stability of their own position, but are harassed by having their ability to perform their duties publicly discussed by men who presume to pronounce judgment on the authority of the dictum of a political partisan or a journal pandering to a They may possibly have their attention divided between their duties and the means necessary for the defence of their own reputation. In every way the treatment of the Rectors of the High School has been disgraceful to the Province. One was compelled to resign to gratify the revenge of the clergy; the other has been maligned and insulted, and driven to resign mainly through unworthy treatment by a pnbUc journal, ?jje Board

of Education next is taken to task for thwarting the end and purpose of this triumph of persecution. No one can read our contemporary’s comments without feeling persuaded that all this public agitation has been to serve a private purpose, and that some one has been marked out, whose interest was to be served by thrusting him into a good billet. We think the Board of Education, therefore, has done wisely in sending Home for one who is independent of the sects and parties who are doing such dirty work behind the scenes. Log-rolling is not confined to political parties. It finds its way into all matters civil and religious, clothes itself in every disguise, cants about learning, or religion, or the fitness of men in the Colonies to conduct a school, and the needlessness of sending Home for one. Specious pretences are put forward with all the art used by practised log-rollers to create popular agitation. Men who themselves emigrated on the speculation of something turning up, wish to keep out those who are selected because of special fitness for an important position ; and we are gravely told this morning by the ‘ Daily Times’ that the Colony is to reward their place-hunting by putting faith in their ability to conduct an institution, on the right management of which the prosperous future of families to many generations may depend. We have more confidence in the Education Board than in the writers for the ‘ Times,’ for by their works they must be judged. The Board are sincere in their wish to obtain competent ability, and must be supported, unless we are prepared to hand over the High School to a sect, and to make the Rectorship an asylum for a sectarian or political partizan. We believe the School will never thoroughly fulfil its purpose until endowed and wholly freed from political or sectarian control.