The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 332, 24 July 1849, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Ke just and fe.ir not: Lrt all theends thou ainib'fc at, be tliy Country's, '1 hy God's, aud Truth's.

TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1849.

We resume our consideration of the subject of J^ducation by an examination of the nature of the instruction which the Educational Ordinance proposes to communicdte to the youth of New Zealand, and the fitness of the parties in whose hands the superintendence of it is, to a large extent, virtually entrusted, for the due administration of the charge so confided to them. Here, if anywhere, must be found a justification of the recent decision of the Provincial Council of New Munster ; for the legitimate inference from their refusal to vote any supply for the purposes of the existing law obviously is, that no State Education at all would be less injurious than State Education wrought out in accordance with the regulations enjoined by that law. Let us then, in limine, ask, Wimt is Education ? In general terms it may be described as the art of preparing persons for the concerns of future life ; or, to quote the definition of " the judicious" Hooker, which, on moral grounds, we greatly prefer, "the means to liuke our natural faculty of reason both the 1,( tier and the sooner to judge rightly between t, nth and error, good and evil." We are neu'ssdiily met at the threshold of the mvestigaiio»i, however, by the mijuiiy, Who and what

is the being with whom we are to deal ? What are the ceitainties or probabilities of that future for which he is to be prepared ? Take the case, then, of one of those Maori children for whose benefit the Oidi nance was chiefly made. He has a physical nuture, the necessities of which in after years must, instrumentally, be provided for, chiefly by his own exertions : he has an intellect to be developed and cultivated : he has social relations in which his happiness and his duty are closely and inseparably interwoven : and he is, moreover, and above all, « morally accountable and an immortal creature, who must live for ever in joy or in wretchedness according to his conduct 'in a probationary state, the length or bievity of which will be detei mined by the sovereign good pleasure of his Creator and Judge. His physical wants may, of course, be supplied, as those of his barbarous foiefatheis weie, by means the employment of which he could learn amongst his untutoied little fellow -savages in the bush ; but for his own welfare and for the advantage of the community and country to which he belongs, it is seif-evidently important that he should Yiv»\ c industrial training by which he may be enabled to exchange his hut for a convenient habitation, his blanket or mat for the decency and comfort of European clothing, and the unceitainly of his present supply of food for the security andplenty to be derived from agricultural skill in the reclamation and cultivation of an otherwise waste and unprofitable soil. As an intelligent being, not a brute, or a connecting link between the inferior animals and man, but gifted with a mind capable of indefinitely great expansion, he needs the impaitation of at least as much knoivledge as will stimulate and enable him to seek for more, — as will furnish him with the instiuments by which he may break down the walls of that dungeon of ignorance and degradation in which his race has been hitherto incarcerated, and emancipate himself iito the light and intellectual freedom in which his more favoured fellow-creatures have long walked, rejoiced, and triumphed. This can only be accomplished by making him acquainted with the language of a civilised people, and thus affording him a possibility of access to the store-houses of literary and scientific information , and for this reason, although not for this alone, we should aim at grounding our young native pupil, as we ground our own children, in the elements of a solid English education. He will stand in various relations to others, such as a subject, a citizen, a neighbour, a husband, a father, a master or servant; all these relations are designed and adapted to produce benefit to himself j but his full rsalization of the benefit will mainly depend upon a right performance of his relative duties ; we should therefore inculcate both the knowledge which will give him an adequate understanding of the nature and extent of those duties, and the principles which lead to a faithful discharge of their obligations. But all our schemes for his improvement and elevation in time, will fall lamentably short of the requirements of his case, if we overlook, or place in a subordinate position, the paramount interests of eternity. Of his eternity 1 It is only when we view the subject in this light, that we can approach to any true conception of the vastness of its magnitude. What though that little Maori child is squalid, repulsive, and precociously brutalised, — looking like, what perhaps he is, the neglected son of a barbarian mother and a cannibal father, yet has he within him a vital spark which shall outlive the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds ;— a spirit capable of being fitted for and raised to an everlasting glory, compared with which earth's brightest dignities are as the baubles and toys of infancy ; but liable to be plunged for ever to a depth immeasurably deeper than the prostrate state in which he now grovels. Then, whateter else you do or do not, teach him, see that you impress upon him this momentous truth in all the solemnity of its thrilling reality. Think of, and tremble at, the possible or probable consequences of educating a people— especially a people who are but just in the first stage of transition from heathenism and barbarism — in a knowledge which is not pervaded throughout by the purifying, eanobling, and restraining influences of religion. Take heed lest, if you fail here, you may be only giving form and subsistence to the dream of Mrs. Shelley's morbid imaginati on) — creating and animating a monster who may one day employ the giant's strength you endow him with, for the devastation of all you hold most dear : lest you may be only placing loaded fire-arms in the hands of wanton children, or letting madmen with lighted torches loose into the arsenals of your country ; lest you may be sending down into the vale of humble life the brightest and most deadly weapons which the human mind, in its perverted ingenuity, has devised for its own destruction. Knowledge is Power •. but it is power to do evil, as well as power to do good. Theie is a Tiee of Knowledge as different from the Tree of Life now as it was six thousand years ago : a tree around which a poisonous serpent still coils its envenomed folds. It is mostgratifyingthat our British statesmen — however clearly they see the impropriety and futility of attempting to force upon the people universally any one in particular of the various forms of Christianity— distinctly acknowledge

