The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1887. State Education

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 143, 9 June 1887, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1887. State Education

In previous articles dealing with the cost of state education, we have strongly advocated a more economical system of management, on the grounds that the expenditure was increasing at an annual ratio which | was, each succeeding year, becoming greater than the revenue of ihe colony could bear. We were then under the impression the gross expenditure was considerably less than £400,000 for the year just expired. We were confirmed m this belief by a return presented to the House of .Representatives, showing the expenditure of each Department from the years 1860 to 1886-7 inclusive, which gives against the Minister of Education — 1875-6, £11,520; 1810-1, £271,165; 1885-6, £357,806; 1886-7, £371,603. These figures are plain enough, but as a matter of fact, they are altogether wrong and intentionally misleading. The following will show how correct our opinion is. A return has been presented to the Legislative Council, f the order of the Hon. Mathew Holmes, which shows the gross expenditure for education for the year ended 31st December, was £649,333 7s Bd, from which has to be deducted £40,295 4s sd, revenue from endowments and school fees, leaving a balance of £5(99,038 3s 3d. Yet the return prepared tor Mr Jsakeon, of the House of Representatives, gave only £373,603 as the total expenditure, when it should have been upwards of £420,000 i.e., plu* £40,295, from endowments and school fees. Even this does not account for the .discrepancy, between the two state%n«utfl, of so large > sum as nearly 4130,000. W* dp not doubt for a moment £he capacity M the Government to- explain it, but we are certain the country at large will decline to be persuaded into the belief it is excusable that unreliable information should be given them as to " how the money goes," for reasons only known to an interested few.