The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29 1875

Evening Star, Issue 3982, 29 November 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29 1875

We cordially agree with a great deal of what our correspondent “ Self-reliance” says on the subject of education. We aolrait most fully that the tendency to get into a certain groove is characteristic of State systems of education, as it is of all other State systems whatsoever. Red-tape seems, in fact, not to be unlike the remarkable animal called the octopus. Whatever comes within its reach is seized and firmly held by it, and if the thing has life in it, it is always possible that this life may sooner or later be choked out of it. Then, again, it can scarcely be denied that a considerable amount of hardship is in flicted on persons who are both able and willing to render good service as teachers, by a system which effectually prevents them from entering the profession, or. as a rule, soon drives them out of it, if they are bold enough to attempt to compete with the Government schools. These are undoubtedly evils, and “ Self-reliance” is certainly justified in calling attention to them as grave objections against State interference with secondary education, at any rate, though his remarks are probably quite as applicable to primary schools. But it should be remembered that it does not at all follow that because serious and wellgrounded objections can be urged against a certain policy that that policy should be rejected. It is not difficult to find arguments, more or less forcible, against the maintenance of a strong central Government in New Zealand,

j It is urged that abuses grow almost * spontaneously around a Government that is not fully and constantly under the eye of the general public. Exj penence has shown that in other countries this has been very generally the case, and there is no reason to hope that New Zealand may prove an exception to the rule. On the other hand, it has been stated that if a Colony be divided into Provinces of sufficient size to enable them to be only partially under the control of the whole Colony, some of these Provinces will m all probability endanger the wellbeing of the rest by their extravagance and recklessness. This objection, too is a perfectly sound one. Neither of these reasons, however, could justly be considered as being in itself a sufficient one for abolishing or for maintaining the Provincial system. It will be only when the whole of I i], * .1 j t

the evidence that can be adduced ou both sides of the question has been fairly brought before the electors that they may hope to be able to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion with regard to it. When, too, we come to consider the other side ot the question of state education in secondary schools, we find that a very great deal can be said in favor of it. If on the one hand it can be truly affirmed, and we do not doubt that it can, that there are outside of the Government schools persons quite as competent to act as teachers as there are inside of them ; ou the other it must be confessed that if the Government schools did not exist, very great scope would be given to an altogether f i aent c ass, viz., those who are more anxious than able to leach, and that a oonudemWo m.mbor of the. boys and ”' no are now getting a good -mention, would then virtually receive no education at all. Then, not impi-o* bably, there might be a return to the state of things that existed some fifty years ago when boys and girls had not yet been invented j when “young ladies” or “young gentlemen'' were received as pupils at “academies 1 ’ or “ }l ml were taught all the '’'.Viguages, living and dead, together with the use of the globes, each pupil bringing “ a fork, a spoon, and six table napkins, the final educational result often being almost nil. But it may )e said that aftev all then; is no reason oi elieving tha/c the young people at oiu Gramm rtV Schools, or ouv High ‘ c^ 00 s ,, are really getting a good educa ~on. We incline to think that there Is : these schools are, of course, under Government control, they are visited now .uid again by inspectors, whose special duty it is to see that sound and useful

work is being done. And here we see that red-tape, deadening as its influences often are, is not without its uses. If it is the tendency of school inspection to make teachers work in a groove, at all events it produces one good effect: no considerable number of scholars can be altogether neglected in any school that is properly inspected. If Government inspection sometimes prevents a good teacher from doing his own work in the way which would, in his hands, produce the best results, it at all events secures the doing of some good work in the orthodox manner. But it is urged that, after all, it is only just that parents who wish to give their children the higher education should pay for it. So they do. Who else does 1 It is plainly altogether a misrepresentation of the real facts of the case to say that because a man does not pay the whole , cost of the education of his children in I the form of school-fees, that he therefore has them educated at the expense of other people. It is true that there is a certain proportion of the population who contribute their quota of the cost of State education, but who have no children, and never intend to have any. But these individuals tnay fairly be looked upon as exceptional cases. Many of our lady i leaders will agree with us if we sav that old bachelors deserve all they get in this way. °

With regard to one matter spoken of in our last Tuesday’s leader, “ SelfReliance " slightly misunderstood us. If the Education Board had no resources available for the work of building schools and for carrying on primary education generally, W e should be quite ready to say with him that the secondary schools ought to be turned into primary ones. As it was, however, we wished to point out that the Province had, in the educational reserves, an ample fund on which she might draw in order to supply all her educational needs, and to urge the authorities to avail themselves of this fund.