Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 186, 5 August 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1864.

The subject of Education is one to which we have directed the attention of our readers at different times, and to which we have desired to rouse the Government to action ; and it would seem from a speech made by Mr. M’Lean in the Provincial Council the other day, that although he does not consider it altogether advisable for the Government to interfere in the matter, yet still they have an idea of doing something therein some of these days. We do not advocate the principle of calling upon the Government to do everything. It is by no means desirable for the people to give up self-reliance, and throw themselves upon the Government to supply all their wants, xi tuai kind of feeling of dependance upon Government is indulged in to too great an estent, it will, like any other bad habit, be difficult tojsbake off, and Government, finding that it is required of them to do this, that, and everything, in consequence of the inpotence and apathy of the people, would be only ready to take advantage of that condition of things to exercise some sort of insufferable but petty invasion of the people’s actual rights, when opportunity offers. But in the particular of Education we are satisfied that legislative interference is necessary. The State is responsible before

God for the education and training of youth. America, France, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Scotland, and to a limited extent, England, recognize this great obligation, and all those countries do so, because it has been found that a great number of people will not send their children to school from sheer indifference, and that’many others cannot send their children to school from poverty or some other difficulty : with us there are examples, no doubt, of both these cases, but we take it that the real cause is to be found in the fact of there being no school to send our children to. The latter difficulty cannot be got over by private enterprise, because of the expenses attendant upon it, and because there are but a few people able or willing to undertake it. A public School or College might be easily provided. Thei’e are large Deserves of land both in the Town of Napier and surrounding country set aside for Educational purposes, and which, under proper management, would yield a very considerable annual revenue fertile'furtherance of the object. And if this source was not sufficient, we cannot imagine that even the most determined grumbler would object to a handsome sum being’annually devoted out of the general revenue, or to a rate being levied, to meet the requirements of the case. It is, however, unnecessary to enter into particulars at this stage. The great foundation Schools of England offer an excellent example, and furnish fine models to work from, and which, with modifications to suit the circumstauces of this country, would, we have no doubt, be found to answer well. There is, however a tendency in a certain part of the system pursued in those Schools, to make the education of youth a pecuniary speculation rather than a great moral obligation on the part of the masters. This can, however, be easily remedied in new foundations. The great drawback to all systems of private, or even of public, education as pursued now-a-days, when the question of supplies has to be considered, is the circumstance that the masters and mistresses are obliged to descend to the level of caterers for the pupils, in order to meet the demands of the body, instead of being entirely their instructors, only occupied with the demands of the mind ; and the greatest difficulty these good people have to contend with, in consequence, is the question of profit and loss. Schools are frequently kept by very ignorant and incompetent people, merely as means to get a living out of the appetites of their pupils. This degrading and humilating part of the business to the teachers can be avoided by the institution in public seminaries of proper officers for the purpose of providing the food, without having any pecuniary interest therein. The Master and Mistress being well paid, and being of well-tried experience and character, would be, both by the rules of the School and by their own inclinations, excluded from entering into any private transactions in relation to the boarding and lodging and teaching of the children, thus at once doing away with a great source of evil. Our population is scattered, owing to the manner in which the country is at present occupied, but that difficulty would be very easily got over by the establishment of such a school as we suggest, where for say £2O a year, a good education, with plenty of plain wholesome food and clean linen, might be got by all those children whose parents choose to accept it for them. We are glad to see that the Superintendent in the speech we refer too, seemed to be alive to the importance of the subject of education, but it is to be regretted that, taking that view of the case, he has passed the matter over for the present, putting off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day.