MR. ARMSTRONG ON EDUCATION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 316, 19 March 1875, Page 3

MR. ARMSTRONG ON EDUCATION.

(To the Editor of the Motrirr Tba Ohroniole.) Sib, —In your issue of the 27th ultimo appears a report of an address delivered by Mr. Armstrong to his constituents at Naseby, in which he confines himself to two very important matters, namely, education and abolition of Provinces. These are questions no doubt requiring serious consideration, and matters which should be discussed by the public before they are dealt with by the legislator—as every person who holds any stako'in the country, or has the welfare of New Zealand at heart*, must feel interested in matters of such, importance, more particularly in the education question —the abolition of Provinces being move a matter for tho Colonial Legislature to deal with. As the question of education is likely to be brought before the Provincial Council at the" ensuing session I presume Mr. Armstrong's principal motive in meeting the • electors was to ascertain their views, and express his opinion upon that question. As the columns of the ' Cnronicle ' are always open/or the discussion of matters of public interest, and as those touched upon by Mr. Armstrong are of the greatest public importance observing that no other person has taken up the matter—l, your permission, will offer a few remarks on the views puS out. To commence with—Mr. Armstrong asserts that ho is in favor of doing away with State aid to education, except iu very rare cases. I cannot conceive how lie has arrived at that conclusion. Does • he imagine that parents ot children in thinly populated districts, with only a few located here and a few there, could find sufficient money to erect school houses and maintain schools without aid from the State P If he does he must hold a high opinion of their resources. Suppose we were to take the district of Mount Ida as a criterion to go by, and ask ourselves the question, Could any of the outlying places; with the exception of St. Bathans, maintain a school without aid from the State ? I would venture to predict in niue cases out of tentbe answer , would be, No. . No doubt Mr. Armstrong would urge in support of his policy that parents who by misfortune were in depressed circumstances and unable to pay for the education of their children were to have them educated at the expense of the Stsite, and those who could afford to pay compelled to do soi That argument may appear reasonable at first sight—but, in reviewing the matter, a serious obstacle presents itself, that is, the children educated by the Government and those not would be obliged (in up-conntry places at all events) to a.tend the same . school. Although poverty is no crime, for all that poverty is often looked upon as a disgrace. It strikes mo most forcibly that the children whose parents were in a position to pay for their education would look upon the others a*- something beneath them. It i very questionable, at all events, if the. same harmony would exist in the schools as at present if Mr. Armstrong's ideas were carried out. I agree with him that , an injustice has been done to Roman Catholics by being compelled to contribute towards the support of schools that they could ot send their little ones to, and I believe all persons holding liberal views will endorse, Mr. Armstrong's opinion on that point. If such is' the case, c< uld not that grievance be adjusted by asystem of compromise'of some sort. My opinion is that a change for the better could with impunity be. effected by having two schools in such places as could with State aid maintain them—one to be for the use of children of all denominations of Protestants, the other to be for the use of Roman Catholic children. In thinly populated districts where two schools could not be maintained o e school could be kept for the use of all, which should be strictly secular. Should the parents of children attending secular schools, Protestants or Koman Catholics, be desirous (through religious B.otives) of having a school of their own, let them have one by all means and receive Government aid in proportion to their number, such aid to by withheld in cases where the granting of it would cripple the secular school to such an ex- • tent as to reduce its number to less than fifty pupils, and in cases also where the number prepared to attend the new school would not amount to twenty five pupils or upwards. These ideas will appear preposterous perhaps to many, and may be objected to on various g' ounds. Amongst others I daresay on the ground that if Roman Catholics were allowed separate aid th« representatives of the several denominations of Protestants would be entitled to, and would claim separate aid also. ' I am inclined to think that all denominations of Protestants, as far as the teaching of the Bible is concerned, may be classed under one head as a division of Christians divided.into several subdivisions or sects, each and all taking their religion from the same Bible, and that the Koman Catholics may be classed as another division of Christians opposite religious views to ProlesttYLs. For the reasons abovo stated, and (a order to remedy a grievance long in existence, thp

above objections should not in my opinion bo urged. Many persons may consider it unwise to grant aid to schools with a limited number of pupils on the ground that State aid and school fees would be insufficient to procure flie services of competent teachers. That evil could be guarded against by having all schools receiving State aid under the supervision of the Education Board, such Board to have povrer—in cases where school fees, with Government aid, wonld be inadequate to pay the teacher's salary—to withhold aid until such time as it would be supplemented by parents of children intended to be educated at such schools to such an extent as would bring it up to the teacher's salary ; all moneys collected in that way to be forwarded to tho Education Board from time to time, say three months at least prior to the teacher's salary coming due; in cases where those conditions were not complied with aid to be withdrawn.

Mr. Editor, I must now conclude, having already intruded too much on your valuable space. -I am, &c.,

An Old Bachelob Eden Creek, March 8, 1875.