THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1876.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 366, 10 March 1876, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1876.

The very general admission that Otago's land fund in the game of polities has gone from her, although possibly premature, justifies an inquiry as to what the loss would include. First and foremost it includes the whole of the Educational Reserves, which have been so carefully stored up for a rainy day. The reserves will not be wrested from their legitimate purpose, but that purpose will be Colonial Education instead of Provincial Education. If it is once granted to he right to make land revenue Colonial revenue in order to balance the financial deficiences of the ;Nortb, all lesser reservations must follow the same law. Land revenue willbe the first sacrifice to Colonial communism, then educational -revenue, then railway revenue, and, lastly, we suppose—as sectarian division cannot be tolerated, and property is no longer sacred—the r Presbyterian endowments will follow in Otago, and the Episcopalian in Canterbury. The Education Board of Otago is at present unable to meet the demands made upon it for aid by the District School Committees. At the same time not much more than half the school buildings in Otago are of a permanent character. In the North Provinces for some time a rate as high as could be collected without force has been imposed in the fruitless endeavor to meet educational requirements. It is foreign to ouc purpose to go into the broader question as to whether it is just that a resident in Auckland . or Wellington should be rated for t !, .e State education of children, sure to traverse and settle in all parts of the Colony—and in any case affect the commercial wealth of the country, for education is capital—while a resident in Otago directly pays nothing for a similar purpose. The financial relation to one another of the District Schools in any one district affords a microcosm of the Colonial position. We take the relation of the funds as we find it, and conclude that any Communism of Educational Provincial Finance must leave Otago poorer than she is, and consequently straiten the means of the already overstrained District School Committees..

It is necessary that our Provincial School Committees should face their real position, and endeavor to see a little in advance. The only permanent school building in the Mount Ida District is at St.- Bathans. The school building at Naseby is a very poor one, and sure in a few years'to be a heavy charge to the Committee. In towns ot a similar size, where the committees have been more vigilant, stone buildings, largely paid for by Government grant, have long ago superseded the temporary structure. At Kyebnrn Diggings the only school accommodation is a sod hovel. At Hyde it is little better. Hamilton, vSowburn, and Cambrian are better supplied, but the buildings can only be guaranteed for a few years. The schoolhouse at St. Bathans was not commenced until the old building fairly refused to maintain its equilibrium, even when tied down by ropes. Although aided by grant the St. Bathans Committee are £IOO in arrears. The population being small all their effort is needed to meet current expenses, and the interest on the overdraft. Any other township facing —as they all will have to do—the same difficulty, will be equally in trouble. If the aid hitherto given by the .Education Board should, by force of circumstances, be discontinued or greatly reduced the position in future will be worse.

It does not seem fair to throw the burden of buildings entirely upon the small settlements where the benefit.of Grammar and High Schools supported by the State cannot be reaped. The smaller, in any hamlet, a sufficient building is, the greater the strain to put it up must be upon the residents. Under these circumstances something might be done by way of combination. Th§g§oo strict localisation of school responsibilities ought not to be insisted upon. There is no reason why all the District Schools could not be built permanently if the united strength of the District were directed to that object. A conference of members could settle in what order the buildings should be attempted. A Conference, or Permanent Building Committee, whose speciality would be school building, would be in a better position to get Government aid than any single Committee. One building taken at a time all would soon be up. An Education rate will

certainly be imposed in another year, but every shilling collected by means,of it will be needed for the ordinary expenses. It is supposed that Education —upon the Abolition of Provincialism will remain in the hands of a body taking the place of the present Education Board, or be managed by a staff under a political head at -Wellington; If a County system were established it really would not affect the position. It is no use for members of Committee to refuse to look into the real position on the plea that in the coming changes financial difficulties will -be all put right. Difficulties, even financial ones, are not to be met by the simple process of shirking them. Our remarks have been penned to meet the of the Government schools only. There is no reason why a consolidative scheme of self-help should not include any public school, although sectarian, where a sound secular education was given. The Committees of such schools, while the present system of national school protection lasts, will not get auy help from Government except possibly a share proportionate to numbers of an Education rate, yet they might well and wisely be locally aided, and be asked to aid any general district fund for the erection of permanent buildings. The same mutual help that has built and paid for the district churches could also build the schools.

