NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 183, 10 July 1869, Page 4

N ATIONAL EDUCATION.

To the Editor of the Murlborouyh Express. Sis, Having taken a prominent part at the late mirting on the subject of Education, I am induced to ask the favor of a portion of your space, as I could nut, without trespassing on the time of the meeting, express my views in favor of a national system of education. Mr. Joseph Ward very justly condemned the cry for separation, which hasdiiring the lasi tew years obtained in New Zealand. Viewing this Colony as the embryo of a great nation, 1 no.si earnestly desire the preservation of our integrity as a p. oj.le, and look to education as one of the me .ns to lids end. lam also ol opinion that under a truly national system, our children would ho both cheaply ant 1 efficiently instructed. At present each I'rovmce lias a separate system, and the children of a family removing from one to another, are ne. essarily retarded in their studies on arriving at. a school where everything is so different to that which they have so teeenlly att< tided. The hooks which have been procured at. considerable cost, are no longer list till ; anil 1 have found front personal experience the cost of school-books and stationery to form a heavy item in the year’s expenditure. 1 may also add that 1 consider those procurable in the colonies fall far short of the requirements of colonial schools

Under a good National System, it would he the duty of a central Conned of Education to define the general principles on which all the public schools ol the Colony should he conducted ; the form and manner in which the rates and fees should be levied; to devise a general plan for endowment; to establish not mat schools for the training of masters and leat hers, and to define their necessary qualification ; to superintend the production of an unitorm class of school-books adopted to the Colony; to f.i-ter and I remote the establishment of literary and scientific institutions, local museums, schools of design, and galleries of art—especially those calculated to advance the establishment ol local indnstriis. hutch is a brief outline of what 1 conceive it to he the duty of the State to provide for the education of the people. The supervision of each school should of course bo entrusted to a local board elected by the people, subject to period.cal examinations by a Government School Inspector. 1 have already said that I consider it the duty ol the Slate to do these things, and my opinion is based on the assumption that education is a preventative to eiimo. Mr. Ward, hacked by the high sounding authority of Sir Archibald Alison attempted to prove that education was the reverse of a blessing to mankind, and agreed that it was bad to learn to write, as it enabled a man to commit forgery, and said that lie knew plenty of men who could not read and write, who were as good settlers and us prosperous farmers as any ol those who could. Why, Sir, 1 might, with equal justice, assert that nature made a mistake w hen she gave dogs four legs, because I have seen one who had only Hire * and a “ hillock,” run quit • as fast as ids confreres who had not been maimed. To argue against the good of knowledge, because it lias been abused, is merely begging the question. Mr. Ward admits in polities what he forgets in the social and moral progress of man, namely, that a state of transition is a state of pain, tiiat before wo can arrive at perfection, we must pass through years, age, an t ages of confusion and toil of anarchy, and disappointment; but is this any teason why wo should cry bait? Should wo not rather put shoulder to shoulder and push on. M'is ignorance, not education, that causes crime. The knowledge doled out to man for ages by cloistered monks and power-loving priests has scarcely burst the barriers that shut it in. We have been educated not to make ns happy and virtuous here on earth, but to make us fit candidates for Heaven We have been taught to despise our “earthly labelnaeles,” and to grovel like vile worms at the (eel ol altars and of thrones. Yes, we have intellecfiiulised and spiritualised, but we have tailed to realise ! while professing to teach tiie love of truth and of one another; Society even now will brand as t lie enemy of his country and his God the man who dares to think for himself, thus sowing tho seeds of ‘‘envy, hatred, malice, and all such uncharitabloness.’’

“ The thirst of knowledge never made men had ; Tis Bell-conceit, wrapt, in his Inns e.tied skin, Of must supreme contempt Unit makes men base. Or if it dads them base, to folly adds Insufferable vanity, that fain Would make their minds the measuring rods of tiuth.” Apologising for the length of my letter, I am, July 8,1809. C. J. Hat