the duty and necessity of combining religious with secular insti notion in every system of Public Education. They lecognise unequivocally the weighty truth that there is no antagonism here, but that, on the contrary, the training which guides to the fear and love of God, is preeminently that which leads men to loyalty, industry, and the practice of every civil and social virtue. In the letter by which Lord John Russell, a few yeais ago, communicated to the Marquis of Lansdowne the principles which weie to regulate the administration of the Committee of Council on Education then about to be formed, were the memorable Avoids, — " It is Her Majesty's wish that the youth of this Kingdom should be religiously (nought up." To the same effect was this important passage in Lord Stanley's original Instructions to Governor Grey, on his appointment to the Government of New Zealand — " rmthcr, as rcpiesenting the peisou nnd nuthoiity of jour Sovereign, you will omit no measure within the reach of jmulont iiig slatiou, 01 ot a wise admiuibtatton of the law, fur seem in},' (to the aborigines the personal freedom and tnifet.v to which the\ are entitled, and the most umestiicted access to all the means oi religious, knowledge and of civilization lirovided f.n them bj the pious zeal which has established and •which piincipally maintains an episcopal lee and Christian missionaiies for their instruction." Let us now see how far the Educational Ordinance is in accordance with the principles which we have thus indicated. The third section which is on the " Nature of Education to be given," is as follows :—": — " In ereiy school to be established or supported by public funds, under the provisions of this Oidinance, religious education, industrial training, and instruption in the English language shall form a necessary part of the system to he pursued therein ; but, in order to provide for the instruction of the children of parents dissenting from the religious doctrines to be taught in any such school, such children as shall attend the same as day-scholars only, may, upon application to be made on that behalf by their parents _or guardians, be taught therein without being instructed in the doctrines of religion." The fourth section, on " General Superintendence" enacts, " Every such school shall be placed under the superintendence and management of such one of the persons named or referred to in the schedule hereunto annexed, as the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, shall in the case of each such school especially dhect." The schedule here referred to specifies as such persons, " The Bishop of New Zealand : The Bishop or other Head of the Roman Catholic Church in the colony of New Zealand : The Superintendent of the Wesleyan Mission : and the Head or Minister of any other religions body, who shall have engaged in the education of youth in the colony of New Zealand." The Despatch of Governor Grey to Earl Grey, on forwarding the Ordinance for the Royal approbation, has not, we believe, been published in New Zealand. We place it on record here as a valuable document in itself, and as furnishing the most authentic exposition we can obtain of the views and intentions with which the measure was framed. Copy of ft Deipatch from Gorernor Gtvy to Earl Grey. Government House, Auckland, December 9, 1847.

