THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1874.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 258, 13 February 1874, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1874.

Ir is .probable.that the. pressure of the Koman Catholic and the Anglican clergy of the Province-will be brought to bear-to bring up the subject of.Education during the - ensuing session of the Council. It was only 5 kept s out last session by reason of the Bill, which was intended to be a Colonial one; just then being introduced into the. House of .Representatives. 'This Bill, like many others equally important,' fell through owing, in .. a great .measure, to the unwillingness of'the Government;;to -sufficiently to distinct features which might, if unsuccessfully have weakened their House majorities. Mr. Eish announced,in Dunedin lately, his intention to attack the .High, School: this, alone, will bring up and, open out for discussion the whole.-question. We have,no sympathy, with „what is called the higher .education in Otago. -It a provincial weakness to feel pleased when our educational institutions are spoken well of. ' The ,Governor and the~ Premier well understood this—though nve would have 'thought that the bedaubing process : was laid on rather thickly. . Encouragement from such high quarters' 'may'enable the High School to spasmodically resume its life ; for, to our thinking, the-sys-tem fairly died when the late Commission reported the results of their investigation. ; At - its best,' what .'dees - the 'High School give as a return P "It enables young men leaving it to earn £SO a year in offices! That is all.. Exceptional talent will find .its level quite independently J of High* * "As" a result, we have this remarkable phenomenon, that we educate our youthst to a possible earning of £SO per annum, and pay the passages of mechanical emigrants to take their bread from ■them.in the-shape of from'£3 to'£6' per week. Can a boy bake a loaf from any benefits received from the High School ? Can Tie "make a wheelbarrow ? . Our remarks are utilitarian, and we submit the dealing with public funds should be utilitarian too. The old conditions suitable to countries where characteristics are, so to speak, : stationary, will not and cannot be made ; to suit the new and changing phenomena ever being presented in a fastgrowing Colon v. We can pay for science! 'We must live, and-have the means of living, before we attempt J rear, -at the public expense, a native- , born scientific staff. The evil,; however, remains behind —tuat we educate at the national expensevthose who-' .can well afford' to pay for what they are desirous to equip their children with, in the way of luxurious education, while the struggling settler has' fco pay for the ordinary educationwhi- u , if the child has not he becomes a burden and expense afterwards to the State.' National education should, above all things, be simple— be confined tothe mere elementsrof tuition— : fitting taleH- .to-find its own upward road afterwards the - circumstances in which it may be placed. National education, we say, should be simple—it should be secular —it should "oe compulsory—and it should be free of cost. Then, if tin rich man chooses, he can avail himself of the .national schools, ff his circumstances, and the position' which' his son will' occupy .(and his' brain-power, which is always disregarded) warrant a liigher education, let him pay for it. Such payment is' only the. fair tax' incumbent naturally —if eelucaf onal. empirics wou 1 d only leive nature al.n<3—upon the luxurious instincts of, the owners of wealth' —a t'-tx to be self-distributed in the suatainment of competing schools and boards of tuition." ,

