TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 244, 7 November 1873, Page 6

TOPICS OF TALK.

Mr. Eish deserves credit for his action with regard to the High, School Jt will be remembered that, in the last /session of the Provincial Council, he proposed that this school should be made self-supporting, on the ground it being a class institution—the'class benefitting being for the most part in affluent circumstances, and therefore not justified in making the State pay for the education of their children. We have before now pointed cut that to the country the High School prer gents small advantages; nor, indeed, is it ©asy to see in what way it is superior to the higher forms of the District . Schools. This .is apparently recognised, as we observe the boys from both schools are to compete for one of the scholarships, which looks like an Implied equality, "We do not think that England and Scotland have gained -..._ So much in their rising men, from what is called high education, to make it advisable to force the same here at an expense to the Province of about £25 n heaji per annum. No measure will be really successful, in our opinion-, that does not make the High School The attempt made by the Naseby Corporation to foster the establishment of briekmaking as a permanent industry has, so far> been barran of result. The Council wished to /flbtaiu bricks for the erection of a Towii Hall, which; |t was thought, would give an industry $ fair start. Other works will shortly be in which brick, : as the bays a preference if it could be obtained at a reasonable cost. The demand for labor may have had a repressing effect on the minds of those competent to undertake such work; but it Should- not be forgotton that this {scarcity is not of a permanent nature, white ia brickfield could be made increasingly productive for many years to come. It certainly does not speak well for the enterprise of the district Hphatihe unconditional tenders calling for 50,000 bricks should, so far as tye know, go absolutely unanswered.

*fHE proceedings of the Church of "England Synod, held at Dunedin, are treating considerable attention. The Py&G-d, the second day, took up the education question, although all members except the Ven. Archdeacon Edwards appeared anxious not to commit themselves to very strong opinions. It i$ $ hopeful sign for the settlement of the question on the only broad base that is feasible—viz.,, a secular one—sh§t nearly a half of the clergy who ?poke' seemed to regard the present State of matters as a sham, and to ac r C£pt the idea of confining education in day schools solely to secular without expressing any great •horror of the infidelity that would be ■sure —as some say—to spring up phouM this, safeguard be removed. "\Vhat is this safeguard ? The reading ipf a.small pgrtipji of the Book which fshoald be treated as sacred, and to be revered above all books, at a time when the children's minds are excited with the rush into school, and the "moKB earnest of thein with tlje lessons $o follow. To attempt to give special religious instruction in school hours -Open to ministers of all denominations could not be beneficial to children, nor prove practicable in any degree, if no special schools.for the purpose -can be organised to meet at other hours than those at present utilised, we are afraid that no attempted uaombination would lead to an improved being given in what, after fill, is the main branch of education—%he responsibilities of men and women as inculcated by 4 liberal and practical Jphrietianity.

. La?£ European telegrams, published In another column, announce 1 the death i>t' th« l?ev, Dr. Candliah, the eminent f&otch diving of whom the following fcotke appears in ' Mei of the Time;' —«' the ttev. Robert Smith, £>,£„ was born at Edipburgh on the Mareb, 180?, and having been feijqcated at Glasgow, was engaged as •*> private tuto? at Eton, and m 1828 ligsnascj as a preacher fey the IPreeby-

ministei? of Sfc. Andrew'g, Glasgow. In! 1831 he officiated in a like capacity at; Bonnhill, in. the Vale of Leven, wheie he remained until bis call to Edinburgh. In 1839 he took a prominent part iu the debates in the G-eneral Assembly, and in 1843, the year of the disruption, left the Scotch Kirk for the. Free Church, In . 1845 and 1846 he was largely concerned in the establishment of the Evangelical Alliance. In the last-named year Dr. Candiish. was appointed Convener of the Education Committee of the Eree Church. In 1847 he was, upon the death o*f Dr. Chalmers, appointed to the Chair of Divinity in New College. On the death of Dr. Cunningham, in honor of whose memory the Cunningham lectureship was established, Dr. Candiish was appointed his successor as Principal of New College, Edinburgh."