LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 128, 29 May 1873, Page 2

LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL.

The Council met at 7 o'clock. Mr Acton Adams presented a petition from 166 merchants, importers, and others interested in shipping matters, praying for the constitution of a Harbor Board. Refprred to the Petitions Committee. — Mr O'Conor moved "That the increasing demands upon the revenue for Public Works arid other purposes, render it desirable that the Educational establishment of this province Bhould be placed upon a basis more nearly approaching the eelf-supporting and sell-reliant principle, either by increasing the returns under the heading of Education Rate, or by Borne other means; and that the following be a Committee to enquire and report upon the suliject of the foregoing . resolution — the Speaker, the Provincial Secretary, Messrs Wastney, Shephard, Guinness, Ivess, and the mover." It was well known that tbe amount annually voted for; educational purposes was a very heavy one, and larger

than the province could afford in the straits to which it was reduced for sufficient funds for road-making purposes. The time had now arrived for the educational system to be made more selfsupporting than at present, and though he did not pretend to say how this was to be effected, ifc was clearly necessary that some- means ehould be adopted for bringing the receipts and expenditure to something more nearly approaching a balance, and ifc was for this reason that he moved for a Select" Committee. There were large land endowments for education, but at present the revenues derived from those lands was but trifling;, amounting to not more than £220. The time might come wh6n the receipts from this source might become much larger, but ih the meantime the Council could not refuse to devote its serious attention to the matter. The tax afc present was unequally levied and totally inadequate to the purpose for which it Wfts required, and a Committee might collect evidence on this head, which would carry great weight with the Council in dealing with the matter. His desire was to place the educational establishment upon a firm basis, and ho could see the time comiDg when'„the Council would certainly refuse any increase in the annual vote, and possibly might attempt to decrease it, in which case the whole system, unless rendered more self-supporting, must, break down under its own weight. Oat of the £7200 asked for, £6800 were spent upon salaries, and the average amount expended upon books and other requirements for school • purposes was equal to hnlf-a-crowu per head for each child attending the schools, for whom their parents paid only five shillings each. A larger poll tax on the children might be raised, and in 1869 something of this kind had been proposed and might now be carried into effect in such a way as not to press more heavily on the parents than they were able to afford, since each Local Committee was vested with the power of exemption where they deemed it necessary. The manner in which the system was now supported was wrong altogether, since it threw the burden on the shoulders of those who were least able to pay. He would like to see a special rate on property for the purpose, but tho next best thing was to raise the rates at present paid, and so relieve the Provincial Government from the very unfair amount of subsidy now asked from it. Apart from the justice that would thus be done fco the taxpaying part of the community, it would be an act of justice to the people generally to teach them to depend more upon themselves, and less upon the Council. According to the Act, tho ratepayers had the power to specially rate themselves, but this had never been brought into operation, the reason being that the people preferred to receive an annual subsidy from the Council, from whom it came, as it were, as a gift from heaven, to putting their hands into their pockets to help themselves. Mr Guinness thought that nothing was more creditable to the province than its educational system, but tho time had arrived for making some alteration in the method of raising the funds. Ifc was an erroneous and a bad principle that the people should depend so much upon the public revenues for educational purposes, and he should like to see some means devised for remedying this evil. The Provincial Secretary would oppose the motion 1 , as* he was of opinion that ifc would be a great mistake at tbe present, time to attempt to raise the rates, as people were not now in a position to pay larger fees, and atfy _tcp in this direction would tend to break up the system. There was a prospect' of large works being * shortly undertaken in the province, and of better times being in j store for it, when the revenue would be ' better able to Stand the strain upon it, but under present cirpumstances he did not think it would be judicious to levy a higher rate. Mr Ej Kelling had sometimes thought a small increase in the rates was desirable, but did not consider that this was a favorable time for introducing it,as,if attempted, ifc would create great disturbance in the working. of the Act. No money was devoted by the Council to a better purpose than that of education. Mr Acton Adams would oppose the resolutions on the broader principle that ifc was the duty of the public to pay for . educating the, rising generation, and it could be done j>y them far better and more cheaply tban by individual parents. If we had compulsory education, as it was possible might be the case in the course of a few years, the question would then be, not whether the parents should pay higher rates, but whether they should pay any. at all, as many of tbem would be unable to afford it, and " it was impossible to say where the line was to be drawn between those who paid and those who did not. The Provincial Solicitor would support the resolution." 'He should be extremely sorry to seer tbe working of the Act injured in any way, but he had always seen that the weak point in the.Bysfem was that.it was not sufficiently self-supporjting, but depended too muchVupoii ith_. public purse. If at any time the Council were unable or unwilling to vote the subsidy, the whole thing must break down, and this : mightl happen ; at any time, f_h ; the constant cry was for money to expend upon roads. If even £1000 wero cut off the annual vote, it was difficult to say how the system could be carried 'bn', as it must lead to a reduction in the ! salaries, which would have most injurious effect. At present there w^re many people who sent their children to the Government schools who ' were well able to afford to pay a much larger sum, and he should be g laid to see some means adopted for insisting oo their doing so. Mr ' Wastney would support the resolution, ancl at the' same time must express surprise and sorrow that the Government had not made a move in this direction' before' how jjias it was pa/fcbf their business to sco that funds were pro- !