mg Held last week,atthe Victoria Hail, Naseby, to endeavor to obtain support | for a scheme they had in view to float a local company for investment in station property, made. a..mistake inclaiming the meeting as a'public one. Asa private matter of business, if any -persons choose.to ,throw*their money, into the.sea, with the expectation that the fish would come with the coins and •seven and a half per cent., iuterest in ; their mouth?, to disgorge on a "suitable sand beach, we should have nothing to do any more than" to privately advise the police, in the' interests j .of humanity, to' keep a, watch upon the Board of Directors. But when an enterprise is to be .floated ~at the-,expense of"the public, in a public way, the promoters cannot expect ,to escape the-' criticism of those who -differ with them—for this criticism and .discussion is the only shield to guard' communities from imposture. It is not easy to see—we , admit we are utterly inane and stupid —what this great pbject was that, we' were told, if not at J once taken up by .the district, would be- firmly established in Dunedin. Mr. Bremner, who appeared to be as puzzled as ourselves, put the question as to whether there _was any immediate purchase-in view P 'and was told, " No.", j-Then it atnounted, to this, that there was nothing more tangible' before the meeting..to localise a company upon than tla ere 1 has been for the last fifteen years before the Dunedin public, so why should such a sudden rush be anticipated? It was nothing mqre than a formation of a company to buy station property, if it can be done, at some time and somewhere. As far as we know, there are brokers of some little experience : in Dunedin, wh6 think*something"of themselves _and their- pow;er as L-per- ' suaders of the public. They would notbeflatteredatthejidea'assumedat last week's meeting;, that what they could not do 'could Be - done,' on'their" own ground as by the magician's wand, by the eloquence of the promoters. With the remuneration likely.to follow a company projected * on the"principles enunciated,we have no v care nor thought, but'We have to 'do with "the : elements of the scheme so far as the district is concerned. We do not hesitate to say that, in our opinion, an effort,has been made, and apparently a successful one;\to make:a catspaw — a handle. of theresidents-in; Naseby to allay-, any -agitatipn .for>the opening of land for legitimate,settlement. It is obvious that if a sufficient number of residents.are;influenced?by,the", idea that the possibility.is*.open' l to -them, to hold a share in a station", * 'that' 5 the mouth of- the; district is ; gauged—the only expression of a want by-the voice of the people"is"*put" an end to,*'and business may remain in 'the'same state of stagnation as s it; is in now, wh'ile sheep'stations continue, as, Mr. George Oliver's*(of Eweburn'Station)' famous letter of opinion savsjihey will do, for centuries on Manioroto. We are told that there is, no rland -fit plough -on the ' whole .plain;* ; _owing'to'its sterility and bad climate, at the very time, by-the-bye, that 'as -good'a.crop '"a Vis" possible to be reaped' is'' being taken off the paddocks owned by the Chairman of the meeting, in a situation where the climate, allow, f is„bad, the soil indifferent, . and . naturab irrigation almost impossible. ' Enough of this,'however ; the men who are prepared to risk their money to make homes for themselves are,the right judges ,pf-„the land—not even "the e'xpeiience of Mr. George Oliver can override the weight pf such testimony.- .From .all-parts of the district, ,except JN aseby, v we are in receipt of communications pledging the willingness of, the writers to, take "up the land if'it.is opened to ,them ; ; and, for our own part, we s wous;have been ! glad, if "j\iaseby. had.helpe# in a movement which must tend - to its speedy advancement. The programme to, be laid before the Provincial Council is now being prepared, arid it was the duty of every "person who really had the welfare of the district at heart, to make his voice "heard, regardless of consequences, to bnng .pressure to bea,r upon the Government" of the day insisting upon the interests ,of this quarter being at' least' considered in pronortion to its value. We have done what we can'; our'members are doing -what-they can-. It-is not-very encouraging either to us or to them that all efforts are unaided, are totally unsupported by the public, who alone are to be benefitted. If success*does attend these efforts, ao we hope it will, it cannot be too widely known that<such' success will ! owe nothing to thetenergy and activity * of public opinion in Naseby. This apathy, thi.< extreme indifference may retard—it.'cannot' totally prevent the ultimate prosperity of Mount Idar " —=♦ —j t ( Oim telegrams, received last night, which we are compelled .to summarise',' inform us ; of an''un.expecte'd session of Parliament at Wellington. It appears that the proclamations calling the Houses together, are always issued for' a date earlier than is necessary, iu case' of emergencies, 'and th.it it is "usual to keep O'ti proroguing till buoh time as is suitable Now, it appears that the Governor is away yachting, and if he signed the necessary 'prorogation—which is supposed to be lying at tfokitika unsigned—it is ■: not forthcoming, conspqu ntly the few members locally resident (of 'both Houses) met on Tuesday .at Wellington. . The, .lion John-Johnson took the chair in the Legislative Council, and Mr Fitzherbert in'the Lower House. Mr. Vogelstated that the mooting arose from the non-appearance- of t'ie expected proI; (dam ati on of' p rorogit! i on. Some vve*- ks I ago it was. he said, intentiou to further prorogue Parliament, ll'is hxcellencv had consented: to advice to that reflect.. The A/.torney-GeneraTs opinion is that the present meeting cannot con-

stifiute a session, as the Grovernor did' | not address the two Houses: The Houses,, he says, mav meet but can do no busi- 1 ness. ;A fine field is open to ranaacferliis- I tory- for Constitutional precedent. Our f till, tele grams to a late hour on' bViday.uisjfht:, will be Published in our Saturday's edition. * ......