OUR MOTHER TONGUE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1164, 6 November 1871, Page 2

OUR MOTHER TONGUE.

[AUSTRALASIAN.] At the antiual meeting of the- Tasma--man Council of Education held in Holaait Town on the 18th October, when the customary degrees were conferred* and the exhibitions and scholarships were awarded, the hon Mr Innes, the president of the Council, made some sensible remarks as to the defective reading of the pupils, and also in relation to the comparative neglect of English literature as a branch of higher education, His remarks on the former subject were these ; " Tf the accomplishment of good read-* ing is not mastered in its main elements in youth, it will rarely, if ever, be acquired in anything like profipivnc-y afterwards. The best readers and speakers will be found, almost as a general rule, to have derived their earliest lessons from mother's in whose voice there was music, or at least intelligent expressiveness. And no one who reflects will entertain the idea that the value, the practical usefulness and effect of having been taught to read well is confined to the circle of professions in which reading ov speaking is specially required. Whatever a man's avocations or pursuits may be, his success will certainly be impeded, or his talents may fail of their recompense, as the result of an awkward, hesitating address*, a neglk gent, nasal, dissonant habit of speech, delects which reading an.d recitation would have corrected/' Yet not one boy, and certainly not one man, in a hunbred is capable of reading either prose or poetry is such a manner as not to wound a critical ear; and eren where they have acquired clearness of articulation, accuracy of pronunciation, and correctness of emphasis, it is very often mechanical. They do not read understandingly. The/ repeat the words unimpressively,, because they themselves have not been impressed by what those words convey. It is like listening to an emotional song, sei to emotional music, delivered by an unemotional singer. The tones of the voice penetrate the ear, but they da not touch the heart. To remedy the defect complained of by Mr Innes, two, things are required—a svslematic cultivation of the vocal organ, and, at the same time, an intelligent comprehension of the meaning of the passage read. Ask a boy to explain three or four lines from Milton, Shakespeare, Pope, or Tennyson, and you will find, too often, that it has conveyed just as little fiffnitication to his mind as would a similar number of words from some loleign language with which he is unacquainted. What wonder, then, if under such circumstances, he reads in a singsong, slipshod, and ineffective manner? And as is the boy, such, \s. the man, Follow him into the pulpit, the municipal council chamber, the legislature,, the court of justice, the public meeting,, or elsewhere, and observe what a t'ai uire he becomes as a public speaker, preacher, or reader. With respect to the comparative neglect of English literature, we be--lievo the complaint is not so wen founded as it was a few years ago; hut this branch of study is still far from assuming the prominence and important* in om superior schools to which it l * entitled. Wo have no wish to depreciate or set asido Urn cutivatiou of the language and literature of ancient

Greece or Rome. Both are of the highest value, as well for the purposes of mental discipline a.s of intellectual nourishment. But no system of education can be complete which omits to ground the .student in the copious literature of his noble mother tongue, .and in the instructive history of our venerable fatherland. The latter more especially should be mastered by every .schoolboy for his information and guidance in after life. One of our old wri ters tells us that " History maketh a young man to be old without either Wrinkles or grey hairs, privileging him with the of age without either the infirmities or the inconveniences thereof." And nowhere is there such urgent need foi the experience so acquired as in a British Colony under democratic rule, fornowhere is ignorance more intrepid or influential, nowhere do men set themselves up as political leaders and instructors of the people with a greater destination of every necessary qualification for the office than in such a community. The best established truths in economic science are recklessly assailed, and the most supremely absurd fallacies seriously put forward as axiomatic principles by men whose misfortune it is to be unacquainted with the historical or scientific proofs of the former, and with the circumstances attending the demoralization of the letter. And since it is by a majority of uninformed or half-informed persons that the Legislature and Government of a colony are chosen, the inevitable result is misrule and bad laws. Instead of studying and profiting by the lessons of history, the people of such a country repeat the follies it records, and are betrayed into the errors against which it offers its emphatic warnings, until they encounter the disasters which these errors necessarily entail. Under institutions like our own, every man is entitled to take some part, however humble, in public life, and therefore every man is a politician. But how many have even a superficial knowledge of the political history of Great Britain? How many are conversant with the theory and practice of the various forms of Government which have been tried at various epochs in diffeient parts of the world 1 One in a thousand'? Could you name 700 persons in the colony of Victoria who are competently acquainted— or are likely to be so—with this branch of knowledge Of the information and delight to be derived from the study of English literature it is almost superfluous to speak. There is not a single department of it that is not abundantly rich in mental aliment, and the boy who fills his mind with the best thoughts of our best writers will discover in after life that he is the owner of "pleasures fineless," and of A substantial world, both pure and good ; Jtound which, with tendrils strong as flesh and bluod, His pastime and his happiness will grow.