Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 181, 1 July 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1864.

The question is, What is the Provincial Council going to do this time ? We reply to that by asking another: “ What has that august assembly ever done, or wbat is it capable of doing ?’’ If we may judge by past experience, it is not very likely that we shall get much more out of them this time than at any other time. It is not in the nature of things. Poes any one really believe, for

instance, that the eloquent member for Clive city will enunciate anything new or do anything for anybody; he has been there long enough, surely. Or perhaps the member for Poraugahau will enliven the'scene by resuscitating some of his defunct Land Regulation amendments. Ah, choice articles those, certainly, exotics, all of them—but, unfortunately, to all appearance

Born to blush unseen, And waste their fragrance on the desert air, or, what amounts to the same thing, they never get beyond the budding state. We fear there is little hope of any improvement upon the past in the present. The truth is—and like most truths, it is too true to be pleasant—we fear that the wisest head amongst them can devise nothing which will infuse fresh animation into the rapidly-expiring carcase of Hawke’s Bay. A prey to squatters, a prey to unseruplous officialdom, and, in fact, a prey to all manner of carrion animals, this poor young Province is fast, very fast, coining to an untimely end. This is a bad job, is it not, reader ? and it is a very bad sign of the times, too, that not even an attempt is made by any one or more talented members to cover the last moments of our New Province, once the pride and boast of a certain Ministry now defunct, with decency and decorum, by suggesting something in the way of public education, upon a cheap and sound principle. Does it not occur to any of those wealthy fathers of families sitting in state at this moment in that Coun" cil, or to any of those other wealthy, but less productive members in the same predicament, that something ought to be done for their less fortunate fellows, in regard of the bringing up their infants in the way they should go ? We think not. Our fat friend over there with a large family, a banker’a account as large as that, and as robust and juicy as himself, or that respectable but rather dilapidated gentleman yonder who enjoys the questionable reputation of not having any children that he knows of, will tell you that it is a matter of indifference to them whether education be

cheap or clear, good or bad, or whether it is to be got for love or for money, or not at all —it is all one to them. Like enough. But it is not all one to the outsiders here, upon whom the fragrant blossoms from the tree of Fortune have not yet fallen, and to whom Hawke’s Bay is not at present the Land of Goshen. Those good folks would like to get their children educated in an efficient manner, at a reasonable cost. It would immortalize the last moments of Hawke’s Bay if our Legislature would start a' scheme by which this grand object could be attained, or perhaps his Honor as the bell wether of this flock will lead oft’ with something in the direction we indicate. It is really worth while. The Nelson Public Institution for the Education of children under Governmental supervision, answers well, and a child can there get a good sound education with a sufficiency of birch, for a very reasonable sum. If that sort of thing is procurable in one place it is certainly procurable by the same token, in another, and we don’t see any reason why we cannot have something here of the same kind. We believe that everybody in Nelson pays a small sum per annum towards the support of this groat institution. And w r hy not do the same here ? We will venture to say that there is hardly a member in that Council yonder who has notreason to lament the deficiency of his education. Those gentlemen know well enough that in England, had their parents been wise, they might have been well educated at the Charitable Grinders’ Institution, or the Endowed Leather Breeches School for a penny a week, and for a trifle extra, at either of the above admirable seminaries, they might have learned manners, which would have been as great a blessing to them as the reading and writing and such like vanities. Seeing and knowing this, gentlemen, you ought certainly to do something for those i good people who are walking in your footI steps, and whose children will, to a certainty,

be as ignorant and brusque as yourselves unless you do something for them. Look at the Nelson School, take example from it, and do likewise, and you will not be far wrong, and may, very possibly, be quite right, unless you make a mess of the matter, as is your wont.