THE PEOPOSED EDUCATIONAL CHANGES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 129, 31 May 1875, Page 2

THE PEOPOSED EDUCATIONAL CH ANGES.

(Wesiport Times.') A new prophet Las arisen. Mr Ives, M.P.C., now of Patea, late of Reefton, has declared himself the emancipator of educational thraldom! He has discovered, or, perhaps more aptly stated, someone else has discovered that the educational system of the province is defective, that an immense amount of money is yearly voted for educational purposes, and that vague returns are made of the way the money is expended. It does not seem to have occurred to this new educational prophet and his abettors that a simple rule of arithmetic will solve all the seeming douhts .and difficulties their distorted fancies had conjured up. Given the Provincial Treasurer's financial statement for the year ending March 31st, 1875, therein is stated the precise cost of education in the province : — Provincial Schools, £7800; Scholarships— Nelson College, £160 ; Collection of Rates, £144 13s 6d; Provincial Schools, supplementary vote, £700 ; Institutes, Museums, and Libraries, £361. The annual return made by the Inspector of Schools gives in detail every item of expenditure, the salary paid to each teacher, allowances made for house rent, cost of buildings, cost of stationery, cost of inspection. What more is needed will be best explained by those who profess to find a vagueness and doubt in the method of expenditure. Mr Ivess' motion, as brought forward in the Provincial Council, for the transferment of the power now vested in the Central Board of Education to a Board composed of the Superintendent, the Executive, and one or two more official members — in effect from a non-political to a political Board of control — will, if given effect to, require the most vigilant watching on the part of the public to prevent the new Board becoming — what the present never has beeu in the remotest degree — an engine for political purpose. It may be well enough with Educational Boards having larger powers, and dealing with more populous districts than in Nelson, that such Boards shonld be formed of members of the political Executive, but in this little province of Nelson neither time or occasion has yet served to hand such powers to 'political neophytes — men to whom every waif and stray of authority is made accessory to their means of retaining political office, and to whom the patronage to be obtained in control of educational machinery would be but as another means to an end. That end their own self-aggrandisement. Mr Ivess, M.P.C., may, on behalf of his co-mates and friendly prompters, adduce good and sufficient reasons why change in the present system should' be made. Erom the deep profundity of his own wisdom and educational lore he may evolve argument and proof beyond dispute, but at present the movement bears not the impress of good intent.