EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA. (From the "Picayune," Sept. 13)

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 481, 23 November 1850, Page 2

EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA. (From the " Picayune," Sept. 13 )

To encourage the permanent settlement of families in California, is the first great duty of her citizens. The men whnie home is on the distant shores of the Atlantic— whose affections, and hopes, and purposes, all centre there, can feel but little interest in the prosperity of a country which has attracted him only by'its gold, and which he purpoies to leave forever the moment his sacks are filled. The State, crowded with such a foreign population, and unprotected by any local and family influences from its reckless avarice, may anticipate the worst. Laws carelessly enacted will be negligently if not corruptly administered — placet of truit will be accepted only when they promise immediate profit— and consent change will unsettle all responsibility, and gnaw like a worm at the root of every improvement. The crowd of these hungry adventurers, as.they come and go,|eat up the substance of the land like locuits, and should the gold which drew them hither fail, they would leave the State as waste and lonely as the desert plaint of the great basin over which many of them have passed in their pilgrimage to the El Dorado. ■ It is not enough that we have the finest harbors in Ihe world, opening on the shores of a vast ocean, the commerce of which may all be ours,— it is not enough that our vallies are even richer in agricultural resources than they are in gold, and thai God has stamped upon Caii« fornia the seal of empire, and endowed her with every element of greatness. We must have beyond all this, a fixed populotion— opportunity of families, to make California great and prosperous as she is capable of becoming. j It is by the fireside and home that the highest civic virtuei arc learned, and ihe aged, totten'ng to their ! gravel, and the youug and beautiful leaning upon us J for protection, are the hr.tructois who teach us how to lore and to sacrifice for ourcountiy. But in California we hive neither tireiiileij, nor aged people, nor siMc.is, i

nor wives. How then can we have a State and patriotism here 1 Tbeie is for California but one great necessity, nnd that is to find means of alluring hither the wives and children of our adventurers. Their gentle influence, as by the power of magic, would soon change the constitution of society ; and from the wild chaos of our present, a will organized commonwealth would rise in beauty and in glory. And all our familie* would soon be here were suitable pi ovision made tor the educa~ lion of our children. At present they cannot—ought not come. They must of neceisity, and in obedience to the most solemn parental obligations, remain in our old homes where schools are established, and every healthful educational influence is exerted on the young. But give us here a a good system of schools, —let it be known on the Atlantic, that, at least so far ai the more necessary branches of education are concerned, every advantage is to be enjoyed in California ; and we shall at once find another class of emigrants pressing to our shores. Oui families will be with us not only to bless us but to bless the Stste. The gold of California will alwayi find its own outlet to the commerce of the world, and the necessities of the case will create the means of supplying the mere physical wants of such a population as we may have ; but only schools and those kindred instil utioni of learning and morality which have made our Atlantic States so piosperou3 and happy, can raise our commonwealth of th« Pacific to that position of honour and greatness to which she is entitled among the states of the civilized world. It is in this view that the subject becomes one of the first importance to us, demanding our immediate attention, and requiring the prompt adoption of suitable measures to create and sustain a simple and effi« cient system of Common School Education.