My Loud,-— I hnte the honour to transmit, in order that her Majesty's pleasure may be taken therforl, an Ordinance (No. 10, Section 8) which I have enacted, with the advice and content of ray Legislative Council, intituled, " An Ordinance for promoting the ICduca tion of Youth in the Colony of New Zealand." It is proposed, in the first instance, to apply the provisions of this Ordinance chiefly to the education of Maori and half-caste childen, and subsequently to extend their operation to children of European parents. In framing the principles of this Ordinance, I necessarily endeavoured to lender it applicable to the peculiar circumstances of this coantry. I found here three religions bodies, belonging' respectively to the Church of England, the Wesleyans, and the Church of Rome — eadli of tfhom hud a targe body of clergymen in the country — had established missions, collected numerous congregations, and had, to »he best of their ability, made some provision for the education of youth, although, at tneir peculiar object was the spread of ihe Gospel and mi sionHry labours, the funds placed at their disposal by the societies who had sent them out, for the purposes of education, were so limited, that they could effect but little. They, nevertheless, formed in the country bodies whose influence and power of usefnlncss was great, and whoie efforts (or the education of the natives, although they had hitherto been in a great measure lost, fro n the want of centralization, and of an adequate supply of funds, appeared capable, if properly directed, of accomplishing a great amount of lasting good, by securing the education of a comidorable portion of the native population. I thought ir, therefore, wiser to nvail myself of th<s extensive and really admirable machinery which I found thus iv existence, and ready and anxious to be called into immediati* operation, rather than to waste both time and money by attempting to create a lystem of national education, to be conducted by the Government; — im attempt which would have cost largo sums in introducing it, and must have entailed a ssrious loss of time. Your Lordship will find, therefore, that the first principle adopted in the enclosed Ordinance is, that of aiding the different religious bodiei now in the country, in the efforts which they are making for the education of youth. The next principle which guided me in framing this Oidinance was, that the Government should only support from public fundg those schools in which a religioui education, induitrial training, and instruction in the English language, formed a necessary part of the system pursued therein. It appeared essential that the native and half-caste chldren should be brought up to speak and re id the English language, for reas-ns which are so obvious that I need not lepeat them. Seeing also that this system of education was intended to be applied ei'her to the children of an almost barbar&us race, or to the children of hardy colonists, who had a country to create, and who would almost all be placed in situations where they would have lulls but their own energy and skil to depend upon, it appeared essential that in-

duslrial twining In tndes and manunl occupation? should be made a neecssiry portion of thoir education. In a country circumstanced as New Zealdiid is, where the scholars would be eitlirr the children of lieatlicn parents, 01 of colonists, who might often, by the force of circuimtnnces, be compelled ro it-side in distant places, whet a they would be removed from all the ordinanrei of religion, there appeared to be alto a peculiar necessity for iuhhting upon religious initrtiction forming an important part of nny plan of education which was supported by the Government? and this principle being rrcognised, it appeared to me that no more urgent cas.3 than that presented in New Zealand could exist for affording to the various religious bodies, named In the schedule, the aid of the Government in promoting the education of the children belonging to their respecthe f.iithi. Petitions were addressed to the Government pioiesting against any aid bein; afforded to the Roman Catholics for the purposes of education ; hut if the title means of removing baibarism, and promoting civilization, was the instruction of native youth, it appeared to me that apart from the many other claims which the Roman Catholic* might have advanced upon the justice and consideration of the G ivernnient, the interests of the Protestants here, indeed of the whole colony, required that a considenuible portion of the native children in these Islands should not be condemned to a hopeless state of barbarism, and to its attendant vices, tii»p>y because their parents had embraced the Roman Catholic faith. Precisely the same advantage* are therefore accorded to the children of that denomination a' to those of the Protestant bodies named in the Ordinance. Your Lordship will further find, that the proportion of the revenue winch may be in nny one year appropriated to the purpos s of education under the provisions of this Ordinance, may not exceed one* twentieth part of the revenue of the colony f or of the province as the ease may b? t for each year this proportion may appear la«e ; but, in the first place, the Government is not ntcesssrily required to expend this amount upon education ; and, secondly, in a country where so large a proportion of the population are in n state of barbarism, and where the whole future depends upon the immediate o nrtmencetnent of an efficient system of education, I think that a larger expenditure upon 90 important an object may be considered neceisary, than would be requisite in an. old.r and differently circumstanced comnnmnity. I have, See., (Signed) G. Grey. The Right Hon. Earl Grey, &c., &c , t. Premising that we are not to be understood as adopting all the opinions stated or implied in the Ordinance and Despatch, — (for there are some expressions which seem to us capable of constructions open to considerable doubt) — we must say that we regard the leading points on which we have dwelt as fairly included and provided for in them. The rudiments of English education, industrial training, and religious instruction have all prominent places, far, however, there does not appear on the surface any material opposition between the Law and the Resolutions of the Southern Councillors who, of course, approve of what is merely secular in the system, and, moreover profess a desiie for the inculcation of religious truth, — that is, of so much of it as " all Christians believe in common." This is, no doubt, a sufficiently latitudinarian liberality on their part, comprehending, as it evidently would, many, such as the deniers of the Dmnity and Atonement of the Saviour, and others, who call themselves Christians, while they repudiate and pour contempt upon some of the most vital and fundamental verities of the Christian faith. The Council arc decidedly at war, however, with the enactment which gives the general seperintendence of the schools to the principal Ministers of the Churches in the Colony. This arrangement they regard as exhibiting (to quote the language of an expositor and defender of their views in the " Wellington Independent") " a degree of bigotry scarcely to have been looked for in the 1 9th century." Wise and enlightened men, as they deem themselves, they forsooth have risen superior to the trammels of that " priestly" rule which enslaves the blinded multitude, and they will not endure " the instrumentality of the heads of certain religious denominations. ' They demand therefore that this right of superintendence shall be taken from the " ecclesiastics," and transferred to Committees elected by the householders in each district, and a Board of Education appointed by those committees. There is an ad captandum plausibility about this proposal which may commend it to the inconsiderate, but will be clearly seen through by those who knoAV the heterogeneous elements of which society in a comparatively new Colony is composed, and the difficulty there would be, even in many localities in old countries, in obtaining, on this universal suffrage scheme, committees qualified to exercise a really sound discretion, and an unpiejudiced and permanently salutary control over the working of a system of Public Education. But without enlarging on what might, and probably would, be the practical results of adopting such a scheme, we unhesitatingly declare our conviction that the course taken in the ordinance is Bii bstantially accordant with wise policy, and likely to be promotive, beyond any {other that lay open, of the just and benevolent object of the measure. The reasons for this conclusion (some of which are stated in the Governor's Despatch) are to us quite satisfactory. It cannot be questioned that there was a great saving both of time and money in connecting the Government operations for Education with, those previously brought into action by the Missionaries. Years must otherwise have elapsed before the necessary machinery could have been obtained and rendered efficient. Men must have been found qualified and willing to undertake the work, and time must then have been afforded them to learn the native language, and otherwise to prepare for their unI dertaking. The expenditure in this alone