vided for this purpose. He had always considered that the system should be made more self-supporting, and believed that an increase in the rates would have a most beneficial effect, as the people would appreciate their advantages more if they had to pay more highly for them. As ifc was, many of the parents were quite indifferent to the matter. TJie five shillings a head was neitberhere nor there to them, but if they had to pay a pound instead of five shillings, they would take care that they obtained value for their money. Mr Gibbs would support the « resolutioa, arid hoped the Committee would be able to devise some means of increasing the revenues. He thought, that the centres of population should be in a position to support lheir own schools, and tbat .it .was only the out districts that should require Government assistance, ,Mr Shephard would like to see a Com. mittee appointed, as he was anxious that some means should be. devised for preventing our present system from breaking down, under its own weight. , Within the last few years the number, pt schools had been largely increased, but there was only a very trifling increase in the revenues to meet the additional e_cpenSß. A still larger sum was required tban that placed on: ;the Estimates, but he did not know how it wa's to be obtained. The teachers were. kept down to the very lowest possible salaries, but still the funds were short, and at the same time we had to face competition from the other Provinces, where the masters- were better paid. To starve the teachers, and this was by no means too strong ; a,, term . to apply to the present rate of payment, was to drive them away lo other provinces, and thus to cause our own to sink b§low them in: so. far as the quality of our teachers was concerned. He wished to see a Committee appointed, and with a view to setting aside all debateable mailer,' would move as an amendment that all the words between the words "That" and"'* ''the Speaker " be struck out for the purpose of substituting the following :— "a Select Committee be appointed to enquire into and report upon the advisability of Inking steps to render the educational system more' self supporting; such Committee to consist of," &c. Mr Tarrant seconded the amendment. As a member of the Central Board he could state that ; the. funds at their disposal were not nearly j • equaL to the demands upon them. He was j quite prepared to support an increased I vote rather than allow the children to run. wild and grow up in ignorance. If this could not be carded, something else must be done to place a larger amount at the disposal of the Board. Mr Donne approved of the amendment, nnd criticised the original resolution. Mr Burn would support the amendment. He objected to the term "self-reliant" in the original resolution. There, was no fear of the system coming to naught) for so long as the province existed it would be continued. If matters came to such a pass that tho Council was unable to vote a subsidy for education, then the province would have come to an end, and there would be no need for Superintendent or Council. A Committee would do much good, as a Bill amending the Act was to be brought in, and : the Committee might consider the whole matter and recommend amendments. He did hot think this was the time tO( .increase the rates, as he believed that it , was as much as ninetenths of the population in the out districts could do to pay the present tax. MrO'CpSOR could not see why the amendment 1 was wanted, as all the speakers^ seemed to agree that it was necessary the system should be rendered more self-supporting. The original resolution' was preferable, as giving the Committee something to meet about, and . pointing out the object for which they were called together. The Provincial Secretary would not oppose the amend-ment*.-Mr Eeid, in the interest of education, felt bound to support the amendment, and, ..in the same interest was compelled to opppse .ythie 'original resolution, to the , wording of wMch he objected altogether. The educational establishment was the biggest public work with which they were called upon to deal, but the resolution .'inferred' that there were other works' of a more important .nature. The warding of the resolution , was most objectionable, and was certainly a reflection upon education.—The .amendment was theri 1 put find] carried yon the voices.— -Mr Burn moved.:— "(lst.) That no alteration be made in the number of the members of the Provincial Council or their distribution, in the settled districts. (2nd) That the numher of members in the , South-west Goldfields be . increased . to eight. (3rd) That the ; members be distributed as follows :-—-CoT-den, one member'; Ahnur a\ two member 8 ; ' Charleston, one memheri;.. Buller, two. members; Inangahua, one member;. Central Buller^ one member. The first resolution was disposed of by the moving of the previous question. On the second resolution a lengthy and animated, (debate tpok ( place. In favor of 'it; it was : argued that, taking the population as a" bas.B, the goldfields had "!;6 •: right to' additional representation. The population of the province was 22,000 ; in the -settled . dist? jcts-y .14,000, and in the goldfields 8,000, The former had fourteen- members or T .Cone> per thousand of the population, and a- similar privilege was claimed for the goldfiejd?, which at. present had only six representatives. Also, th£t the .•population, on the goldfields was becoming ' far ' f Wo.e ..settled than formerly, many fair ms iiaving been '^ken. up .and cultivated, and a large amount of" cSpifal being invested in machinery and pther works connected with goldmihing;' .that, although "the"Council.j__ight ;'be'."dispo.Bed to deal with perfect fairness with the goldfields in the matter of revenue, still" it was one thing to have 'cbnceßsioris - niade as a mattorrofi favor, 1 and !another. to .be in a position; to claim : them as a right; thsit an equalisation of the representation would