It has come to our knowledge that some residents at Palmerston during the last few weeks have, taken 'the trouble to petition the' General Government against the, authorisation of the Shag Valley Branch .Railway. This second petition must not be eonfounded with the celebrated and much jeered at document that"founii'its way to the Provincial Council. The most amazing part of the business, even exceeding the original follyj'is the notion that an agitation afraid to express itself, arid which is evidently as selfish as it is mistaken,, could, have the slightest effect. On consideration,;the gpod sense of the better informed residents must assert itself, and lead to the pros arid cons being fairly put before the people of the district: . There are three routes by .which the North Interior can be tapped, so as to feed the main line. The first is from the Awamoko, through the Kyeburn Pass ; the second is by the Shag - Valley; the third is by "Strathtaieri\ and Outram. Of these lines the cheapest would either be the first or the third. At the same time the second is probably the best. Palmerston, and the large area of settled country between it, Macraes and Waihemo, is entitled, other things being nearly equal, to some consideration. A main branch line to Kingston is a necessity in order to render the main line profitable. Fortunately; whichever of the three routes is finally adopted the cost per mile is cheap,, and; every mile of railway will enhance the- value of State property. The difference in the value of the Crown lands opened would pay for the railway.' Palmerston is making a mistake. : The-main line from Moeraki, Uamaru, and the North coast will be through to Dunedin in two years. As soon as thepoor pickings, for a few months sole' advantage from Moeraki harbor, have been gathered, Palmerston will he.jit a very low ebb. All her neighbors on the main line will do their business with.Dunedin direct. The businesseausedby farmers in Shag Valley placing their bats on a tram to be forwarded to Moeraki or Dunedin will not:make a town of Palmerston.

The settlement of a large population on the upper Plarns, -who, from their position will not be cultivators so much as . artificial graziers whose cultivation, will be limited by the amount of winter, fodder needed for their stock, would convert Palmer-' | eton into the greatest cattle and sheep market in Otago. In return, for stock ( sent down Palmerston merchants should be able to send up agricultural implements, fencing, and all necessary supplies for household consumption. "We can hardly believe that shrewd leading men like Mr. John Douglas, Mr. Calcutt, Mr. Kich, Mr. Arkle and Mr. loung can be led away by the popular, error. If not, they ought to take steps' to rectify it.

Metropolitan Colonial editors having nothing better to do, and—retaining some" thing of the weakness which likes to oppose in safe obscurity what is considered great—busied themselves immensely last week because an article bad been printed in the London ' Times,' under a palpable mistake that there had been mass meetings of unemployed laborers held in Dunedin. The little flunkyism of the local antimassites was excusable, because they know no better. It is perhaps worth while to point out that English public opinion was not really gulled by the subeditorialin the 'Times.', The ' Pall Mall Gazette' pointed out that—"Politicians "and journalists are of much the same " breed in Dunediu as elsewhere. They " are only too eager to make capital out " of the mistakes of their opponents, witk- " out examining very closely whether " their criticism's will be prejudicial'to the " interests nf the Colony at home. ; The " policy of the existing Ministry has been " throughout vigorously attacked, and it " is incredible that if the scheme of as- " sisted immigration had even partially " failed Mr. Vogel could have escaped the •' most vigorous denunciation. To find " the strongest link in. the chain of mea- " sures for the aggrandisement of New " Zealand already rotten would indeed " have been a triumph for the enemies of "those projects which, even to the more sanguine, appear to be,too magnificent. " .... A country in which skilled workmen, from carpenters to bricklay- " ers' laborers, get from 10s. to 12s. for a " day of eight hours, ordinary' laborers " 7s. to Bs., aud, ploughmen £55 to £6O a " year, with rations, cannot, vet be suffer-

" ing much from an over-strained labor" " market. In fact, it is positively asserted " that the very time when the ' loafers' ."were holding their "meetings upwards of " 600 newly-arrived immigrants were en- " gaged on the, above high terms within a " week." It will be seen that the real position of matters was pretty well understood in England, and that the spirited editorial replies to what never existed New Zealand was favored with last week were as unnecessary as they were pointless. The ' Pall Mall Gazette,' in the same issue from which we have quoted, deals with a Sew Zealand question of much more moment than a baseless supposition. It acknowledges the claim made by New Zealand, through Sir Julius Vogel, to be" indemnified f©r the ruinous debt forced upon her by the Home mismanagement, involving needless bloodshed and. waste of money, in the North Island.:—" There " are other reasons for wishing well to " New Zealand. She aloDe, of all our Co- " lonies, has had to support the weight of " a dangerous and expensive war- With- " out counting the interest on loans, the " Maori wars cost the Colony £6,000,000,- " and for the differences which led to the " war, if not for the war itself, it-must " now be admitted that the Imperial Go- " vernment was responsible. . The mis- " management of native affairs .on the " Northern Island threw the whole of " New Zealand back many years, and eh-' " tailed a heavy debt upon the Colony."

Tiik banks will be closed on Friday next, March 17th, being St. Patrick's Day. Tue Gimmerburn mining property, sold by M'Oaafa, Inder and George, realised £515. &Tr. James Spedderi, one of the shareholders, was the purchaser. Ma. Georos Stkphen'3 has obtained the 'contract for the new Court House at Naseby. This mnch needed building is thus in a fair way to bo at last supplied.