The Globe. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1876.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 527, 25 February 1876, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1876.

A telegram from Wellington, which appeared in yesterday’s issue, informs us that “ the Education Board, after a “ long debate, withdrew the aid at pre- “ sent granted to Eoman Catholic and Church of England educational “ bodies, thus practically declaring for “ secular education.” The board may be supposed to represent the opinions of the people of the province of Wellington, and therefore we may infer that the ratepayers are, as in Canterbury, in favour of education being made “free, compulsory, and unsec- “ tarian.” When the provinces are finally swept away, and the new order of things commences, we hope to see one system of education for the whole of New Zealand, and that system under competent inspectors appointed by the Government. We do not want to see a Minister of Education in one province, or county, and an elective or nominated Board in another. One Minister of Education at head quarters, with experienced inspectors, who might be occasionally transferred from one district to another, would be enough, though the Minister’s appointment ought to be no sinecure. There is hard work and plenty of it, for any gentleman appointed to the position, to do. He will have to reconcile the various systems now in force, and bring the whole of the present machinery of the department into working order- Not that we doubt but that good work is being done under the present system in various parts of the colony, but it would be far better that the Minister should have the power of appointing a master to any school where a vacancy may occur, with a certainty that the new-comer will be able to take up the educational course where his predecessor has left it; than that he should be compelled to appoint a man to a vacancy who has no knowledge of the system pursued by the master he has replaced. If the appointment of the master is still left in the hands of the various local School Committees subject to the Minister’s approval, then the Inspector’s report as to the results of the work done in the school will determine whether the master is doing his duty or not, and if the results are not satisfactory, the power of removal should be in the hands of the Minister of Education. We are sure our readers will agree with us that local influence has very often a great deal to do with the appointment of a master, and that though a Committee may advertise for a qualified master, yet that the appointment is frequently virtually made at the very time the advertisement is issued, Eeform in the Education department is much wanted, and as the question was important enough in the eyes of the Canterbury electors to turn several of the elections, it is to be hoped that those members who have been returned to the House, through their opinions on the subject, will not suffer the matter to drop, when Parliament assembles. The measures passed in the last session of the Canterbury Provincial Council meet with little or no approval from the body of the inhabitants of the province, and we trust that the mischief done in that session by the action of the Provincial Executive on this question, may not remain as a legacy to us when the Executive itself shall have ceased to exist as such.