Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12. 1889. EDUCATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue II, 12 November 1889, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12. 1889. EDUCATION.

It may seem to he wearying to our readers to so frequently refer to the subject of Education, but he very great importance of the subject demands a greater attention being paid to it, than any other which comes within the circle of our colonial politics. The exceeding heavy coat of providing 'this, misnamed, free education, ,weighs upon the, shoulders of the taxpayer, with a -power almost beyond that, which they c n be;ir, amounting to.'v'close on ii 00,000 a year. If this was a fixed sum, we could hope that by increase in the population the cost would lie light encd, but .experience has shown that the amount grows larger year by year, exceeding the growth of - the populationj and each year the cry comes .from every Education Board in the colbu-y'tliat the sums set apart for buildings ure as nothing to the sums required, proving that the liabilities on Uihis head incr ase, if all els * remain the same The Act has been in foroo since 1876 and as usual in this country, an extravagance in building was indulged in, on first bringing he act into operatio i. As the larger |number of schools are built of Jwood, we have the prospect before, up, of being ca led upon by fresh tax tion, to replace these ea»Jier buildings, lesidea finding the money for the further school building 1 ' requited, to keep faith with the settl rs in newly op ned districts. A straw shows which way he wind bloy o. and Mr \rthur addressing thf ' -oltftosN at P verty Hay the other tiny, sail I. '• I am a strong advocate of free" win cation but consider that under pivseut circumstances the cost is givatffi 1 than we can afford." Mr Arthur is to be c J <ttntnendsd T for th ; :§ Jionesf o.v. pressiou of opinion, ami tho soon or •the rest of bur politicians will jxlrnit the fact that we annot aft.rl the ayateiu that ii» now run in th«> int«v«

ests of th& few, at the cost of tlie majority, tiv better. It has been made a cry that higher education is all td the advantage of the poor man but the hard stern facts are, that the poor man does not or cannot tak that advantage for the benefit of liis children. So clear is this, hat whe. eas in tlie... 3th standard there may be attend ng s me IS 000 children, in the st'i standard there will be found only 8000, and only 4000 in the Gth standard. Another fact ; stands oat, which the settlers not residing- in the large to.vis deserve consideration, that about. 80,000 children-. li» c in the county &3d those residing in towns numbeabout 65,000 who a tend school, thus bearing no proportion to the population between town and co n try. We have no desire t > set one i district against another district, but it is a well to bear in mind that the minority residing in, the towns, and who are thus placed s->-as to obtain the fullest advantage of the Act, are the loudest in thoir urging the continuance of it, as it is. The settlers in the country, on the other hand, should rouse themselves to ba heard also on tin's question, and to tlieai the l'aising of the ag • of entrance, and the abolition of free education after the 4th Standard, w uld mean all gain ; but they are told differently by their 1 aders. It is considered unpatriotic to writ ♦ against the present Education Act, as the Government look upon it as perfec tion, or else justify our view of it by

j fearing to amend it, lest i, should i fall to pieces, ;his accounts for! their aI\VA3'S postponing any discus- 1 si n, and as far as they may be con ■ earned their action may be justified. ! Ou our part, as ratepayers, we ore j not justified in bolstering up any machinery which displays its weak ness in so many places, and by con-; tinual doing so, we only imitate the ostvicb, which, when frightened, hides its head, believiug as it cannot see. no one can see it. If the cry of the Education Boards are legitimate the Act is weak, there are not the funds to do what is needed, the people who havo scoools may be content, but faith is not being kept with those who need schools but cannot obtain them. The Act then becomes merely a general taxing machine, which, whilst capable of withdrawing money from th* settler, is incapable of relurn'ng him, as it was Mipposed to do, his moneys worth. It will be cheaper and better for al , the sooner the question is discussed j and amended, but without discussio i ; there will be no amendment, and the i losing parties wj 1 be those taxpayers j I who •>;<> forth into the country to iuaI prove t.lit* productiveness of the i col n> . We have no desire by these > remarks to let it be understood that j we desire to see 'the whole system j I svvept away, but we do mo t earn- j ; cstlv desire to see every economy adopted in its administration, and the curtailing of the education with- > out schoo tees. We holt that t'le ; age of five is much too young to ad- j j unit infants to the State school, and [ tin rei'ore the age should be raised, j and seeing how fey take advantage j of the two highest stand rds, some ! small charge should be made to those j who are fortunately paced to be • able to take advantage of them. On ths other subjects of cheaper al- : ministration by removal of all district Boards, -the placing of inspectors whul y under Government control, and a fair r system of scholarship , we. may review on another! occasion, but wo sh-ill havo succeeded in our efforts if we have enabled our read rs to take some other i view of the position to that the ma J jority otour politicians choose to lay j before the electors, and thus provide matter for future considerate n.