The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 617, 6 October 1858, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Wednesday, October 6. STt is always with feelings of satisfaction that we chronicle from time to time.any -new occurrence which points to the gradual development of that system of colonization which was first initiated by the "Canterbury Association : that system which started with the recognition of the intellectual and moral wants as well as of nthe social and material requirements of the colonist. The task of commemorating the •steps which we are gaining" towards the mental elevation of the community ought to be no less pleasing than that of noting our progress in the more tangible, though not more real, benefit which .consists in outward prosperity. It was long a subject of reproach—almost of -.-derision — against this settlement amongst those old colonists who called themselves par excellence "practical men" —but who, from -being engaged k the matter-of-fact affairs :of daily life, were unable to grasp or unwilling to comprehend an abstract idea, — that those grand projects and high-flown theories which the Association in England

had. first the courage to propound did not only not start into immediate life, but did not even give signs of their future realization. The hopes held out of material prosperity were no less ridiculed than the promises of ■moral and intellectual advancement. The one and the other appeared to these practical men equally Utopian. The one, however, is no longer a matter of dispute: no one doubts that we are really prosperous ; the other is fast taking form and substance.

We have 'been drawn into these reflection by the result of the recent examinations of candidates for the Somes scholarships. That result doubtless furnishes : matter for deep and serious consideration. •Our College and Grammar School—at first ■scarcely heard of—struggling, up to a : recent time, for its very existence—beset with all sorts of difficulties—has at last -become a great fact. It has become an institution capable of exercising a great and lasting influence in the training and moulding of the minds of those who are to come after us, and thus it may acquire an almost unlimited power in directing the fortunes and tendencies of all the members of our community. Looked upon in this light, the late examination for the Somes ■scholarship, acquires an importance and a significance which would not otherwise "belong to it. It is another step gained. ■It is as it were the commencement of a new era; and it is for this reason that the •circumstances attending it are matters of .the deepest interest to us all. We do not wish to lay stress upon the money value of these scholarships; though they are indeed remarkable as being by far higher in this respect than those of any similar establishment in the colony, and are thus calculated to hold out a real inducement for boys to sit down and study regularly and systematically with a tangible and immediate object before them. But this is not ■the feature in these scholarships which most interests the public at large. The real question of importance to us is what result the Jate examination shews. We want to know how the work is being done. How are the advantages we possess being turned to account? How is that lever being applied which may, in proper hands, perform as •we have said a work of the greatest magnitud.?; which may, on the one hand, confer upon us a most lasting benefit, or which 6ii th.3 oi her hand may result in a miserable failure?

And here we arc free to admit; that we •look upon fchis examination with mingled ■feeling's. One fact stands out with "disagreeable prominence and clearness: that >of all the candidates who came forward as -competitors, all of whom were pupils of -the Grammar Sclidcd, not one, in the •opinion bf tlie examiners, g-av-e evidence of 'attainments Sufficient to entitle him to the highe.:f seholar&Vip. Jn one point of view Vfc cua oak at thifc.resulfc with satisfaction.

I It is at least an evidence that the college authorities are disposed to exercise the trust which has been committed to them under a stern sense of the responsibility of their position. It is an evidence that no desire for display, no wish to conceal shortcomings, no anxiety to give a false lustre to the institution to which they belong, will induce them to be satisfied with a low standard of excellence, or to confer those benefits which were intended for the reward of real merit upon any but those who have fairly earned them. But, however gratifying this may be, and however satisfactory it may be to feel that we can implicitly rely upon the strict performance by the college authorities of the duties confided to them, the fact that such a decision as that recorded should have been arrived at, the thought that the justice of the case should have necessitated this decision, is one which suggests feeling's quite the opposite of satisfactory. To the minds of one cognisant only of the bare fact before him, and not conversant with the details of the management of the Grammar School, or with the special circumstances which may have operated to produce the result, this failure in finding boys in the school capable of reaching the required standard would argue a want of efficiency in that ! institution; it would at first sight lead one to suppose that there was something wrong either in the management and discipline of the school, or in the application and subordination of the scholars. But while we confess to some feelings of disappointment at the facts before us, we are still willing to admit that there may be in the present case special circumstances which go far to extenuate, if not wholly to excuse, those defects which have been made apparent by the present examination. There are, no doubt, always special causes operating in a colonial school, which are not felt in England, and which are constantly interfering with the regular and systematic studies of the boys. So true, indeed, is tins that we think we can safely say that no educational establishment in

