The Globe. MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 409, 4 October 1875, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1875.

The province is beginning to find out that our present Minister for Education is a most decided failure. Mr Knight had an excellent oppoitunity of making his name as an administrator. When he took office the friends of the new Education Bill were in hopes that by judicious management, and by keeping an eye upon all useless extravagance he would have proved that the Council did a wise thing in passing the Bill, while its opponents were disposed to make the best of matters, in the hope that the new Minister would so manage the department as to make the new Bill acceptable. Yet in a few months Mr Knight has succeeded in creating a wide-spread feeling of dissatisfaction with the manner in which education is managed. In all quarters complaints are made of the manner in which the local committees are treated by the Minister. Mr Knight appears always to be engaged in some dispute with the committee with reference to some minor matter involving the saving of a few paltry pounds. He seems incapable of taking the whole bearings of the case. He finds that by using an inferior quality of wood in the furniof a school he can save a few pounds in the price of the timber used. He discovers that a few shillings more can be saved to the treasury if some cupboards are made of tongued and grooved material instead of being pannelled. In the meantime, while all this correspondence is going on between the department and the committee, the district has paid nearly double the entire saving in rents in consequence of the delay, and obtains besides an inferior quality of furniture. The above is a sample of the kind of economy which is practised by the Minister for Education. But not only is he wastefully economical ; he is headstrong and impracticable. To such a pass have things come in Lyttelton, that the Committee there have passed a resolution declaring that it is useless to attempt any improvements in the

schools •fill the management of the Education Department is in other hands. They are urgently in need of an infant school, and other improvements, hut after wasting a large amount of time in irritating correspondence with the Minister, the committee has been forced to abandon the projected works. We could quote other instances to prove that the head of the Education Department has but a faint conception of the first principle of administration. There is a general feeling abroad that education matters in Canterbury are getting into a mess. The Board, whatever its faults might be, generally succeeded in working well with the local committees, and managed to infusealittleenthusiasm into the minds of all with whom they came in contact. The very opposite appears to be the policy of the Minister. The present Government have been more than once accused of being hostile to education, and as being anxious to check its too rapid progress. They may have no such intention, but such at any rate is the result of their conduct.