tend to remove all feeling of disunion ond dissension, since ifc would lead the population of the goldfields to feel that they really bad a voice in the conduct of affairs of the province, and were placed on., an equal footing with residents in the settled districts j that the goldQelds contributed the larger portion of , the revenue; and lastly, that unless thb various districts were represented by members personally acquainted with their respective requirements who were able to supply the Council with the necessary information as to those wants, the Council would of necessity, from pure ignorance of such requirements, be unable to attend to or remedy them. On the other side, it was urged' that full justice had always been done to the goldfields; that the Council was already sufficiently numerous; that the population basis waa an'eironeous one as, since the census was laken in 1871, there had been a considerable falling off, the wardens in their reports estimating it now at 6400 instead of 8000; and that a goldfields population was, from the nature of their occupation, necessarily migratory, and not to be looked upon as permanent. Such was the gist of the arguments üßed on either side. Oq a division being takeD, the result was as follows : — Ayes 9 — Messrs Pinkerton, Ivess,- O'Conor, Donne, Burn, Reid, Guinness, A. Adams, Shephard. Noes 9 — Tbe Provincial Solicitor, the Provincial Secretary, Messrs P. Kelling, Waßtney, Tarrant, Macmahon, Gibbs, C. Kelling, Baigent. The Speaker gave his casting vote with the Ayes, and the resolution was consequently carried. The third resolution was agreed to without comment. •—Mr Gibbs moved " Tbat his Honor the Superintendent be requested to furnish the Council with a return showing the expenditure under the item ' various small items, £288 15s 4d,' as shown in tbe Auditor's Report, under the head * Contingencies.' " Agreed to. — On tbe motion of Mr Reid, it was resolved " That, in consideration of the length and. general good character of James Arthur Maguire's connection with the Provincial service as Gaoler, at Cobden and Westport, his Honor the Superintendent he resspectfully requested to again admit him to the service of the Government by appointing him to some situation for which he may by his experience be suited, and which

may be at his Honor's disposal.'* The Council then went into Committee on the Estimates, and after sitting for some time adjourned until this evening.