the whole colony has answered to the full the expectations of its promoters and founders. Some have had a greater or less degree of success, while others have completely failed. But we think we may assert that, owing to peculiar advantages enjoyed by us, some arising from external assistance, others from internal management, our College and Grammar School have upon the whole been the most successfully worked of any. While, however, we admit this to the fullest extentwhile we are quite willing to acknowledge that the position of this, as compared with that of similar establishments in the colony is a just cause for congratulation— still we cannot conceal from ourselves that there is evidence of many defects, that much remains to be done before our educational machinery is put upon a proper footing, that a greater degree of system and method are required before it attains to that completeness which the advantages we enjoy would justify us in expecting. The full realisation of these expectations must, no doubt, like every other great work, be a work of time ; it must develop itself gradually; and all we have a right to hope is, that every new occasion will show that at least some progress has been made. In short, we think that we are justified in hoping now, after the first difficulties have been overcome—with appliances of every kind more perfect— with a system of supervision more effective—in short, with the whole organization of our educational establishments more complete—that our College and Grammar School will take the position originally intended for it as the leader and guide of education, as the great means of diffusing information and promoting the mental culture of the people.

The most important undertaking- foreshadowed in his Honor's speech, on opening the Provincial Council on Friday last, is the proposed railway between Christchurch and Lyttelton, involving as it does a tunnel through the Port Hills. This project is one which has been often debated, but up to this time doubts have existed as to whether the province would be able, for a long time to come, to face the necessary expenditure. No one has doubted the advantages that would arise from the completion of the work; the only difference of opinion has been as to the date at which it could be attempted.

The progress of the province has of late been so rapid, so healthy, and so steady, that, most of these doubts are fast disappearing. There are signs of the times on every side which bid us look forward to a very early increase of population, sucn as

was not dreamt of a couple of years back. The increasing- land sales, besides swellingour income so largely, point to surer mines of wealth than the revenue they bring-. It is time for us to be prepared for an altered state of thing's, and to increase by our own exertions the prosperity which appears , likely to pour in upon us. The one great impediment to our progress has been the want of sufficiently ready communication between the port and the plains. With good steamers plying between Lyttelton and tfie Heathcote, and a good mail road over Evans Pass, we certainly might get on very well: these conveniences we will have ere long-; but a railroad through the hill is the one thing- wanting to complete the adtages naturally offered by this province. When this work is completed, the value of land on the plains will be doubled, our farmers will be able to compete with any in the southern hemisphere, and our sheepformers will save half the expense of sending their wool into the London market. Bnt there is little need of attempting to enumerate the benefits direct or indirect to be derived from such a work. The question of means is, after all, the only one to be considered. But if it is shown that for some years to come an extraordinary surplus revenue may be looked forward to after the completion of the ordinary public works, a surplus as large as could' be advantageously expended on the tunnel during the time it is in progress — if we can see our way to completing such a work without a loan—surely there are few who would not be satisfied of the wisdom of the undertaking. That such a surplus is Jikely to exist for some years, and that this is the auspicious time for commencing the work in question, we firmly believe. The subject has attracted universal attention, being one in which the interests of all are seriously implicated. It is therefore with no small anxiety that the Provincial Secretary's financial statement will be looked forward to, embracing* as it will the consideration of a vote for commencing the undertaking". We have full confidence that such an expenditure would leave ample means for all other works of more pressing necessity.

A Bill which was introduced into the General Assembly in its late session, at the instance of several leading trustees of the Auckland Savings Bank, to amend the

