THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 175, 15 July 1876, Page 2

THE WEEK.

The General Assembly opened on the 15th of June. This is the 15th of July, and during all the time that has elapsed between the former and the latter date, it doesn't seem to me that very much has been done by our representatives in the interest of the colony. We have been informed of one little and one big debate on the Piako Swamp business, but I really cannot see that we are much the better for all the words tbat hare passed through the medium of the shorthand reporters and the compositors from the mouths of members into the columns of Hansard, I have carefully read that interesting publication, and the impression left upon my mind by its perusal is that if one or two big guns had been fired on each side, and the small arms had reserved their noise for a future occasion — if it really was at all necessary that it should be heard— those little blue-paper-covered volumes would have been less bulky and the public in precisely the same position in which they now find themselves. But then I have never been in the House, so that I have not been called upon to exercise that amount of self-denial which, is requisite on tbe part of those who have all tbe inclination to talk while they have nothing to say in addition to that which has been expressed in far better words by more practised orators. I suppose, then, that we must take things as they are, and be content to allow the Parliament to work when it is disposed to work, and to go in for the vox et pretcerea nihil when it is not disposed to occupy itself more profitably. Perhaps it is owing to the fact that I am not just now in the humor for making any original remarks, or, perhaps, it is that I want to call attention to an evil which should be remedied, but, whatever the reason, I am going to make several quotations from the report of the Inspector of Schools, which has been published since last I wrote, and without further comment I will begin :— " The worst feature disclosed by the annual returns is, that the proportion of children who remain at our schools after they have reached their twelfth year is steadily decreasing —the large addition to the total num. bers this year having failed to bring up the list of scholars over twelve to the number reached last year. It bodes ill

for the ultimate success of any system of primary education when the school life of nearly five-sixths of the children ceases at twelve years old. And yet it is hard to say, what inducements are , wanting. No admission fee is exacted ; in education districts, excellent books and maps are supplied gratis, the discipline is far from being harsh, aud the teaching, on the whole, is more rational, more systematic, and more careful than it has ever been before." Thatfs No. ], or what I may call the starting point. Now for some more. " An unusually small proportion of the scholars— 4s out of 336 — have remained at this school after they have completed their twelfth year, and, what is worse, I have reason to believe that tbe great majority of those who leave so young receive no further schooling elsewhere." And now again : — " I was surprised to find that so few children over twelve years of age now attend this school, 10 only out of a yearly roll of 170 having reached that age." My appetite for quotations is not nearly appeased yet, so I must continue: — "This state of things may be partly accounted for by the fact that. the children leave school at a very early age, four only being on the last quarter's roll who had reached their twelfth year." Perhaps some of. you parents who feel a guilty consciousness of having neglected the opportunities offered you for educating your children are beginning to get tired of these wearisome extracts, but I haven't done with you yet; Here is another: — "The arithmetic of the first classes may be said to have been an utter failure. The grammar was also very defective. This state of things will not be wondered at when it is explained that only 57 per cent of the children attended during the first three-quarters of the past year." Still more evidence, and coming from all parts of the province of the carelessness of parents in a matterofsuch importance. Once more: — " The arithmetic is singularly incorrect, and none of the scholars can give au intelligible account of what they have been reading. It should be stated, however, injustice to the master, that not a single scholar present at my examination was more than eleven years old, and that the names of only two of twelve years old appeared on the roll for the last quarter." I could go , on in this way for some time more, but this "Week* of mine is supposed to contain my own ideas on matters in general, and not to be composed of quotations from the writings of others, and, moreover, I think I have strung together such a chain of evidence of the culpable neglect of parents with regard to the future welfare of their 1 offspring as will induce them to look 1 the matter seriously in the face and ask themselves whether they are performing that duty which they owe to their children. Nelson prides herself on her educational system, and yet her Inspector has to write such a report ! I hate to write seriously in these Saturday letters, but the occasion sometimes arises when I feel compelled to do so. This is one of them. I went to see the editor of the Mail in his room the other day and found him, lam sorry to say, crusty, cross, and cantankerous. He was up to his eyes in Hansards and Parliamentary Papers, so I forgave his rudeness when on my entering he chucked a paper across to me and said, " Here ' j?.,' I can't be bothered to notice such nonsense as this, but as you are always on the look-out for something amusing, j_ daresay you'll know what to do with it." I looked at the paper thus unceremoniously handed to me, and found that it was a copy of the Marlborough. Express with a marked passage in it. Now, if there is one paper more than another which I delight in reading, it is the Marlborough Express. " There's no place like Blenheim " is its motto, and just you dare to exaggerate the floods tbat occasionally occur there by one quarter of an inch, or venture to assert that the Port of Wairau is not equal to any harbor in New Zealand, or, in fact, make any remark derogatory to Blenheim, and you will have the thunders of the Express rattling in your ears to such an extent as to make you inclined to prefer standing under a badly built brick chimney in an earthquake. Knowing all this I was delighted to have the peppery Marlborough Express thrown at me as containing something unusually spicy, for I knew that it must be spicy indeed. Nor was I disappointed, for I found in it the following paragraph having reference to the immigrants: — " The number of young women shipped in London for Marlborough was 51, consequently there are 22 more to arrive, but we do not expect them to psss through the ordeal of Nelson imp rtinences. A number of persons went on board the ship, and endeavored to dissuade the young women from going on; running down Marlborough, and tbe Wairau in particular, as a miserable place, and quite unfit for living in. In fact al! the old slanders were repeated, with fanciful descriptions, and no doubt thsir ttories will have some effect in preventing some from coming here. It is a strange fact, but nevertheless true, that from first to last Nelson has alwtys been Marlborough's evil genins ; ever ready to prey upon her in any direction that offered.— Evening Mail please copy." I don't know exactly why the Evening Mail was asked to give publicity to a paragraph which appeared in the Express, but I presume the writer had ! some good reason for making the request, and as I suppose it does not matter to him in what part of the Mail it is published I will give him a small space in my column, though perhaps this was not exactly what he wanted, and he may regard it as an " ordeal of Nelson impertinences," through which he or his writings should not.be invited to pass. I should like to assure him that he is worrying himself quite unnecea-

sanly. Very few, except the officials, Over went on hoard the ship at all, and I donlt think that that limited number included any evil genii " ever ready to prey upon Marlborough." I know, there were some remarkably good-look-ing girls in the ship, and I shouldn't wonder if one or two young fellows who went on board sung softly to them "Oh! stay with rae my darling, stay," as I daresay that Marlborough-mad paragraphist has often done in his. youthful days when he occasionally met a pretty lass, but I really don't think they meant any mischief to Marlborough ; ia fact, I. shouldn't be surprised if they were unaware of the existence of such a place except from occasional hearsay. One of Byron's heros once pricked his fingers "when assisting a lady with her toilet, aud in his wrath he exclaimed " Those cursed pins They surely were invented for our sins Making a woniio like a porcupine, Not to be rashly ton-he )." I have no intention of instituting a comparison between the Express and a woman, either young or old, but the above lines do often occur to my mind when I see it setting up its bristles in defence of its province against imaginary foes. y.