must have been considerable, and the outlay for the purchase of school materials and other necessary preliminaries must have been large. But the Missionaries had already a machinery at work, the organization of which was excellent, and the effects of which were only restricted by the inadequacy of the funds that could be appropriated to its support. In availing himself of this machinery, the Governor secured a more advantageous and immediate commencement for the system than he could have obtained in any other way. Besides, the Missionary Societies still contribute to the maintenance of the schools, and it is by them that a large proportion of teachers, school apparatus, &c.,is supplied. Thus by the combined aid derived from both sources, the befits of Education are augmented, and diffused over a wider sphere of usefulness. Moreover, the Missionaiies were especially qualified to give effect to the scheme from their long residence in the country, their close acquaintance with the wants, the wishes, the general character, and the manners and customs of the Aboiigmes, — qualifications which, it is evident, strangers could not possess. They had also the confidence of the Natives to a degree that must powerfully facilitate the progress of a plan for their mental and moral cultivation. It is certain that the Christian Chiefs would have preferred a Missionary school for their children to any other that the Government could have established within their reach, especially if they feared that in the latter scriptural education and worship would be placed under restiaint. To all this we may add that the power of superintendence given by the Ordinance is not an irresponsible power. The Inspector is to enquire into the general management of gchools aided by Government funds, and report accordingly ; and, above even this inspection, public opinion and the voice of the X'ress — whether friendly or adverse— will guard against abu^e. None of these considerations weigh, it would appear, with the Southern Provincial Council. Eut it would be lamentable if, through their self-will, a system calculated on the whole to work so well should be brought to a stand-still in one important poition of the Colony. If, from any source of revenue at his disposal, the Governor could avert this evil, and help the natives to the acquirement of instiuction, such an appropriation of funds would be honourable to himself as well as beneficial to the race in whose welfare he has always manifested a lively interest. Meanwhile, we shall be curious to learn whether the Wellington ■Councillors will now, by liberal private and personal contributions, endeavour to repair the injury they have inflicted on their Province by their refusal of the Educational Grant. It is to be said to the credit of the Dissenting opponents of the State Education Schemes in England that, while they resisted the Government Plans, they voluniat ily taxed themselves largely for the establishment of schools. Will the Southern non-contents give a similar proof of their sincerity in the cause ?