law relating to such banks, proposed to enact, among other things, that it should be lawful for the funds accumulating from deposits to be invested only in mortgages or Government securities. Under the then existing law it had been permitted to discount approved bills at short dates; and in this way the greatest portion of the funds of many savings banks throughout New Zealand had regularly been invested. Such had not, however, been the practice of the Auckland bank, and its managers accordingly did not desire to include in the new law any power of discounting, a power which they themselves were afraid to use, and therefore believed to be dangerous in the bands of others. But on the remonstrance of some members who were acquainted with the operations of savings banks in the South, and who represented strongly that a large portion of the business remunerative to depositors, and, as experience showed, without risk, would be thus put out of the reach of the banks ; and that though, in more favoured localities, with larger resources, and in a central position, an institution like that of Auckland might thrive upon mortgages and Government securities, those at a distance from the seat of Government and with more i limited means required opportunities for the investment of small sums in such a way as to be readily accessible in case of pressure from depositors desiring "to withdraw; taking these remonstrances into consideration, the merchant princes of the capital generously agreed to relax the sternness of their virtue in favour of their weaker brethren, and to compromise the question at issue by permitting those who wished to ruin themselves to do so partially. A clause was accordingly introduced into the bill by which it became lawful for the Governor, on application from two-thirds of the trustees of any savings bank, to authorise them to lend its funds on the discount of bills, to the extent of one-half the total deposits. The bank established in this province is one of those which have nourished mightily upon discounts, not only without loss to the depositors, but to their very great advantage. As soon, therefore, as the provisions of the new act were known, the trustees made application to his Excellency in the manner enacted j at the same time taking occasion to express

freely, but with due formality, their opinion as to the wisdom of the measure. The memorial which was adopted we give below : it was forwai'ded to Auckland by'the last trip of the White Swan, and possibly the answer may be received on her return. The act, however, came into operation on the first of the present month, and, until receipt of the Governor's sanction, the discounting- operations of the bank are suspended. For the loss of a certain quantity of interest in the meantime the thanks of depositors are due to the merchant trustees of the Auckland Saving's Bank, who, in the practice of a severe (shall we say necessary?) morality have rescued their fellow townsmen from the danger of dishonouring' their acceptances.

To His Excellency Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, Compan on of the most Honourable Order of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand, and Vice Admiral of the same. &c, &c. The Humble Petition of the Vice President and Trustees of the Lyttelton Savings Bank sheweth:— That the Lyttelton Savings Bank has been in existence about three years: that already a comparatively large amount has been received from numerous depositors, whose payments have varied from one shilling to several pounds sterling: that the Savings Bank has thus become an Institution highly useful to the Province of Canterbury, as shown by its having already established a Branch at Christchurch, and by the demand made for another branch at Kaiapoi: That in the absence of Government securities, affording safe and sufficiently profitable inrestment for the Bank's funds, aud being at the same time easily convertible into money, when the reserve in hand would not supply the amount of deposits about to be withdrawn, the Trustees have under authority of the Savings Bank Ordinance, Session 8, No. 4, 1847, habitually lent money upon Bills of Exchange: that such Bills always bear the names of not less than two, but generally of more, responsible and undoubtedly substantial householders, and, being transferable by endorsement, Avould be discounted by the Union Bank whenever auy unusual or unexpected demands may be made on the Trustees by their Depositors : That their past experience in making loans leads the Trustees to prefer the security of such Bills (for moderate amounts) to that of mortgages on freeholds, which could be foreclosed only after incurring heavy legal expenses, and that often too late to meet a sudden panic, or an extraordinary drain upon the Bank's reserve: that therefore, if compelled to invest their available funds on mortgage or in Government securities only, the Trustees might often be caused considerable anxiety, and incur heavy pecuniary responsibility: That your petitioners have heard with regret that the General Assembly, in legislating anew for savings banks, has prohibited, except in particular cases, loans by way of disconnt on bills in the manner hereinbefore referred to: that the Trustees humbly submit to your Excellency, that this prohibition of a highly profitable and reasonably safe mode of investment was in no way required by the circumstances of this province, where money is worth from 12 to 15 per cent, on the best security : that in this respect the original ordinance might with advantage have been left untouched ; and that it is to be regretted that the Trustees of the savings bank in this province, were neither called in evidence nor allowed the opportunity to represent the injurious bearing of the act on their operations, before it was finally passed Your Petitioners further submit, that if they are deprived of the power of investing their funds in the discount of bills, the profits of the bank will be very seriously reduced, and a comparatively large sum, the savings of many industrious and frugal depositors, will remain in hand en - tirely unremunerative; for the only general banking£stablishment in the province allows no interest upon money deposited with it. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray, in the interests of their depositors, that your Excellency will be pleased to proclaim in terms of the act that the Lyttelton Savings Bank Trustees shall be authorised to invest their funds to the full extent S-u e J J*7 the act 'in the discounting of lulls of Exchange, or in Promissory notes, bearing the names of two or more approved persons : and your petitioners will ever pray, (Signed by the Vice-President and all the acting Trustees of the Bank.)