NATIONAL EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1158, 15 April 1872, Page 3

NATIONAL EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

The Association for the Promotion of National Education in New Zealand, which has lately been started in Otago, have issued an address in which they state :-

This Association believes that a liberal national system of education is an absolute necessity in a young community like ours, where, practically, every man has a voice in the legislation of the country.

(For continuation of hews see 4th Page.)

Political power can be safely wielded only by those who are actuated by moral principle guided by intelligence ; and an education which trains a people to such salutary exercise of their power must practically recognise the perfect and political and religious equality of the soveral members of the community. This Association does not seek that the reading of the Bible in schools should be ither enjoined or prohibited by the Legislature, but will be content that the decision of the question be left to the School Committee, subject to the provision of a b'ww table conscience clause.

This . Association also believes that a denominational system would be a great evil in' New Zealand on account of the miserable jealousies and divisions which would thereby be fostered and perpetuated amongst the youth of the Colony ; on account of the enormous expenses of any Buch system ; on account of its almost universal failure wherever it has been tried ; and on account of the possibility of its being the channel of diverting the funds of the Colony to purposes of a purely sectarian character. This Association would therefore call upon yon, aa you value the political and social birthrights of your children, to unite in an endeavor to avert from our youug country those evils from which so many of the notions of the old world are struggling to escape ; and to secure for yourselves, your children, and your country, a national system of education, liberal, unsectarian, and universal.