STATE EDUCATION IN NEW ZEA LAND.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 378, 29 July 1884, Page 5

STATE EDUCATION IN NEW ZEA LAND.

..-.; — : **♦-- ; ■ [A paper read by Mr Douglas at a meeting of the Gore Literary and Debating So- * ciety, held on July 23, 188-t.] • :: •-: -' : 11. - State Educa.tio.k-. — That the State should assume control of. and monopolise the education of a country is a mistake financially, wrong in principle,and generally unsatisfactory. There are two methods of raising money for Educational purposes :—r-a direct and indirect taxation. For such a purpose a direct' t_i__ation is the best ; is less expensiveand brings, home to eyery man" what he actually pays for the benefits accorded' him. In New Zealand how-* evei, we have indirect taxation. It will be well therefore to deal with that method first and to take our own system as exemplifying its working. As beforereuiarked.our education costs,say 1500,000 per annum . and this amount is paid by the people and collected through the Customs. Now, when an importer pays duty on his goods he expects pro.fit; on bis outlay. And when he sells he charges a profit, not on ! the original cost of the article on, but only the cost of the article plus Customs duty and other expenses. Take the average of profit on dutiable articles at 10 per cent, then the retai'er,buyingfrom the iniportnr, pays .10 per cent on the amount* -of 'Customs collected on the article he buys and the consumer, that is, the public at large, pays another 10 per cent not only on th« Customs but ou the amount bf the Customs dues with the importers 10 per cent added. In tiiis way our L 500,000 really costs ijhe people L(sos,ooo, and again, at'a fair computation the cost of working tho system, tliat is,|the expenses, costs of School Boards, committ es, high school Commissioners, Inspectors, and their staffs cannot be less than^Lso,ooo. Thus for abbutL^O.OOO worth of incomplete education th country pays some L 605.000. Onefourth of the itioney is clear loss to the people. It may b,e. .objected that much of the money spent on education comes from endowments of land and not from .the Customs, but this is not really the' f Wase, ihasmuch as these lands are Govermpent: .endowment?,, and if uaed for general ! revenue .purposes i would relieve the' Customs by just so much'as was obtainedffrboi them, j* It may not. (make much difference from a monetary point of view whether a man pays for education, himself or through the '$prernn_ent if the amount be the cam*. ; but when the question is whether he shall pay L 4 1 Os himself or I_6 through the Government he will be economically wise if he pay the amount himself and sees how: it is laid out. There is another loss which the country has to bear under this system and -which is not to ibe considered a light matter because it cannot be stated ib figures, T r allude, -to "the loss of timo entailed ort th,e hundreds of busy,,h_vrd working men who form. our Education i Boards and school corrimittees. Timt tp money, and their time as inteli igen men should be worth, a good deal. There are two methods of direct taxation that could be adopted : —a rate pn property and a poll tax. It is unnepesaary .to enter into their relative merits. The rate on pro- , perty peihaps would be the faiiest since most men with families live in houses, but property 'of this description is ■ already sufficiently burdened. The poll , tax would come heavily on those who have; iio children and would be re* sented accordingly. One thing is tolerably certain, if the money was raised by direct taxation we should Boon have our schools self-supporting, or nearly so by school fees, in which oase it would be cheaper for the people to keep the matter in their own hands and have their children taught as they desired, for by so doing they would save all costs of management and departmental expenses. Our children are treasures committed to our care and their education and training is a trust which! we cannot transfer./ When, however, the Gos vernment. establishes a monopoly in education it deprives its people of freedom of action and forces upon them a courso of study for their children which they must accept, even though they consider it directly harmful. Let us iook at our own history and see if this is not the case. Some fire years ago the parents in Otago decided by a vote of about 5000 to 800 that tha Bible should be read in the schools and they are now no nearer the attainment of their wish than on the day they made tho. declaration. I am; not raising the question of " Bible in schools." whether it be desirable br otherwise it has nothing to do with my contention, I refer to the matter merely to show that under & Btate; system parents lose control of the education of their children and commit their trust to an irresponsible power whose chief aim is not so much the good of the-' schohrs as to establish uniformity. Uniformity in method, knowledge, and thought— the thing as ..happily unattainable, but the attempt is nevertheless objectionable and to' accept such a system is to eacrificea sacred obligation and to voluntarily abandon our : freedom in this matter. The habit of depending on Government aid so prevalent in the colonies and so reprehensible is fos* itered by State education and derives its 7 strongest argument therefrom Stripped of all |garnitur,e of wordy, froth the plea of the unemployed and other clamourers for aid is simply this « The state, acknowledges its responsibility to educate us. That we should be fed and clothsd is more necessary than' 'education; therefore let the State feedand clothe us." The Government is as much or as little bound to teed and Clothe children as to educate them j let the State then do away witb all'such arguments ; neither educate feed nor clothe thetn but cave men tto'feel their responsibility and act upon iim|^nhappily,;;"The poor ye have with you". is true of New.ZeaC7as of other places, and thexr wants .must be supplied in the matter of eduSpas?uthatof food and shelter.

We have also large scattered districts where the parents are too few to make it worth a teacher's while to open school. In these cases too, Government aid might be given in the shape of a subsidy. Assistance from the State sliould, however, be temporary, and for specific cases. All the need for State education ceases when men are sufficiently adyanced to se6 that instruction is necessary for their children ; it then becomes their own duty to see to it. In New Zealand we have never been in such a state of darkness as to require enlightenment on this subject, and our system has been wrong in principle from the first. Each year that passes without change more firmly roots it, anid adds to the difficulty that will be experienced in returning to a sounder state cf things.