Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1880.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume III, Issue 194, 28 January 1881, Page 2

Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1880.

Educational matters being now the principal topic exercising the minds of the public it will not be out of place to consider the working of the prcsM' Education Act. There can be no doubt but that in many respects the measure has proved an imperfect one, and that its defects will have to be remedied at the earliest opportunity. With the grand principle of free national and strictly secular education a majority of the public are entirely in accord ; but the method of workingout its details is not all that might be wished. It was not to be expected that any scheme entailing the introduction of an entirely new order of things could be produced free of blemish or shortcoming. The application of the principles laid down and a preliminary experience of their utility was necessary before the Act could be modified to suit every requirement. It lias now had a fair trial, and it has been found that in several important particulars fresh legislation is necessary. One of these is the system of cumulative voting which is allowed at ™e election of School Committees, and which is totally different from the old system. Every voter now lias a number of votes equal to the number of members to be elected, and he may give the whole of these to any single candidate. The object of this cumulative system is said to be to allow electoral minorities to become represented, it being apparently forgotten that the privilege- extended might be liable to great abuse. In numbers of eases it lias led to the representation of very small cliques. The old system was not without faults, but it had the advantage of being definite, and showed unmistakeably the state of public and personal opinion. The Committees should be appointed by unanimous and healthy majorities, not by votes split up into fractions, each fraction representing some purely personal caprice of the voter. contemporary puts it, when the voter under the cumulative system has distributed all his voting power, there is still a minority unrepresented; becauss if there are, say, seven seats, and a number of candidates iu excess of the number of seats, that number in excess, who do not succeed in securing their election, are what would be called an unrepresented minority. If people, in the affairs of life, were guided solely by numbers, the representation of minorities would be at least apparently satisfactory ; and if no influences tending to destroy the evidently good intentions of the authors of the scheme were not almost certain to be used in its realisation, we might conclude that the new was superior to the old plan. Elections by majorities have not been free from;bribery, intimidation, and corruption; but at the worst, such elections have, on the whole, genei 1 - ated a very active public opinion on public themes ; and, on the contrary, in our opinion, under the cumulative scheme, we consider that the healthy tone of public life will be usurped by parish cliques and purely personal despotism and monopolies. Election by a majority is a trial of strength. It may be bad strength or good strength. Under the new plan there may be strength, but it will not be concentrated ; on the contrary, it will be distributed and split up into

fractions. There is also another particular iii 'which the Act is defective. At present the nomination and election of candidates is fixed for the same day, and the public are thus left without an opportunity of considering and calmly disc" .sing the relati\c merits of those nominated. In this respect the Act is abac A singular m its operation, the general practice being to aflord every opportunity for the ventilation of public opinion. At least a week should elapse between the nomination and election, and we cannot understand why such a provision was not inserted in the Act. There is too much indecent haste in these elections as at present conducted, and it is very necessary that more time for deliberation should be afforded. It. would also he better if it were made incumoent upon the Secretaries of Hoards or other qualified official to prepare a roll of persons who were entitled to vote. In this respect the provisions of the Act are not strict enough, and an amount of abuse is likely to creep in. Among other things we trust to see these defects remedied during next se ion.

Th kris are a few well-meaning but shortsighted gentlemen in Dimed n who are using their utmost endeavors to persuade the public'to revert to the old system of education. With the object of giving rqlAitional weight to their pet theory they have formed themselves into a “Bible-in-Nchools Association,” and last week held a meeting in the Temperance Hall, Dunedin, to consider the advisability of introducing the Bible into our State schools. At that meeting a resolution was carried by a majority of 3 to 1, affirming the expediency of not interfering with the present position of the law on that point, and the very fact of such a resolution being carried, at a meeting convened for a purpose precisely opposite tends to show that the denominationalists are losing ground. ft is not within our province to enter into the (picstion of whether the Bible is an inspired work, or whether any particular vetsion of its meaning is correct. To solve that question satisfactorily would . appear to require inspiration itself, judging from the variety and diversity of views which have been extracted from its pages, for the purpose of argument, however, we may divide the Christian portion of the community into two classes —Catholic and Protestant. Bach of these adopts a different version of the Scriptures—the Douay and the Authorised —and the question presents itself —\\ liich of these versions is to he used in schools? One alone must be selected, for under prethe .State cannot afioid to Subsidise every shade of religious belief, although, unless this were done, rank injustice would be perpetrated on some one or other of the numerous denominations. Then again, when the revised edition of the Bible which is now being prepared is issued, we shall doubtless have anothqi following, who will insist that their particular reading is the only true and correct one. Besides this, there are many amongst us of the class known as Freethinkers, who strongly object to the introduction of anything 0 known as religious into a scheme of national education, and by an alteration of the present system they would doubtless consider themselves injuriously afleeted. The subject is beset with too many difficulties for any Legislature to hope to deal with it, except in one summary wav, and that is by its total exclusion. It involves questions of belief and conviction which cannot be decided by major ties of numbers and if it were decided to carry out the views of the Association by an overwhelming majority, no one could logically infer that for that reason the course pursued was right. The present position of the State towards education is the only one which ua. bo expected to treat all parties justly, trust it will not lie altered. in a speqcli ouce delivered by President Grant we find the following remarks, which are worthy of careful perusal by the Bible-in-Schoois Association: “Let us labor for security of free thought, free speech, free Press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and the equal rights and privileges of all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion • encourage free schools ; resolve that not one dollar appropriated to them shall go to the support of any sectarian school ; resolve that neither State nor nation shall support any institutions save those where every child may get common school education unmixed with any atheistic, pagan, or sectarian teaching ; leave the matter of religions teaching to the family altar, and keep Church and State for ever separate."