THE Marlborough Express. SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1869.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 163, 13 March 1869, Page 3

THE Marlborough Express.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1869.

“ Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all other liberties.’ —Milton.

What shall we do with our Sons? This question has frequently presented itself to our mind, when looking with thoughtful eye upon the youth growing up around us. Amongst the numerous difficulties of a Colonial life, there are few which present a more formidable appearance to the father of a family than the solution of this question. We hear at times much talk about Education, and Constitutional Politicians will proclaim the fact that the highest offices in the State, below the Governor, are open to the aspirations of the artizan and laborer; he has but to persevere ! As an abstract theory, this may be all very nice, and tolerably true. But if we practically examine the facts, how do they stand ? Our Educational system is terribly clumsy, and far from cheap. Our boys, as a whole, cannot obtain an education nearly equal to children of the same classes of society in the old country, and when we can no longer afford to keep them at school, what are we to do with them ?

How few ai*e the branches of industry which are open to them. We might venture to say that not more than one boy in fifty has any chance of learning a trade, or of following any occupation more intellectual than swine-herding ; and when the pressure of circumstances compels a parent to send his son, a little fellow perchance, who has been tenderly reared, to some Station, does he know the moral training he is likely to receive 1 In all probability the boy will be sent to eat and sleep in what is generally known as “ the men’s whare.” We need not enlarge bn the style of conversation and amusement which genelally obtains in these places after working hours, but our opinion is that if the youth does not become thoroughly accomplished in twelve months, he has only to be transplanted to a soldiers’ barracks, or a ship of war. And to what position do boys so trained arrive in manhood 1 They swell the ranks of low-paid and unskilled labor ; the little education they had has been entirely neglected; they are fit for nothing but the common drudgery of an up-country life; and, when they get their six or twelve months wages, to come into town, and, as the phrase goes. “ knock down” the hardearned money at billiards, or “yankee-grab.” How little do such men know of their duties as citizens; much less are they calculated to aspire to the highest offices in the State !

It is of very little use to society that our Political Institutions are liberalised, unless we endeavor to keep our social progress equally forward in the march of time. We must ever bear in mind the importance of early training in the formation of character, and at the same time remember that it is as applicable to communities as I to individuals. It is high time that we, as a community, should shake off the feeling of dependance on the distant workshops the Old World, and our American cousins ; it is a duty we owe to ourselves, as well as our children, to use every possible means to establish amongst ourselves, centres of productive industry. We have frequently touched upon this important subject in former issues of the Express, and in a recent article stated that we believed we could point out some of the local manufactures which might be advantageously carried on in New Zealand ; and also the best means of establishing them ; we purpose to redeem our promise immediately

by directing public attention to the vast stores of the materials of wealth, which are everywhere surrounding us, and which only require the application of that ingenuity and perseverance bequeathed to us by sires who have conquered more than half the world—- “ Leaving footprints on the sands of Time.” Let us seriously apply ourselves to the developement of Local Industry, and we shall find therein a solution of the question —What shall we do with our Sons 1