The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 100, 3 October 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1877.

The ' Education Bill has passed j the original draft having suffered emendation m several very important particulars. The measure now possesses the tripartite aspect of free, compulsory and secular. But its compulsory character is by no means absolute. In drafting this bill the Government have had to face a great

difficulty. Their aim has been' to produce a uniform system of education, administered and paid for by the state } but the difficulty was to make it conformable to interests that are not conformable to each other. If religion is introduced, then sectarian animosities are also introduced. If religion is excluded the sectaries stigmatise the system as a godless one. The Government could not adhere to their principal of uniformity and please either the Romish or Anglican Church, for what these bodies require is denominational schools endowed by the state ; but what the Government did attempt to do was to make a miserable compromise with religion by introducing bible readings into the schools. The House set its veto on this and wisely ordained that the state system of education should be entirely secular. This will not give universal satisfaction but the grievance of the de- | riominationalists will now be of a j negative character. But if the re- j ligious element has been exclude.d from" Bchools there is no insuperable reason why the moral element should | not have been largely introduced. ! Morality is rarely sectarian. It is the religion of all men without the supernatural, without the faith and the dogmatism. It is the religion of principle, and if introduced as ,an element of primary education would form the best possible basis for the after growth of that higher religion of faith by which every Christian hopes to save his soul. We are glad to observe that the House has interpolated a provision for the inculcation of economics!, which way happily prove to be the beginning of a system of, moral training m the schools *of the colony. History also is among the admitted subjects and we fear that it will prove to be a spark of contention. How the facts of history can be adequately taught without trenching upon religious prejudice Jt is hard to conceive. The Government of N. S. W, included history m their national sysfein but it did not work well, and iii the great Public School measure that' came afterwards, to which Sir Henry j Parkes chiefly owes his fame, history J was excluded. Our legislators have inserted a proviso-making the history lessons optional with the child's guardians. This smoothens matters i a little, but we shall look with some curiosity fpr the results of the history teaching. The next feature of = the Education Bill of this year, is the abolition of capitation fees. The Government are to be congratulated on seeing their way', amid all their financial difficulties, to provide" for every child m the colony free", education, Whether the additional charge upon the consolidated fund will necessitate additional taxation m some other quarter remaius to be seen. The difficulty of teachera collecting capitation fees is: obvious enough and forms one-of the reasons for making education free. But absolutely there can be no, such thing as free education provided by the state. Under some name or other the public have to pay for it. If the abolition of capitation fees at the present time will be followed by increased taxation, which it is very likely to be, why not put the saddle on the right horse 1 at once and levy a small education: -rc&te upon the population of the country? Education would thereby be efficiently supported amd it wcrald no longer appear to secularists a monstrous thing to endow here and there a denominational school. -... The only .defect that appears to us m the local working of this education scheme is that which is too common ■^NewZealand---'pver much Government. The local Committee system is not favorable to the ?teacher^s independence. His duties sire likely to be unduly and impertinently interfered with. If committees of wide mental calibre cpuld be secured this objection would not exist ; but the act does not; go farther^haTato ensure respectability; The teacher .is. indeed to be pitied who is subjected to the whims and crotchets of the half dozen fbgrums who very often form the united wisdom of small country settlements. The Bill has been greatly cleansed by its passage through committee. A few excrescences are still left which future legislation will wipe off, but on the whole the measure appears workable and creditable to the good sense of tlie House.": j